Dominica to Statia via Nevis
Summer 2022
John Andrews
Tue 1 Feb 2011 22:14
Australian family we had first met in Antigua. They are planning to sail
their boat back to Australia. They bought the boat unseen on the internet,
picked it up in England and sailed it down through France, Spain,
Portugal, Cape Verdes and across the Atlantic, just the two of them. They
were still very undecided about whether this was a lifestyle choice that
suited them. A business opportunity had presented itself and they were in
a bit of a quandary as to how to proceed. Really nice people and good
company.
Also joined by Augustus, aka Lawrence of Arabia, the boat boy who picked
us up on our way in to Dominica and who rowed us up the Indian River and
has generally looked after us. He has rather disconcertingly started
referring to us as Mum and Dad. In his efforts to meet our expectations,
he has promised fresh fish and local chicken tomorrow to feed us on our
journey north. As it turns out, fish is a problem. There is none in the
market, so I buy pork instead. The local chicken he has promised is
bought, I am sure from the same market. He asks rather anxiously about
whether it is ok. It looks ok when I peer into the plastic bag it is
delivered in. Curiously, when I take it out when we are underway, it is
short of a complete breast. As there is nothing much to the poor thing
anyway, we have an extremely tasty, but thin chicken supper that night.
We make good passage to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Good sunset complete with
green flash or 'rayon vert' as they say there. Place our order
for croissants and baguette with the young man who comes out in a small
boat, promising to deliver before we set sail at 8.00 a.m the following
morning.
From Deshaies, another good passage to Jolly Harbour in Antigua. We have
routed ourselves there in order partly to pick up a boat key inadvertently
left with the harbour office, and also to allow us a last trip to the
supermarket to pick up supplies of Susies hot sauce which was off the
shelves when we left.
The next day we had a lovely downwind passage, goose winged, to Nevis. It
has always been a problem visiting Nevis on previous trips, so I was
delighted to have this opportunity to visit. It is a delightful island.
The port staff are extremely welcoming and helpful and the town of
Charlestown is lovely. It is clean, with lovely wooden and stone
architecture. We visited the Alexander Hamilton Museum which is devoted to
Nevis history and culture and also to said Alexander Hamilton, a founding
father of the American constitution. The Nevisians are rightly very proud
of this extraordinary man. Also went to the museum devoted to Nelson who
married Fanny Nisbet on the island. We then treated ourselves to a visit
to one of the beautifully restored sugar plantations. We chose Golden Rock
because they had nature trails available. We did a walk of about two hours
up the mountain towards the original source' that fed the
estate and then had a lovely lunch in luxurious surroundings in the breeze
cooled restaurant overlooking the sea towards Antigua.
A six thirty start to our next destination, Statia, and a cracking reach,
with the current, meant that we arrived at 10.30 a.m.