Statia 17 28.962N 62 59.454W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Sun 2 Apr 2017 18:35
The sail of 37 miles was a lovely fine reach in 12 knots of breeze and we managed to outperform our expected pace of 6 knots, to take just over 5 hours to reach our chosen anchorage, here in Gallows Bay.
We came here from the north 4 years ago and remember the rolly anchorage, the pretty town of Oranjestad, with its historical stone buildings, the ramp connecting the lower town on the beach with the higher town above, and the chinese grocers!
Last time though, we did not find the time to walk the trail up the Quill, the volcano which dominates the northern end of the island.
So yesterday, armed with a 2 litre bottle of water, we put that right and headed off up the path to the crater rim. The walk is spiriting, if not difficult, through the scrub forest which clings to the slopes, until, that is, you get to the crater rim itself. There, a signpost entices you to climb a high side of the crater rim for a viewpoint, so we set off to investigate. A 20 minute scramble, sometimes on all fours, and occasionally using exposed tree roots as a form of ladder, we emerged at the top, to enjoy the wonderful views towards Saba, St Maarten and St Barths, as well as the bay below us and the southern side of the island of Statia.
The scramble down was interesting, and we made it down to the lower slopes without incident. Then Karen suffered a triplet of minor events;
A fall on dusty, gravelly ground, a snake running across her shoe and then being stung on the shoulder by an unidentified flying insect. Our beers at the Old Gin House hotel in the bay were well deserved. There we met up with Deborah and Pete, Australians sailing Chat Eau Bleu...and later we watched the sun go down while "noodling" beneath their catamaran with drinks in hand....
Today has been international rescue day. A couple of local guys capsized their dinghy while visiting their launch in the bay. Nigel heard the cries and went across in our dinghy to investigate. He then righted their dinghy, which had a brand new (large) outboard on the back, and then towed them back to the shore for repairs, diving gear and so on.
The outboard was way too big for the dinghy they had, and in capsizing they lost a catalogue of equipment...starter batteries, tools, keys....you name it, they lost it.
As I write, they are diving in the crystal clear water to retrieve as much as they can.
We are likely to head on to St Kitts tomorrow, and a possible rendezvous with Win2Win.
The weather here is balmy and hot, with nice light sailing breezes, now predominantly from the south east. The waves of January and February have subsided and the enjoyment facrptor of the inter island trips is mounting steadily.
We are still not fully settled on a final plan...do we or don't we visit Bahamas before setting off east. The waters are tricky and our new charts seem to emphasize that. Basically, it's catamaran heaven, but Persephone, drawing 2.1m will be fairly restricted as its all so darned shallow out there. The Spanish abandoned the islands after losing so many ships in the cays and shoals.....
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