Nevis, St Kitts and back to Antigua - chasing Scrimshaw shadows
True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Sat 20 Dec 2014 16:43
Our two days in Nevis were spent swimming off the beach, swimming off the boat, and eating. James must be getting old, for after just one Killer Bee (basically a tumbler of rum) at Sunshine's beach bar (www.sunshinesbeachbar.com) he was pretty useless. Rosemary and Sarah were more restrained. Sunday we had lunch at Golden Rock Inn, where we ate before in January and again enjoyed the meal and the surroundings (www.goldenrocknevis.com).
Monday we set off early for St Kitts, arriving at Port Zante marina mid morning. Charlie from the marina helped us in and gave a really warm welcome. We enjoyed the marina, the only real issue being that only 110v was available - but our main battery charger worked ok (multi voltage) so that covered the most important part.
Cruise ships galore - up to 5 a day, each with up to 5000 passengers so Port Zante was very busy from 10.00 to 16.00, quiet thereafter. Took a taxi trip of the island, most noteworthy stop was at the Brimstone Hill Fortress, built by the British in the 1700s. It is a UNESCO heritage site, and the best remaining fortress in the Caribbean... certainly worth more the the half hour that the tour allowed us. www.brimstonehillfortress.org.
Wednesday afternoon we cleared out, and had a cracking sail back to Nevis. On the way we saw Rainbow about half a mile away from us, motoring to the new marina on St Kitts. If we had been a half hour earlier we would have passed right by them and waved to Oli.
First light ( 05.55) we set off back to Antigua. As expected the wind was on the nose, so rather than sail, again we motored. Fairly bouncy but we made reasonable progress, arriving in Falmouth at 14.30. Jo was just manoeuvring to leave - think we saw Josh but he certainly didn't see us. If we had been half an hour later, we would have been unmissable, passing in the channel.
But today we actually met up with Toby. We watched Nahlin berth impressively after a stern to approach down the channel.
In the last week all this branch of the Scrimshaws have cleared through the little customs office here, all but one twice; they probably think it must be a common English name!
So we are now here until after new year, chilling. Tough times!