A little off the beaten track, Statia is one of the less frequented islands of the Caribbean.

Reports that it’s anchorage is very rolly can be confirmed and may explain the lack of boats.

On the way here we were boarded and searched by customs, operating from a Dutch Naval vessel. Having searched through cupboards and checked safety gear, including the dates on all the flares, they left us to complete the journey from St Kitts.

On land Statia is a charming island with attractive buildings and friendly people. We took the challenge today of walking up to the rim of the volcano, from where you can look into the crater. This is now teaming with life as it has become filled with a tropical rainforest. Bird song filled the air and everywhere you looked there were butterflies. Some had yellow and black striped wings and looked as if they were pretending to be bees! We didn’t have time to walk down into the crater, but thoroughly enjoyed the hike back down to port.

 

  

We walked all the way up!                                                                An iguana

 

In the 1700’s Statia was a leading trading island in the Caribbean and the waterfront was filled with warehouses and other buildings. Only the foundations still remain, and the town today is largely based a few hundred meters back from the beach up a low cliff. Where the sea front used to be filled with up to 300 vessels at a time, filled with cargo from the Caribbean, or slaves from Africa, oil tankers now take their place. Statia appears to have become the fuel station of the Caribbean!

 

 

The restored fort                                                                                Saba in the background, then fuel tankers, then us

 

Were it not so rolly, we would stay longer, but the swell is beginning to grate....

Boat names round here seem to have a food theme. Bizarrely have seen “Pork Chop” and “Free Range Chicken” as names for boats!