17:25.1N 62:48.7W

 

On Tuesday we said goodbye to Marty, Lisa and their chocolate lab Lucy (True Colors) and set out south once more.  We have been travelling with True Colors, on and off, since the Turks and Caicos.  They are staying in Anguilla for a couple of weeks,  entertaining their niece, but we will probably see them again in Grenada.

 

The first leg was a short 50 miles to an anchorage at the north of St Kitts, Dieppe Bay.  The cruising guide said there was a reef entrance that needed visual pilotage, although there were plans to add a couple of navigation buoys.  I guess the buoyage plans fell through because there were no navigation aids.  Given the sea state (gusting 25 knots, breaking waves) it was impossible to differentiate between the areas of reef and the black volcanic sand.  The chart is woefully inaccurate, but it does indicate there is a steep edge to the inside of the reef so in the end I just aimed for a spot a few metres to the right of where the braking waves ended.  We got through OK but it was pretty nerve racking because the depth gauge kept losing its reading, either because the bottom was changing a lot (I hope) or because we crossed the reef and were virtually aground at times.

 

We didn’t go ashore at St Kitts (you can’t check in at Dieppe bay). The cruising guide describes Dieppe bay as an old hurricane hole, “but not a very good one”.  Hurricane hole is a joke – it was sheltered from the waves but not particularly calm.  In all I would highly recommend avoiding this place.

 

The Dieppe bay anchorage. 

 

St Kitts looks to have quite a lot of pasture land

 

The sun setting behind St Eustatius