NEVIS & ST KITTS - 17 15.03N 062 39.56W

OOJAH's AWESOME ODYSSEY
Peter & Christene Tanner
Tue 9 Apr 2013 00:08
Nevis & St Kitts are two adjacent volcanic islands separated by 5 miles of water but forming one country. Both rise to over 3,000' but while we were there the tops were permanently in cloud. St Kitts appears to have more international transport links & is a bit more 'touristy' while Nevis has a quieter feel. The weather was often cloudy with showers which took away a lot of the colour & on the West coast the beeches were nothing special.
After an easy reach from Monserrat we landed at Nevis first & visited the Botanical Gardens which were absolutely lovely, & two old sugar plantations which had been transformed into characterful up market hotels - the perfect excuse to give the galley slave a day off! The anchorages were adequate rather than cosy but we did meet up with an American J42 which was sailed down from Maine every winter & back for the summer - he had done 46,000 miles on his current sails, making our efforts look a bit lightweight!
It is always difficult to know where to visit but we plumped for the Brimstone Fort on St Kitts, a splendid fortification on top of an 800' hill & scene of many a set to between British, French, Spanish & Dutch all fighting for supremacy in the West Indies from 1750 - the sugar plantations here were particularly valuable. Needless to say we came out on top! The capital Basseterre is typically Caribbean, that is a colourful collection of one & two story buildings, many with corrugated iron roofs, in narrow streets that could do with some TLC!

Peter & Christene