17:17.3N 62:43.7W

St Kitts is the dominant island in the country formed by St Kitts and Nevis. It allows the dreaded cruise ships into the capital – Basseterre - which is where we anchored at just after mid-day. Mingling with cruise ship passengers needs a bit of courage and Ian soon sorted that problem.

With renewed courage we went ashore for a look round.

Lots of well preserved churches – it’s a very religious island

If we weren’t sure which way to go we found it’s better to ask someone. If you rely on the road signs it gets a little confusing.

Next day – 27^th March was Pat and Paul’s 35^th wedding anniversary. Apparently that’s coral according to Lynne – how appropriate – with Peejay sailing in tropical waters.

Lynne and Ian were organised as usual and surprised us with anniversary gifts. Thanks guys.

We celebrated with a long lazy lunch at the Ballahoo restaurant in Basseterre.

The following day we were up at 0600 to make sure we did one of the must do things on Lynne’s tick list. St Kitts has the only surviving railway in the Caribbean and it takes you round most of the island. It’s what remains of the old sugar cane railway where they used to take cane from the fields to the factory near town. These days they haul tourists instead of sugar.

The staff on the train worked really hard and made the journey special. Here’s one sharing a joke with Lynne and Ian.

Then we all sat around telling jokes until the train started and we all moved upstairs.

We were soon rattling through the countryside and passing over rickety bridges that looked decidedly suspect.

Overall a great day out and well worth the early start. But next day was even earlier when the skipper made the crew get up at 0500 to sail back to Antigua. The forecast was not great with wind on the nose all the way but Lynne and Ian had to get back to catch flights and the next few days looked set to get worse.

Antigua was covered in rain squalls which gradually went west. We watched as the squalls battered Montserrat, Redonda and Nevis in turn. We headed further north and avoided them but the swell was getting larger and progress to windward was painfully slow. Eventually skipper put up more sail, ignored the worried looks on the faces of his new crew, and made all possible speed to Deep Bay, Antigua. Anchor went down at 2200 and Lynne said that was one of the high spots of the holiday – when she knew that the tiresome upwind trip was finally over. Lynne and Ian had been to Deep Bay before – to acclimatize at the start of the holiday – and to them it felt like coming home. Welcome to proper sailing guys – it’s what you were looking forward to.

Now Ian is not renowned for his swimming but even he celebrated with a lap of the boat.

We still had a couple of days left so after a lazy start we headed for another one on Lynne’s tick list – English Harbour.