It’s 44 miles from St Barts to St Kitts and
hopefully, we would at least be able to sail a direct course without tacking as
the course was dead south, until we turned the corner off the west coast of St
Kitts, to make our way the 10 miles down to the main harbour of Basseterre,
where we would be stopping for the night.
We had a pleasant sail in about 18 kts of breeze until
we turned the corner when we came into the lee of the island and the wind died
away to a whisper. We turned the engine on and motored the rest of the way
passing numerous ruined sugar mills left over from the days of slavery.
Another island discovered by Columbus (as most were) but this time he named the
island after himself as one book says although another refers to him naming it
after the patron saint of travellers - St Christopher. The island was
colonised by both the British and the French who formed an alliance in order to
remove the indigenous Carib Indians. The French ceded the island to Great Britain
at the Treaty of Utrecht on 31st March 1713. The French then re-took
the island for a year in 1782 after storming Brimstone Hill Fortress.
They then lost it again after the French Fleet was defeated in the Battle of the
Saints. The island remained in British hands until it was made an
associated state of the Commonwealth in 1967. In 1983 the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis
became and independent state of the Commonwealth.
We arrived off Basseterre
just before sunset. The anchorage was immediately off the commercial port
and was not particularly pleasant. There is a marina and a cruise line
dock about a mile back but we decided against visiting it or the island
itself. We were conscious of the need to keep moving south and there are
many other places we want to visit before we get to Grenada so we decided that St Kitts
would have to wait ‘til we come this way again.
We didn’t take many photos apart from this one
of Mount Liamuiga
(aka Mount Misery!)
