Monday morning – the start of yet another week. Monday and
Tuesday, the weather looked good to sail to Antigua but we felt we had not really
seen Nevis or St Kitts. We knew that the weather for the rest of the week did
not look favourable as a weather system was going to pass over this area late
Tuesday through to Friday morning. As mentioned on a number of occasions, we
are in the hurricane belt and in hurricane season so we have to ALWAYS be
mindful of this.
We thought we would spend Monday sight-seeing around Nevis so
we went off to the Tourist Information in Charlestown to find out what was the
best way to see Nevis. Of course they told us that the best and only way was by
taxi and they gave us a price list as taxi fares are, all regulated and
controlled.
When you arrive at the Nevis docks, you are bombarded by taxi
drivers. Tourism, like in most countries, is the main industry and provides
most of the employment. Many taxi drivers give you their business cards – one
taxi driver John who has a motto “To
Blessed to be stressed” was quick to give us his card and to tell us how much he would charge
us. It was lower than what we had been told by the Tourism Office so naturally
we were interested.
We were keen to go to the Hamilton House Museum which was
along the main water front area so we said to John who stuck to us like an
annoying fly, that we would phone him if we needed him after going to the Hamilton
House Museum.
It was an interesting museum as it gave us a bit of insight
into the island, its history, its people and its development. Most of the
locals originate from the slave trade, from West Africa when the sugar
plantations were first developed.
Here is a bit of information taken from the pamphlet we were
given at the Hamilton House Museum – “ Political history, the land
(agriculture) slavery, the sea cooking and home crafts, architecture, leisure
time, church and other religious bodies(Jewish and Quakers), schools and Nevis
today are interpreted with appropriate artifacts and pictures. Christopher
Columbus anchored off the Nevis coast November 11 1493 and Captain John Smith
and his men spent several days here on their way before founding the Virginia
colony in 1607. In the late 17th and early 18th
centuries, sugar exports from Nevis surpassed those from all other colonies,
thus gaining the island the distinction ‘Nevis Queen of the Caribees’.”
After the museum we realised the only way to see the island
was by taxi so called John. He came to collect us from Hamilton House and we
started our tour. The Tourist Information centre gave us a map of the Heritage
Trail sites of Nevis, so we said to John, he could drive us around the island
showing and stopping off at the heritage sites shown on the map. One can go clockwise
or anti clockwise around the island as there is practically only one “main”
road on the island. We drove clockwise around the island, from west to north
and around.
We drove past the Jewish Cemetery (1670). In the 1720’s, 25%
of the population of Charlestown was Jewish and they believe there are remnants
of a synagogue in Charlestown.
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| Nelson's Spring |
The Bath Hotel and Bath House – the hotel is one of the
oldest hotels in the Caribbean – 1778. The building is now used as Government
Offices. Nearby are the hot water springs running down from the mountain, where
you can gave a dip if you so wish.
On passed Nelson’s spring - where Nelson collected water for
his ship.
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| ST Thomas Anglican Church |
We passed the site where Fort Ashby – Jamestown – the
original town on Nevis. It was destroyed by a tidal wave in 1680.
St Thomas Anglican Church and school – the oldest active
Protestant church in the Caribbean – 1643. There were some lovely views of the
island, down to where we had moored off and of St Kitts and the Narrows (the
stretch of water between the two islands)
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| Cottle Church |
Cottle Church – 1824 – this was the first church in the
Caribbean built for all people regardless of colour to worship together.
John’s car was not
functioning properly – it was an automatic and it was not changing gears, so
whenever we stopped to look at a place and to take photos, John was working on
his car. Eventually he realised that he had a serious problem with his
transmission, after Mel tried to advise him on what the problem was and when we
drove passed the airport (Vance W. Amory International Airport), he organised
another taxi driver to continue our island tour.
Now our taxi driver and guide was Bernard and boy did he know
his stuff, so we actually benefitted by the change in taxis.
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| Nisbet Plantation |
First, we went to the Nisbet Plantation which was once the
home of Frances – Fanny Nisbet who married Horatio Nelson in 1787.
We went passed St James Anglican Church – 1750, one of the
only three churches in the Caribbean to have a black crucifix.
The New River – Coconut Walk Estates which is the site of the
largest sugar mill on Nevis and Arawak Indian archaeological sites.
Eden Brown Estate – this was where during a wedding
reception, the bridegroom and best man got into a fight over the bride. Shots were
fired, the place was set on fire and burnt down. It is the location of ghost
stories about lost love as apparently one can hear voices late at night.
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| Golden Rock Estate |
Onto Golden Rock Estate – wow what a beautiful place – lovely
stone buildings and lush gardens. It is high on the slopes of the volcano, so
was much cooler than the lowlands.
We were now on the
east side of the island and in the distances we could see Antigua. As we drove
SE we could also see Redonda and Montserrat.
We went to the Hermitage Estate – 1640 which is believed to
have the oldest existing wooden house in the Caribbean. This estate has been
turned into a lovely luxurious hotel, like quite a few of the old sugar
plantations. This estate had an old English feel about it and I thought was
quite beautiful.
We drove passed the Botanical Gardens and onto Montpelier
Estate which is said to be the site of Horatio Nelson and Fanny Nisbet’s
wedding in 1787. This hotel is upmarket and apparently Princess Diane and Sarah
Ferguson stayed here when they visited Nevis on separate occasions.
By now we were almost back to where we had started from in
Charlestown, passing the church – St John’s Figtree Anglican Church – 1680 –
the site of the recording of Horatio Nelson and Fanny Nisbit’s marriage.
We thanked and paid Bernard and headed back to the boat after
an enjoyable and interesting day around Nevis.
We thought that we would stay in Nevis at least until
Saturday as we could see that from Wednesday evening through to Friday evening,
it would be very windy and unpleasant and where we were, we had enough protection
from the strong easterlies. We thought, this would give us an opportunity to
see St Kitts and enjoy some of Nevis’s Culturama festival, which was starting in
Nevis on Thursday evening.
Tuesday morning – a new day with endless possibilities and
new weather reports. We listened to Chris Parker – the weather guru, who was
concerned about Tropical Depression No 2 (second one for the year) that was
heading about 100nm south of where we were. NOAA were also watching Tropical
Depression No 2. We thought about our various options, downloaded the updates
which are every 6 hours and started investigating where we could put Passages
if this Tropical Depression turned into a Hurricane. NOAA predicted that it would
dissipate due to the dry Saharan air and it would just be extremely windy. We
thought we would wait to see what Wednesday brought. We spent the rest of the
day pottering on the boat, going for the occasional swim as the humidity was
getting to us.
Wednesday morning, once again we listened to Chris Parker,
downloaded info from NOAA and Tropical Depression No.2 was no longer a TD –
phew!! We would just have very strong winds as forecasted from Wednesday
evening to Friday evening (gusting 25 – 30 knots). Anyway, we’ve sailed in
these winds!!! (Remember Mel sailed, I went down stairs as I was not
comfortable – big talk from me!!!)
Panic stations over, so we decided to catch the 9.30am ferry
across to St Kitts and spend the day exploring St Kitts.
The ferry ride was an hour long and was enjoyable – the
people are so happy and friendly.
St Christopher - St Kitts is 69sq miles, its highest point is
Mt Liamuiga -3,972ft and its capital is Basseterre which is the original site
of the French settlement.
“The Caribs called St Kitts “Liamuiga” meaning “fertile
isle.” Columbus renamed it after his patron saint St Christopher. Sir Thomas
Warner landed here with a group of settlers in 1623, making it the first
British Caribbean colony. A French group joined them and the two nations teamed
up to massacre the 2000 Carib inhabitants before they fell out between
themselves. After 150 years of fighting and uncertainty, St Kitts along with
Nevis, became British under the treaty of Versailles in 1783.” Information taken
from Chris Doyle’s The Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands – 13 edition.
Basseterre is the main port where big cruise ships dock –
Port Zante. The town centre is a mixture of English and French architecture but
in 1876 it was rebuilt after a huge fire. The city centre has “The Circus”,
which is modelled after Piccadilly Circus in London. This is where most of the
taxis can be found and where we eventually had lunch at a restaurant (Ballahoo)
overlooking The Circus.
As we do most of the time in a new place, we find the Tourist
Information Office and get a map of the place we are visiting, so we can see
what we can do and best spend our time.
Port Zante is just full of duty free shops and looks similar
to Philipsburg, St Martin, people just waiting for the cruise ships to dock.
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| Warner Park |
We walked around Independence Square, went into Warner Park
(the cricket oval), went to the market and bought some fresh produce (great
mangoes!).
We caught the 3.30pm ferry back to Nevis.
Since we arrived at Nevis, we have had some visitors to
Passages, who also think she is a great boat to make a home. At the beginning
of the week, some sparrows have been flying around Passages, perching
themselves on our outboard motor, chirping away. Now we have noticed that they
have been flying into our boom – we think they would like to build a nest there
so whenever we have seen them trying to fly into our boom we have been hitting
the boom to discourage them, as the last thing we actually need are birds
making Passages their home.
There are plenty of sea birds around and they enjoy sitting
on our bow sprit (the part I refer to as the Titanic part – you know the
Leonard and Kate part with their arms stretch out in front of the boat) and
pooping all over our anchors, especially
the huge pelicans.
Thursday morning the wind was howling, as predicted. Mel and
I were enjoying our breakfast in the cockpit when we saw another boat take a
mooring ball close to us. We had been the only boat at Pinney’s beach since
Tuesday. We both said, we recognised the boat but then dismissed the thought as
we said we were imagining things. About 15 mins later, the occupants of this
yacht were heading in our direction on their dinghy when we realised it was our
dear friends Linda and John on Blue Moon!
We had been keeping in contact with them since leaving them
in Ponce in May/June. We knew that they were heading our way as they were keen
to get to Antigua by the end of this month, but we thought they would only
catch up with us in Antigua.
It was great seeing them. We arranged to meet them in town
once they had checked into Nevis.
We spent most of the day sitting outside the Cotton Ginnery
where the customs house is and where one can get some Wi Fi. We also waited for
the Culturama Opening Ceremony at the waterfront/dock side. This was a
colourful event with dancing, singing, steel bands and speeches. We were back
on our yachts when the fireworks started.
John and Linda were keen to tour the island so they asked us
to join them on their taxi tour on Friday, which we did. It was good seeing the
island once again.
We stopped for lunch at Golden Rock – it is such a beautiful
place!
Saturday morning we were back in town, preparing for our next
sail – we went to the local market to stock up on fresh fruit, salad and
veggies, plus we went to the local bakery to buy some bread. The bread tastes SO good as it doesn’t have any
preservatives in it. The only negative thing about this is it goes stale very
quickly, so one has to eat it pretty fast!
For sundowners we went to Sunshine’s so Linda and John could
try the Killer Bee. Afterwards we went to a beach restaurant down the lane from
Sunshine’s called Double Deuce for a quick dinner. Thank goodness the dress
code is very relaxed as we were in our swimming costumes and had no shoes – the
beach where Sunshine’s and Double Deuce are, has no dinghy dock and the surge
and drop off is quite bad. We have tried beaching the dinghy but it is
extremely difficult – the back wash is rough and we end up filling the dinghy
with water. The best thing to do is to drop anchor a short distance away from
the beach and swim to the beach.
We didn’t stay too long as we knew we had to get back to the
boat as we were both planning on leaving Nevis in the morning. Originally Mel
and I were going to sail to Antigua from Nevis, sailing passed Redonda and
Montserrat but since we knew we had good weather from Sunday morning through to
Thursday, we would break our journey to Antigua at Montserrat and spend two
nights/one day there. This would enable us to see the devastation caused by the
1995, 1997 eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano and later in 2003 when the
huge volcanic dome collapsed.
Montserrat is 35nm SSE of Nevis with Redonda about half way
and Antigua is about 25nm NE of Montserrat.
So week 32 has come to an end ….. wait for Week 33 when I
tell you the interesting story about “The Kingdom of Redonda”.
Until next time…..keep well.
Lots of Love
Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx
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| Mel's new anchor |
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| Redonda and Montserrat in the distance. |
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| The Hermitage Estate |
