Leaving Nevis and arriving in St Eustatia

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 9 Dec 2011 22:42
After spending two weeks here it was time to leave - we did originally book a mooring buoy for 1 week as it was the cheapest option at 95 EC$ per week which is about £24, but the second week was even cheaper, just 54 EC$, which is about £12.50, so we stayed.  Moorings in this area tend to be very reasonable but I think it will be very different when we get to the more commercial areas such as the BVI's!!  We were quite sad to say goodbye to Nevis, we have made a lot of new friends here, so much so that we have promised to return on our trip back south to Antigua in March.  That said it was time to move on.
Over the last week the weather has been somewhat unsettled and the middle weekend of our stay was just wet!!  It was grey and raining for 2 days, so much so that we hardly left the boat.  We spent our time doing all those jobs that we have been putting off for ages, and thoroughly cleaned the inside of the boat, re-oragnised the storage and collated lists of all the jobs that need to be done on a weekly, monthly etc basis - who sailing is all glamour and excitement??
The sail to Nevis was short - only about 30 miles, but looking at the charts, it will be one of our longest over the coming months, all the islands north of here are very close together, usually less than 20 miles apart.  We had a bit of rain on the way, but this was more than compensated for by the school of dolphins which joined us just north of St Kitts to play in the bow wave.  It has been ages since we have seen any real sea life while we were sailing - the last time we can remember seeing dolphins was in Portugal!
By the time we arrived in St Eustatia, (known as Statia), the rain had cleared and the island looked interesting.  The bay in which we are moored, for the grand sum of $30 USD per week, (£20)! is full of tankers moored out.  There is a large fuel terminal and tugs passing in and out all day and night.  That said the port is very pretty.  Our plan was to check in and do all the formalities, and then clean the boat before heading out for the evening, but we were beaten back by torrential rains, so bad we had to sit inside and eat! Hopefully tomorrow will be better, we have plans to go exploring the town, and maybe try and go out for dinner weather permitting - we obviously have to dinghy in to the dock but the town is also about 15 mins walk away so not good in wet weather!!

 The first views of St Eustatia, you can just make it out, topped with clouds, nestled under the rainbow.

 A hitch-hiker who stayed with us for most of the trip

 'On watch', keeping a look out for dolphins as we approach the south side of the island known as White Wall, due to the limestone cliffs.