An Island Tour of St Kitts

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 4 Apr 2013 17:06
After a quiet, if rolly night on Statia, we headed on South to St Kitts on Sunday.  It seemed to make sense to have a day in hand before Frankie & Georgia arrived for a week on Tuesday.  On our way to our intended anchorage in White House Bay, in the south of St Kitts, we stopped in Bassterre to clear in.  We had been warned that this was usually a very rolly anchorage as well and it certainly was that day!  John stayed on the boat to keep an eye on things, whilst I went ashore by dinghy to clear in.  As it turned out, despite the fact that St Kitts and Nevis are effectively the same place, you need to get a 'boat pass' to move the boat between islands - we now had to make another trip there before we could leave.
Frankie and Georgia arrived mid afternoon on Tuesday, just in time to get back to the boat for a last minute swim before the sun went down.  

The anchorage at St Kitts

View down the atlantic coast of St Kitts

Looking over the golf course

The next day we decided that a 'beach day' was in order.  Both the girls were desperate to go home with a suntan, as it has been such bad weather at home.  Unfortunately, for both of them, the Caribbean sun was its usual unforgiving self - and as a result of a bit too much sun, there are not many photos of the girls on this trip!  
The following day, a break from the sun was needed so we set off on an island tour.  We have been told by a few people that the island tour on St Kitts is quite good, so off we went.  We were picked up near to the proposed development at Christophe Harbour in Ballast Bay.  The guidebook we have says that there is a dock in White House Bay, but it is a little out of date and in actual fact there is now a dock in Ballast Bay, the bay next door.  We met the owner/manager of the development when we went searching for a likely landing place.  There are plans to build a huge hotel and marina resort there but, as ever, these things take lots of time and also money.  The likely costs is expected to be around $300million, of which he has raised about a quarter - the project completion is planned for sometime in the next ten years or so.   Also, while we looking for the dock, we bumped into 2 very familiar boats belonging to friends of our from Nevis, Eight Bells and Star, so now we will have plenty of people to hang out with when we get there!

Georgia getting an aloe vera massage on the beach

The tour was a mix of culture and history with a couple of tourist 'shopping' bits as well.  We drove through the main town of Basseterre and out to Caribelle Batik which is set in the grounds of Romney Manor, an old estate house.  It is also famous for its gardens, dominated by a giant Saman tree covering one of it's 10 acres.  The batik fabrics are hand painted and there are various demonstrations.  After this, we were off to Brimstone Fort.  This has been the site of a good few skirmishes between the British and the French over the years while they fought to control the islands.  In 1609, the Brits mounted the first guns to recapture Fort Charles from the French.  The Fort itself was built by African Slaves, from whom most of the current population are descended.  

In the gardens at Caribelle Batik



Batik demonstration

The finished product drying in the breeze


Brimstone Fort

In the distance from the Fort you can see St Eustatius

The last stop on the tour was Black Rock - literally what it says on the tin - a beach covered in black volcanic rock, we took the obligatory photos and then it was back for lunch!


Friday, we went into Basseterre for lunch and a spot of people watching from Ballyhoo, a restaurant right in the centre of town.  The girls did some shopping at the craft markets before heading back to the boat for a swim.  Tomorrow we are off to Nevis, a whole 6 or 7 mile trip where we will meet up with Pat and Stuart from Brizo for the night, as they are passing by Nevis on their way back to Anguilla to meet friends.