St Kitts to St Martin

We based ourselves out of the marina for the next few days but did not get as much done as we had thought.  Sometimes we stay at a spot and just don’t seem to get much accomplished.

Similar to Nevis, St Kitts is built on tourism and its deepwater port at Basseterre means that it can take cruise ships.  There were a minimum of two in every day we were there.  Although this means that Nevis retains more tranquility these must be a real godsend for the island economy as there are thousands of passengers on each ship.  There is the inevitable cruise ship type plaza around the docks selling the usual souvenirs, duty free alcohol and jewelry but thereafter the real town starts.  Similar to Nevis there are a lot of attractive old stone building still standing.  When we were anchored at Nevis we could see the lights at night from Basseterre and it looked huge but in reality it was not that big but bigger than any town on Nevis.

St Kitts from Nevis

One of the main reasons for crossing to St Kitts was to allow Sam and Scott to get a few more dives in and he managed two.  They contacted a very laid back operation called Kenneths Dive Centre run predictably by Kenneth.  He was an old guy and had been diving for years and really interesting to chat to about the island and dive spots and how it has changed over the years.  The first dive was on a wreck called the river Taw and was pretty interesting.  The next night we went back for Sams first night dive.  Unfortunately half way through the dive Sam got stung by something on his ankle and had to abandon the dive.  We had managed to see some sleeping turtles though.  While Sam and Scott were diving Nic and Calley managed a film at the local cinemas.

Overlooking Statia

St Kitts, as with so many of these islands, was fought over by the French and the British due to its strategic position.  As a result the British decided to build a huge fortification called Fort Brimstone near the northwest corner of the island.  We took a tour and its pretty impressive as are the views over the island and across to the island of Statia.  Its built on a upthrust from the volcano so stands isolated on the top of a mound with steep slopes.  There are various levels winding up the hill with different walls and buildings ending up with the main fort and batteries at the top.  Its all made out of solid stone and is a colossal amount of work.  It is very impressive.

Another island, another fort

After a shopping trip to the local supermarket to do some restocking and a couple of forays out in the town we left our slip early on 1st Feb (Sat) and set sail for Marigot in St Martin where we had to meet Dan and Kelly.   

Marigot is on the French side of St Martin and we anchored in the bay which had lots of yachts already moored but there was plenty of room.  So a little explanation of St Martin - There is a big lagoon in the south west of the island which is connected to the sea by two cuts.  One at Simpson Bay on the Dutch side and one at Marigot on the French side.  You can enter the lagoon through these cuts but there are bridges across them and so need to abide by the bridge opening times. The lagoon is completely protected and so very busy with anchored boats, marinas and runabouts however it is also for the most part very shallow.  St Martin is a hub for the Caribbean and most services can be found here so it is always pretty busy.  Unknown to us was the Heiniken Regatta was on and so this made the congestion even greater.

Grand Case, St Martin

On Monday it was Sam’s 14th birthday.  Hard to imagine he was twelve when we started the trip and now he is fourteen.  He was really good about it as we only had limited presents for him - some shorts and T-shirts etc to give him as its difficult to shop for anything else he may want in these parts.  We did manage a big breakfast for him though with bacon, eggs, sausages and pancakes. 

We picked Dan and Kelly up on the Monday also and spent a couple of days sailing and catching up.  First we sailed across to the north coast of Anguilla and stayed overnight and then the next day back to a lovely bay on the west of St Martin called Grand Case where we managed a dinner ashore in the midst of a local carnival.    On the Wednesday Dan and Kelly left and we moved back to Marigot Bay to get a start on the jobs.  We were planning to go straight into a marina but the fees are quite expensive this time of year and so will get as much done on anchor and then move around on Monday (10th) for a few days.

Dan and Kelly onboard

So for the next week its time to get the boat ready for the crossing.  Generally she is in pretty good shape although there are a few things that need done or bought.  Main items are replacing the throttle control, fixing persistent leaks in the water maker, re-certifying all the fire extinguishers and lifejackets, changing oil and fuel filters in the engine and genset and replacing some of the running rigging.  In addition we need to provision up for the crossing which is one of the hardest jobs.  Needless to say we are trying to fit in some school in between which is proving difficult as usual