Antigua, Nevis, St Kitts, St Eustatius and Sint Maarten

Antigua <— photos, click there

Antigua was wonderful! We arrived in Jolly Harbour and anchored in the mooring field, which was off of, the Morris Bay beach area. There we discovered it was sheltered, calm and had excellent holding. To enter the Jolly Harbour area we travelled along a channel, which lead into a huge Harbour. There we found the marina with shops, a grocery store and restaurants, just about everything we needed. Checking in was a breeze as they had an online Sea Clear program.

We started our explorations by going in the dingy to the next bay, Five Islands Harbour there we found a massive bay with numerous deserted beaches. It was wonderful to walk along the beaches beach combing. I was very happy to find that there were shells to gather. Another half day was spent hiking around the pathways and bays around our anchorage. We found lovely beaches that were practically deserted and again I found lovely shells.

Our friends Chrissie and Matt were in the same anchorage having crossed from Guadeloupe at the same time. One of the days we arranged to travel by bus into St John with Chrissie. It is quite a small town but there were 3 large cruise ships docked. The tourist section of town was full of flashy shops and boutiques. There was one place that really did stand out. A local craft shop by the name of Xeni. All of their arts and crafts were genuinely made in Antigua. They were colorful and individual too plus you could see them being made in the store’s work area.

New Year’s Eve evening we went on board Sally and Eric’s boat for drinks and snacks. Chrissie and Matt were there too we had a lovely time chatting and exchanging our sailing stories. Back on Aeeshah we had a late dinner and watched the fireworks across the bay at midnight.

New Years day we had arranged to rent a car with Matt and Chrissie. It was Chrissie’s birthday so we set off to make it a memorable day. We drove south stopping to look at the beautiful beaches, lovely churches and interesting buildings on our way to

Falmouth Harbour.

At Falmouth we enjoyed checking out the expensive mega yachts that were along the marina side. Falmouth is an enormous enclosed natural harbour, which attracts and caters to sailboats and motorboats of all types and sizes. We drove onto Nelson’s Dockyard where again we walked around looking at impressive mega yachts. Nelson’s Dockyard is restored and acts as an historical monument to the days of Admiral Horatio Nelson. It was interesting having a look around the restored buildings that are now mainly used to house shops and restaurants, (similar to Bermuda’s Dockyard). We did amble along the peninsular to the point that acted as the look out and battery. Here we found a great view of the dockyard and the sea beyond.

On we drove to Shirley Heights. There we were able to view a video, which was a historical review of Antigua, and we also enjoyed the wonderful views. By this time everyone was quite hungry and in need of a late lunch. Luckily as we were passing through a village near Christian Hill we spotted a cricket match where we could see a lady attending to a barbeque. We were able to purchase some of her delicious barbequed chicken, salad and bread. So we sat with the locals enjoying the game and eating our excellent lunch. It turned out that many of the islands best players were there playing cricket. It was a great atmosphere.

Chrissie really wanted to see

Half Moon Bay

as it was rated as the best Antigua had to offer. It turned out to be a very beautiful bay, which would have made a great place to swim except, time was passing quickly.

The final stop was Devil’s Bridge,

which was an amazing peninsular with a very rugged shoreline and a spectacular blowhole. The blowhole was like a jagged tear in the rock where the massive surge slammed into and shot upwards. It was quite a mesmerizing site. All in all we had an excellent day.

NEVIS Nevis and St Kitts <–Photos click there

We next sailed to Nevis,

– we had planned to go to Barbuda but the weather gods were not obliging. The sail across was quite tedious as the wind was low and the seas were high. Nevis we found to be lovely. We anchored off of the main town of Charlestown where the beach runs all along the shoreline.

We spent several days exploring Nevis.

Our transportation was our trusty bikes, which John resurrected. We had to 1^st find the bike store that was a dingy ride and a walk away. It was doing this that we met Sweetpea. She was a local lady who knew several Bermudians and over the following days Sweetpea seemed to pop up everywhere calling out to us, “Hello Honeys!!!!” Some weeks later after spending time with Chris on Statia we received an email from him asking if we had bought a tire in Nevis along with a pic of Sweetpea. She had heard his accent and proceeded to tell him all about all the other Bermudians she had met. – Sweet lady!

One of the days we rode the bikes around the entire island.

This I found quite challenging as the hills were long, long, long and seemed to go up forever. In fact the only downhill was when we were headed back into Charlestown. But what a lovely island, so country, with lanes, donkeys on the road, and monkeys too – yes they have wild monkeys. Plantation ruins along with old, old, churches, just wonderful old architecture and the Gingerbread design is hard to beat.

Our route was clockwise and our stops included the itsy bitsy airport where a miniature plane took off with 2 people aboard. We stopped at interesting looking churches that were built in the 1700s, visited an old fort Charles built in the 1600s, stopped at lovely beaches, bought snacks from the tiny snackett and ate them near some plantation ruins. Once we reached the Gingerbread area the rain started, but it did make the downhill into Charlestown very refreshing if not too cool.

We had heard from Chris Famous that he would be in St Eustatius aka Statia a few days later so we set sail to

St Kitts.

In St Kitts

we anchored off of Ballast Bay.

On our way south last year we had stopped here overnight and found it to be interesting. We dingied into the massive salt pond where they are dredging to supposedly make the Christophe Harbour, but there is so much to be done it wont be ready for many years. Once inside the area we hiked the hills surrounding. We could see that the golf Ts had been marked off, but to what end is questionable. The view was excellent and the exercise enjoyable.

We moved to White Bay so as to be able to get into Basseterre to check out. This again was a lovely sandy bay, but it was quite rolly.

Our venture into Basseterre was interesting. It is a real cruise ship port. Everything is set up to entertain the cruise ship passenger. Right in front of the cruise ship docks are all the tourist shops, eateries, duty frees, entertainment, etc. Nothing genuine at all. We walked around, had lunch, checked out and returned to Aeeshah. Then it was off to

St Eustatius aka Statia

St Eustatius aka Statia <– Photos click there

to meet Chris. It was a short rough sail over to Statia and after we arrived it took a while to tidy up the mess, by the time we checked in it was mid afternoon.

We then met Chris and he took us for an island tour. The island is very quaint, quiet and definitely different from any we had visited before. The roadways are extremely narrow; many are still the original stone cobbled/paved lanes. The island has a fascinating history that dates back to the early 1700s. It is Dutch and was the main trading port in the Caribbean; know as Golden Rock, when it inadvertently saluted an American rebel navy captain. This irked the British who sent Admiral Rodney to “raid” and capture all the Dutch treasure, which he did thus punishing the Dutch traders and sending all the Jewish traders to St Kitts.

Statia continued to be a very successful Dutch trading island and today much of the past has been preserved by the historical society. Statia now deals in black gold but if the locals profit from this it is not evident.

During our island tour we got to see just about the entire island that the lanes allowed. It is very simply lovely countryside. His Uncle George was just about to feed his goats, chickens and cow when we were passing. We stopped and chatted and watched him feed and secure the animals for the night.

Chris was in Statia for his Great Uncle’s funeral and when he was busy with family John and I explored the town and many of the historical ruins on foot. We also walked to Fort De Windt in the very south of Statia. There we saw the weathered cliffs that are called Sugarloaf. When we again met up with Chris he took us back to see Fort De Windt in good weather, to the Botanical Gardens, Zeelander Bay and to see the oil storage, black gold, facility.

The Botanical gardens are more of a nature reserve than a formal garden. Zeelander Bay was a lovely wild, black sand, beach where the sea crashed ashore. The oil facility is a huge operation, which receives, sorts, stores and delivers petroleum to ships and fuel barges of all shapes and sizes both day and night.

We had a lovely meal at Chris’s Granny – Pearl’s house. There we had met several members of his

family and the preacher.

It was very interesting talking to them.

Our next destination was St. Martin // Sint Maarten.

St Martin / Sint Maarten <– Photos click there

The crossing was one of our roughest yet. The wind was only 15 – 20 knots with gusts of up to 28k, but the seas were the problem. The seas were at least 15 feet at times. The waves at times crashed on the top of our bimini cover, many washed over the bow and I was very thankful that we had secured the cabin – even so sea water had managed to leak in the hatches.

St. Martin is the polar opposite to St Eustatius aka Statia. It is the retail capitol; being duty free it attracts hundreds of cruisers, mega yachts, tourists and other islanders. One half of the island is Dutch the other French, we checked into the Dutch side at Simpson’s Bay.

Neither of us has ever seen so many mega yachts in one place, John counted over 80 by just looking from our boat to the surrounding shoreline, even Steve Job’s special design is here. All the extravagance is quite shocking. However on the other side is the fact that you can find absolutely everything and anything you need, all at amazing prices. (No cruise ships, as they are at Philipsburg the capitol)

We 1^st anchored off of Simpson Bay and then moved through the Dutch bridge into the Simpson Bay Lagoon.

The lagoon is massive, several miles across, again half French and half Dutch – (more or less separated by the causeway and new causeway bridge). Each side is very different. The Dutch side is where all of the excellent retail stores, chandleries, marine services, restaurants, and bars, etc are located. (And 3 great Indian restaurants) Many evenings we eat ashore as it is so inexpensive. Happy hours offer beer at $1 and my vodkas are $3 so we tend to go ashore every other night. The French side is cleaner and better kept with sidewalks and typical French patisseries and cafes.

We have spent most of our time on boat projects. I have been making new shade covers with my Barracuda sewing machine. Plus I will be making a sail cover for the inner sail and privacy sides. John has installed a sail track for the main sail, more mast steps and various maintenance jobs.

We have taken time off most days to explore. The number 1 favourite pastime is going to Maho Bay, which is at the end of the Juliana Airport runway. Here you stand on the beach which is just under the planes as they land. It really is amazing to have a huge jet fly just over head. Plus what John finds the most thrilling is to be standing at the fence where the planes take off. By hanging on to the fence while the engines are revved up for take off, his feet are lifted off the ground and feeling the jet blast as they zoom off, for him is quite addictive. Here he also enjoys the fact that as we walk along many beaches to get there many of the women on these beaches have not bothered with bikini tops and wear very little g-string bottoms. Me, I really enjoy watching everything going on around, most are young and foolish – just my opinion. Plus its quite amusing to see all the people, clothes, towels etc blown away every time these planes take off and then back they come for more jet and sand blast.