Although apparently a majority of its citizens want to be separate nations, it isn’t quite a 2/3 majority so the two islands remain as one nation. Good for us since it means less hassle with customs and immigration.
Nevis
I checked us in to Nevis and had what has been the single most pleasant experience clearing in so far in our cruising journey. The people were nice as well as helpful, and even said the words, “Welcome to Nevis”, which is our first verbal welcome anywhere.
Our sail over was an interesting one. We had great wind and thus a great sail, but the waves were hitting us at a very funny angle so the ride was pretty nasty. Our anchor spot ranks up there as one of our prettiest. A large, clean beach was very close by and the huge volcanic crater on the island was basically just hanging out in our yard for a few days.
We had a simple, yet very enjoyable day on the beach near the anchorage. I’m not sure what made it so perfect, other than the fact that we had no plans and no expectations so we just ran, played Frisbee, swam and just generally got along as a family.
Grete and I grabbed a cold drink from a beach bar near the Four Seasons Resort and enjoyed the weather and waves too.
We took the bus around the island and went on a hike to some rather dry waterfalls on the back side of the volcano. I’m very glad we saw it from that angle because apparently the island isn’t just a single mountain but rather a long spiny ridge of mountains. We went for a good hike, starting from the ring road and after a mile got to the actual trailhead near on old sugar mill.
Like many hikes, there were so many beautiful plants and trees.
We also saw a troop of about 10-15 green monkeys on the hike but (un?)fortunately was too in the moment to get any photographic evidence.
The weather has been very dry lately which makes for my favorite conditions on trail. The disconnect though, is that wen hiking to a waterfall, what you end up seeing is about the amount of water that I swear to god Dublin uses every time he rinses his toothbrush.
Alexander Hamilton was born in Charlestown, Nevis so of course they have a small museum commemorating him.
There are two buildings, one is about him and the other is for general Nevis history.
It was refreshing to learn about someone from back at the start of our nation who was actually outspoken against slavery.
I was impressed, or rather comforted, by the American-ness of the grocery store in town, but Grete wasn’t feeling it. We scooped up a bucket of ice cream on our way to the small hot springs in town. I brought along some gluten free ice cream cones I picked up in Antigua so we hung out dipping our toes (it’s way too hot out to want to sit in hot springs) and eating the cool treat. One of my favorite things is feeling rich in a moment that costs basically nothing, and this fit the bill.
St. Kitts
We pushed north to the turkey leg island of St. Kitts. I think they try to claim that it looks like an upturned wine bottle, but I see turkey leg. It was our latest departure ever, since we only needed to go about five miles, and we dropped anchor right before sunset.
Our plan was to stop in Shitten Bay, but the swell made it clear that we would not be comfortable so we pressed on to Ballast Bay.
We went on a 7.5 mile walk/hike down to the south coast and over the hills to see Shitten Bay up close.
Shitten Bay had a cool perspective of the city of Basseterre framed by a hulking shipwreck right on the rocky shore.
For the same reason we find the name Shitten Bay funny, Fira was referring to it as “Bad Word Bay”.
We rented a car for about a million dollars and took a day trip around the small island.
Near our anchorage there is a cool viewpoint on a hilly ridge with a cool view south toward Nevis. The allure is supposed to be that the Caribbean is to the west and the Atlantic is to the east. The colors, unlike the Glass Window on Eleuthera were the exact same, and seriously, look at a map, I can’t refer to the east coast of this island as the Atlantic Ocean when the west coast of Antigua and Barbuda as the Caribbean Sea. Still, the viewpoint was neat, even if slightly sullied by guys with captive monkeys in diapers selling photos to the normal tourists.
We stopped in the city to check out the Catholic and Anglican churches, the Anglican was far more beautiful, as well as a park and monument before grabbing some local lunch.
Continuing north, we toured the Brimstone Hill Fortress, a UNESCO world heritage site (and our fifth so far on this trip). It is undergoing restoration and is in a stunning location atop a massive hill near the western coastline.
As we wrapped around the north coast of the island headed toward our dinner plan of highly-rated Indian food, we drove past St John’s Church and after a couple of minutes of deliberating I turned around to go check it out. Really cool church and surrounding cemetery (oldest headstone I saw was 98 years old). We couldn’t go inside since there was no one there but the building and northward view were the reason we chose to stop and I wasn’t disappointed by the views back toward the volcano and of the rugged coast.
Like every place we go, I’m sure we could spend a lot longer on these islands, but we are scheduled to haul out in less than two weeks in St Martin and need to continue north to ensure we get there comfortably in advance. So since the wind was projected to be mostly east, it made sense to take advantage and get our northing taken care of.
We made a last stop on the northwest coast at a roadstead anchorage to shorten our crossing to St Barthélemy. It was not very rolly and the bottom was a massive grass field covered in sea stars and conch, which was cool.
We were also anchored near the base of Brimstone Hill Fortress, so it was pretty cool to get another perspective on this imposing fort.
The sail north to St Barthélemy was nearly perfect; good wind and slow mild waves let us move north quickly and comfortably.