St Kitts
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Wed 13 Feb 2013 18:42
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We slid gently down to St Kitts on Saturday
morning, every bit of thee expedient cruisers we are becoming. Just a No 2
genoa, to keep our speed DOWN, to enjoy the views of the north of
Nevis and the south of St Kitts.
Our anchorage of choice in the south of the
island looked a little too rolly, so we diverted around Horse Shoe Point and
Green Point and found sanctuary in White House Bay.
Just Persephone, another couple of yachts and two
superyachts in the anchorage...the superyacht brigade were courteous
enough to lay with their "toys" away from the anchorage, in Ballast Bay, next
door. The large motor yachts, generally around 100 feet, have cavernous, water
level stowage compartments secreted by various ingenious motorised doors. Oncee
opened by their immaculately presented crews, shortly after arrival at a
beautiful anchorage, there emerge a range of, generally motorised, playthings.
Top of the list are very fast launches, RIBs for the smaller ones, and Riva
style launches, matching the mother ship, for the larger ones. Then a brace of
jetskis, and numerous inflatable devices to be towed by the motorised craft.
Water skiing is very much back in fashion this season.
Beautiful calm clear water, with lots of wind
coming over the salt pond, just inshore, kept us cool and fuelled our wind
generator while we relaxed and took in the scene.
On Sunday morning we slipped quietly down the coast
a couple of miles to Basseterre, the capital of St Kitts. There is a
small marina here, but we found no space, so anchored off in about 4m of clear
water, over sand. Ashore we were keen to spend, spend spend! St Kitts is
the last of the islands in our planned visits where the EC$ is used and we still
had a wallet full of them. So we found a local taxi / guide and took on a tour
of the island, visiting the sights and soaking up the atmosphere. Our guide was
Junie and his steed was a newly repainted Hiace van...and we saw it all,
including more than 30 churches.
Returning to the marina, we saw Lupii, the Pogo 40
which had been berthed alongside us before the ARC and soon found Bjorn and his
crew. They were returning from the north to Antigua.
We managed to spend our last EC$s in a supermarket,
early on Monday, before pointing Persephone's bows towards St Eustatious (Statia
to those in the know) - once the busiest port in the world, in the mid 18th
century.
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