St Kitts

We left Nevis for St Kitts a whopping 3 miles away, suffice to say it was an easy sail. We anchored at Whitehouse bay by the old ruins which are now a fancy restaurant/bar SALT Plage but it’s only open some evenings and not for lunch so we missed eating there.

Whitehouse Bay

Liz at Salt Plage

Moosetracks from the restaurant

We did however tour the new resort and Marina they are building around the old Salt Pond called Christophe Harbour. It is a huge development and the marina should open in early January and they looks like the mega yachts are going to our in here with slips starting around $2mil and including residency eligibility. The resort is very fancy and was hosting a International Poker tournament so we couldn’t go in due to filming in progress. We did walk around the grounds, beach and estate properties that are already complete and it looks like it will be a fabulous place when its finished.

Christophe marina mega yacht slips almost finished

Christophe Marina inner lagoon

Liz checking out prices!

We then moved Moosetracks to Basseterre for outbound clearance and a walk around town. The port here is a cruise ship terminal so there is a huge mall for the passengers to be parted with their money, it all looks too new and false in an otherwise small and quaint town. We took a walk around town and visited the out of town shopping center, the International Cricket stadium (no matches planned so it was empty) and the historic church.

International Cricket Stadium

Historic Church

Piccadilly Circle

We met up with Sea Sparrow, Jeff and Debbie who are also friends with many of our cruising buddies and had a we invited them over for happy hour before we both left in the morning.

We left St Kitts on an overnight sail to St Thomas USVI. It turned out to be a downwind run and in light winds so we made poor time as the wind veered aft and we lost the use of the headsail after mid-day and averaged only 4 knots most of the evening and night. But as we had plenty of time we kept sailing and arrived in Charlotte Amalie early afternoon in time to check in. The exciting part of the trip was watching a water spout pass beside us a few miles out, it is a tornado type event over water, so we are glad it was well away from us.

Waterspout on the right end of these downpours

Sunset and all was calm

We settled into Charlotte Amalie and were glad to see so many friends here. We hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season.

Nevis Island

The islands of St Kitts and Nevis together make one country, with populations of 31,880 and 12,135 and size of 69 and 36 square miles respectively. They are absolutle gourgous though and abound in trails and historic sites to explore. Also they are pretty expensive to visit with all the fees charged to check in and use mandatory mooring on Nevis to protect to environment. So to get our monies worth we decided to stay a week and explore. First the island of Nevis.

Passing Montserrat on the way, a smelly sulfur cloud from the volcano

Nevis

"Welcome to Nevis" at the ferry terminal

Raising our courtesy flag

Town Square

The Police station

Hot springs still in use

Devin trying the hot water with the local school girls

The old bath house

The hotel were visitors stayed to enjoy the hot springs

Fort Charles

One of a few cannons left here 

The view back to Charlestown

Another cannon

Liz at the ruins

The water well

King George we assume?

The walls falling into the sea

The Hospital

The largest church in town and one of many

Ruins near the old slave market

St Pauls

Inside

The school building next door

The next building was the birth place of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA and signatory of the declaration of independence.

Alexander Hamilton's birth place

Seen from the sea

 The next day we hiked on the island to see two plantation ruins, Montravers and Hamilton.

The ruins of the gatehouse

The Boabab tree

The top dam wall, quite a feat of construction

The lower two dam walls for a total of 3 storage ponds

The Montravers barn reconstruction

A lot left to do still

The Montravers Estate ruin

Next we walked through the dense woods to reach the Hamilton plantation ruins which includes a surgar mill and factory.

An interesting fungus (mushroom) on the trail

The Mill works

The factory building

The Hamilton estate ruins

Well after all that hiking we needed a drink and a swim, so we went over to Sunshine's beach bar on Pinney's beach by our mooring and had their signature "Killer Bee" cocktail. A nice end to the tour of Nevis.

We hope all our friends and family are having a great start to the festive season.