Log 43V St. Kitts - Nevis

Written at: Bequia, St. Vincent, July 4, 2007

Featuring:
"Goat Water", an unappetizing name for a delicious stew using goat meat and breadfruit, similar to an Irish Stew - click here

As I sit down to write this log, I realize that today is the 9th anniversary of our departure from the Toronto Hydroplane and Sailing Club in 1998, and Veleda has not been back to Toronto since. We have traveled over 37,000 nautical miles since then, and we are not tired of cruising yet.

We departed at 0615, April 16, from Anse de Columbier on St. Barts for the 45 mile passage to St. Kitts (also known as St. Christopher), a British autonomous territory, named by and after Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the East Indies. We are traveling southwards now and not having to plough into the easterlies as much, and were able to sail over half the distance. We are not purists, and if our speed is less than four knots, we turn on the engine, sarcastically referred to as the "iron genny". Also, especially on longer passages, we will use the engine to motorsail at a faster rate to shorten the time exposed to rough conditions. It is always nice to get in to a sheltered anchorage earlier rather than later, and to have an undisturbed sleep, or a meal prepared and enjoyed without the boat rocking and pitching, or just a relaxing drink in a new location. On ocean passages, of course, we do not have sufficient diesel for unnecessary use of the engine, and so conserve fuel. There is a difference in approach to a short 10 to 25 mile passage, a longer 45 to 75 mile passage and a 2000 mile ocean passage, keeping in mind we use as an optimistic guideline an average speed of 5 knots for our 32 foot Veleda IV. For this 45 mile passage from St. Barts to St. Kitts, we sailed 35 miles, motoring only 10 and completing the trip in an even 9 hours.

Even though the predominant winds are easterly, or southeasterly, they take different directions as they blow around or over the north, middle or south sides of the islands. There are often acceleration zones, where the wind funnels between islands and around capes, and can dramatically increase in speed from 15 to 30 knots. Then, there are differing wind patterns as the trades drive over the mountains and through the valleys of the islands, picking up speed as they are channeled through narrow valleys, or the katabatic winds that plunge down the mountain sides in 50 knot gusts. This is why when we are passing an island we will stay a couple of miles offshore to reduce these dramatic wind effects.

For this passage we were heading due south and had the easterly winds at a good angle for optimum sailing. However in going from St. Barts to St. Kitts, we bypassed two other islands of the Dutch Antilles, Saba and Statia (St. Eustatius), lying further southwest. To have visited them we would have had to travel southwest, and then would have to pound into the southeasterly trades to work our way down the chain of the Leeward Islands. So we skipped Saba and Statia, going directly to St. Kitts. These islands of Saba, Statia, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat are referred to as "The Islands that Brush the Clouds" as they are small but mountainous, with the mountains of St. Kitts at 4000 feet. The mountains trap rain and these islands have lush vegetation. Often there are clouds hanging on top of the islands while the surrounding skies are clear blue.

As we rounded the northwest tip of St. Kitts, we could see the cloud covered peaks of both Statia to the northwest and Mount Limuga on St. Kitts. As we motorsailed around the tip of St. Kitts, the wind shifted and we found ourselves ploughing into it for the 12 mile passage down the coast to Basseterre. The land is verdant, with gently sloping hills reaching up to the cloud covered mountain. Two aspects of the island could be seen as we motored the coastline. In the green rolling foothills could be seen at least a dozen forlorn smoke stacks and as many derelict conical windmill towers, the skeletal remains of the sugar industry which completely died on the island less than a decade ago. Many fields still had overgrown sugarcane growing rampant, while others held the charred remains of the burnt-off crop. The other noticeable feature on the west coast was the 800 foot high Brimstone Hill, dominated by the World Heritage site of restored Fort Charles, so well designed on three levels that it was known as "The Gibraltar of the West Indies".

Approaching Basseterre the wind was still strong, and as the anchorage area off the town seemed exposed to surge, we went into the new Port Zante Marina (17 17.58N, 062 43.46W), a well sheltered marina with all facilities located right in the centre of the town. At only 50 cents a foot, we did not mind staying at the marina for a few days. The marina development is an ambitious one whereby 25 acres of reclaimed land provided space for breakwaters, marina and cruise ship docks, and a spacious modern shopping mall featuring several upscale boutiques and restaurants. The wide domed archway of the cruise ship passenger terminal and customs offices complement the National Historical Museum, an attractive Georgian dome-topped central-arched building, originally housing the port entry and government offices. The complex is probably only one third complete, after several years, but work is steadily progressing. The infrastructure is in place including security guards rolling around on golf carts, and other security guards issuing identification passes to simply go into the customs offices just inside the passenger terminal. The marina itself has good security, a clean washroom/shower building, a garbage skip, fuel dock and solid concrete finger docks. Unfortunately some of the power and water stanchions were in poor repair. When we called ahead to announce our entry, a dock hand was there to help us with our lines, and a customs official in an SUV to take us over to the customs office. We liked Port Zante.

We also very much liked Basseterre; it is an attractive town with solid British and French colonial architecture, a well landscaped central park called "Independence Square", and lively streets including an attractive (traffic) circus with an interesting green and gold rectangular town clock in the middle. The streets were clean, many of the buildings new or well renovated, including several small malls with attractive boutiques and restaurants. One of the other traffic circles had a multicoloured and gilded statue of the slender young Queen Victoria. Independence Square used to be a slave auction market, and our taxi tour driver pointed out that many of the buildings around the square had cellars in which the slaves were kept after their crossing to be cleaned up, fed and oiled preparatory to their sale. Many of the towns in the Caribbean islands have "independence" or "emancipation" parks to commemorate the slavery era and its termination in the mid 1800's.

After a couple of days we motored six miles down to Ballast Bay on the southwest extremity, a wide gloriously isolated quiet bay surrounded on three sides by mountains, 878, 1047, and 4741 feet respectively, which cradle a large salt pond just beyond the rocky shoreline. We enjoyed a hike around it next day watching the long legged terns, oystercatchers and stilts feeding in the shallows. Our next destination was Nevis, the other island of this two island nation, only six miles away.

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