Our next destination was St. Kitts,
120 miles from Dominica. We left early morning and would sail through the
night, arriving the following morning. But the wind wasn't in our favor.
Listening to VHF radio, we overheard a radio conversation between two
vessels. One of them was Checkmate, with Tony on board, our Kiwi friend.
The last time we saw him was in the Canaries. Tony was in Iles des
Saintes, that was where the wind was taking us. We altered our plans to
catch up with him. After a boozy night in Checkmate we headed to Deshaies,
stopping for a night. The following day we set off to Nevis. It was a
great passage. The seas were flat and we had lots of wind, making it very fast.
While skirting Montserrat, we saw the effect of the active volcano over
the island and the lava flows. We arrived in Pinney Beach after 10
hours very happy to have sailed the whole trip up to the anchorage. We
stayed only for one night, vowing to come back again. It was a beautiful
sandy beach, stretching for miles .
It was time to meet Hilary, Graham's sister, arriving from UK. We
headed to for the Marina in Basse-Terre, St. Kitts, 8 miles away. The
marina was surrounded with barbed wire fence and armed security, that wasn't
very scenic! We heard from other yachties that St. Kitts currently has a
lot of trouble going on. We found no problems walking around during the
day, but it all changed at night, when we felt a bit of tension. We
were very pleased to leave the next day and anchor 5 miles away at Ballast
Bay. Only a few boats were anchored here and the hills were full of goats and cows, a
perfect place for a beach BBQ!
Neighboring island, Nevis , was the next destination and we were back
again at Pinney Beach. From there to Charlestown was a good 30 minutes
walk, but well worth it. The capital of the island is pretty with brightly
painted small buildings and malls.
As the Pacific crossing is approaching, we had a big list of things to
do, to get Nomad Life ready for the next 7 months of cruising. The best
place in the whole Caribbean for marine parts is St. Maarten, the cheap
and cheerful tax free Dutch colony. We arrived on a Friday, unaware of the Heineken
Regatta, held during that weekend. The bay was very busy,
so we decided to enter the Lagoon the following day. We were one of few entering , while a mass of boats were leaving to take part in the
racing.
The huge Lagoon is home for a few mega motor boats scattered around 4
different marinas. The North part belongs to the French and the South to
the Dutch. The entrance to the Dutch side is through a lifting bridge that
opens for a short period 4 times a day. The Dutch side of the bay is very
touristy with sports bars, casinos and "eat as much ribs as you
like" restaurants. But it has a party atmosphere with a touch
of Dutch tolerance and convenient for boat repairs.
We made Shrimpi's our home. A crew bar with free WiFi, free beer on Sunday
morning during the flea market for yacht stuff and daily happy hours. Graham and
Hilary were delighted to find a sports bar to watch the Champions League.
Even happier when Chelsea won against Porto making the quarter finals!
Here we also bought a BBQ that can be mounted on the back of the boat.
That deserved a celebration, St Maarten style: eat as much ribs as you can
party. Noel and Natalie couldn't miss it. We had no idea that they were in
the Lagoon. We all came together in Shrimpi's by chance. From then on,
every night was party night!
But it was not all fun in party land. The week spent there was actually
very stressful. We had a huge list of things to do and very little time.
With the regatta on, all of the specialized workers were busy and unable to fit us
in.
Despite the work we managed to take a day off and a visit Philipsburg,
the capital of the Dutch side. With 4 cruise liners in the bay, the town
was full of tourists ( septics) taking advantage of the duty free shops. The
front road was all set up for the cruise ship passengers, very
picturesque. While on the back road, there were all the cheap shops and
restaurants. We left after one week to drop Hilary back to St.Kitts . It
was the end of her 2 weeks holiday on Nomad Life.
