Position           17:12.06N 62:36.91W

Date                1800 – 2 April 2011

A quick move was made back towards Charlestown and a mooring buoy; there are literally hundreds of them, off the Sunshine Bar where our taxi was to meet us. Unfortunately with the swell still running the waves breaking on the shore would have made landing a very wet occupation; fortunately by landing a little further up the coast we were able to use the shelter provided by the Four Seasons Hotel breakwaters and arrived to meet “Teach” and his taxi almost on time. 

Teach, aka Solomon, was a retired teacher and made a most excellent guide for our tour.  His driving speed was unusually moderate which resulted in our becoming an obstacle at times for the Triathlon biking event taking place as the athletes overtook us.

First off was a tour around the outskirts of Charlestown, a visit to the old Jewish Cemetery and then a stop at the hot springs.  Charlestown had one of the first hotels in the Caribbean and the hot springs were the attraction; and very hot they were too.  Volcanic activity in this part of the world is not far under the surface.

The next stop was the site where Admiral Nelson married his wife, Fanny Nesbit.

Nevis is a dry island and lacks the robust vegetation of some of the others that we have visited.  Some of the attractions are the old plantation houses now converted into up market hotels and we visited four of them in the course of our tour.  Very nice but probably not our sort of holiday.  We did however enjoy a morning refreshment break in the Hermitage.

Nevis was first settled at about the time of the English Civil War and plantation houses and churches date from that period.  Each plantation is absolutely unique; this one was a substantial stone building.

Churches feature as an important part of Nevis life and the Anglican ones have survived hurricane feast and famine.  This one is relatively modern dating from 1750.

Wildlife on Nevis includes monkeys; unfortunately the closest that we got to them was this, now added to my collection of unusual signs.

Our trip ended up back where we started in time for a late lunch.  Taking trips either by taxi or local bus is a great way of getting a feel for each island and “Teach” gave us a great trip.

On return to the boat we headed north again to get out of the swell and this time anchored in Oualie Bay for the night.  Sundowners were on Let it Be celebrating a good day out together.