Position           17:17.54N 63:43.51W

Date                2000 – 3 April 2011

Before we started Rob from Let it Be helped us give the salt water inlet a good clear out both from inside and outside.  Considerable barnacle and mussel growth was cleared out.  I definitely think that we are on the right track at last.

St Kitts and Nevis are officially the same country however neither part of this alliance would claim to be the same, Nevis having considerable autonomy.  Theory said that we should possibly have cleared out from Nevis but given our previous experience with the Nevis authority we took the risk and decided to arrive in St Kitts and then clear out from there.

It was just 9nm from Oualie Bay to Basseterre.  The swell in the bay at Basseterre is such that you would require to be a hardy soul to anchor overnight and with the wind blowing the usual 25 knots we edged into the small Porte Zante Marina.  A cruise ship’s tenders were using some of the best berths for discharging and retrieving their “guests” and we were allocated a stern to berth between two mooring posts, what in the Baltic used to be called a “pig pen”.   Four people on board definitely make this form of berthing easier than with two.

It being Sunday, the town was very quiet.  A walk around however was rewarded by getting a feel for the place without the benefit of 3,000 passengers from cruise ships.  There are many old buildings from the early colonial period.  This was the main harbour office, now a museum.

And this, a typical street scene:

Independence Square, with the Catholic Cathedral overlooking it, is a poignant reminder of the past, being the site of the slave market.