We escaped from the lagoon in St Maarten - at last!
It took some doing (four days to be precise – and four going away parties to boot!) The weather blew and blew. It rained. And getting out and about in the dingy meant taking a change of clothes with us, or wearing salty crunchy garments – ugh! Our last evening was spent in the
The island of St Kitts is quite different – tall hills, the tops often shrouded in clouds, with green and fertile slopes carrying down to the sea.The tallest hill is 3750 ft high. St Kitts was Visited by
Traveler's palm
We met another Canadian boat called Bake Apple, but they soon left and we were left with
Romney Manor is an old plantation house where we found Carribelle Batik. Here we saw fine Indian cotton being lovingly hand painted with wonderful colours and patterns before being and hung out to dry in the sun. One could buy glowing wall hangings, lengths of material or choose from a selection of clothes and accessories. The gardens were stunning, with gorgeous flowers, trees and shrubs in perfect condition.
Piccadilly Circus - a far cry from the busy throughfares of it's namesake
We joined
We stopped briefly at the site where the Caribs were massacred by the French and English, and passed the spot where Nelson first landed on the island.
Orillon Bastion on Brimstone Hill
The fort is set high on top of a volcanic rock which juts up from the shore on one side of the island. It has a unique design and was built by the British in 1690 and using African slave labour. Stone was excavated from the volcanic rock, and local limestone used to make the mortar.
The fortress was completely self sufficient and housed a hospital, a cemetery, and a bakery, as well as the living accommodation for the soldiers, their wives and followers.
1,000 British soldiers withstood a siege against 8,000 French.
Citadel
The road from
Outside the town there are no villages, but “strips”. The strips are a series of houses and shacks lining the road - mostly shacks, many seemingly uninhabitable. This was quite a different area from the gorgeous opulence of the plantation houses and their lavish grounds
When we left
I have to say that stainless steel is not. It stains, it rusts. We’ve noticed that the crews on the big boats spend a huge amount of time wiping everything down with fresh water and we have tried to do the same. But we still get the rust. So one of our regular chores is to clean it all up. This involves washing it down with fresh water, applying rust remover, washing that off, and drying it all. And as soon as one has finished doing this over a period of several days, one has to start all over again.
Mike hoping the big gun still fires
And laundry. It can be difficult, not to mention expensive, to use a Laundromat, so I often use a bucket on the boat. It sometimes feels that every time one jumps into the dingy to go somewhere, one gets a good salt water bath. And salt water doesn’t dry. So clothes have to be washed and rinsed in fresh water. The good news is that we seem to be able to make water at the rate advertised by PUR, and when the wind blows and the sun shines Mike is happy enough to run the water maker. Our next real job is to strip off the remaining varnish that I so lovingly applied in
Salt ponds at Whitehouse Bay
White sand and palm trees - what more could we ask for!
Nevis is only about 3 miles away from St Kitts, and we had a relatively quick sail on one tack with only the jib out. The island has a tall hill which is often covered by clouds. The beach we chose to anchor beside is beautiful – lovely golden sand, fringed by tall palm trees. Once we were snug and made sure everything was tickety boo, we jumped into the dingy and went to town –
Again – lots of English/Caribbean architecture. Many houses were painted in lovely colours others were built of stone. There were lots of balconies, wrought iron, and beautiful little shaded squares within the rectangles of a few houses. Very narrow streets seems to be the norm and open gutters everywhere. Of course it rains every day – short sharp squalls, so even in winter as it is now, there are trees and bushes in full bloom. The central square has a beautiful red “flamboyant’ tree in full bloom shading the benches where one can sit and watch the world go by. Near to the shore there is a small fruit and vegetable market where we made a couple of purchases.
Somewhere in town we bumped into
We stopped by a friend’s catamaran on our way back to the CC. Chris and Sacha are a young South African couple whom we first met in the lagoon in
The beach near Sunset's Bar
In the evening we took the dingy ashore to the Sunset Bar. The beach shoals very quickly, and getting the dingy up is quite a trick. Keeping it heading straight is difficult, but if you don’t you’re likely to capsize (and loose the shoes, oars, tools and bags that always accompany us). Mr. Sunshine himself welcomed us – all white teeth and eyes, and we chatted briefly with a couple from
We had a terrific tour around the island looking out especially for the vervet monkeys. we didn't see any unfortunately, but we did see some of the beautiful plantation houses which have been lovingly maintained and are now very nice luxury hotels, complete with pools, tennis courts and all the amenities. The very first Caribbean tourist hotel is located on
Horatio Nelson lived for some time in