Saba
We left St. Martin with the first bridge opening at 9.30 in the morning. There was not much wind around so we had to motor towards Saba. The sea was flat as a pancake and having a little breeze from the back made our trip very hot but pleasant. It was nice being on the water again and once we left St. Martin behind there was nothing but deep blue water around us. It was only 26 nautical miles to Saba and we reached the island after an easy 2 ½ hours. We had our fishing line out to try our luck with some fish for dinner tonight; with no luck! We find a free mooring ball on the northwest side of the Saba, in Well’s Bay where we settle down for the rest of the afternoon. We get immediately rewarded being there. A family of six dolphins is passing our yacht very close, we enjoy this experience for a moment before we jump into the dinghy to follow them and maybe to get a closer look. Afterwards we have our lunch, go for a little swim, shower in a down pour of rain and enjoy the rest of the day in this rolling Bay. Saba has an area of only 13 sq km and is an unusual Island amongst the Caribbean Islands – its steep volcanic cliffs rise straight out of the water, leaving no room for beaches. Christopher Columbus first sighted Saba on his second voyage in 1493. A rain forest exists some 915 m above sea level and a constant cloud of moisture surrounds the area. We decide against a hike up into rain forest, but I would have loved to explore the rain forest with its 15 species of wild orchids that you can find among other tropical foliage such as ferns, giant elephant ears and banana and mango trees.
Trip to St. Kitts
After an unstable night we got up fairly early this morning and left the mooring ball in Well’s Bay at just after nine o’clock. We are all a bit touchy after such rough night and enjoy the quietness of the ocean. We leave Saba behind and not before long the next Island comes into sight; St. Eustatius. This is a bigger Island then Saba with 31 sq km and it consist of two dormant volcanoes linked by a central plain. While the northern volcano has been eroded to a cluster of hills, the southern one, known as the Quill, is perfectly formed and rises steeply to nearly 610 meter. St. Eustatius is home to some 58 species of birds and 18 species of orchids. St. Eustatius was first sighted by Columbus in 1493 and changed hands 22 times between the French and Dutch and the English in 1665, before Dutch possession finally became permanent in 1816. We passed St. Eustatius on the west side and it looked very commercial with huge oil tanks and big tankers waiting to be fueled up. It would have been interesting to check into St. Eustatius, but we decided against it and sailed on until we came to the next Island; St. Kitts. We arrived in Basseterre, St. Kitts just shortly after 3 o’clock and managed to be anchored right next to our friends Craig and Nix on their Catamaran “Safari”. There is a big swell rolling into the bay, but Basseterre is the Port of call and so we need to check in here. It’s Sunday and our attempt to check in was without success. However our joined dinner on “Safari” and the Spaghetti Bolognese and Salad along with a few bottles of red wines was a total winner. The children had a movie night in front of the Catamaran and everyone was happy and enjoyed each other’s company. The night promised to be rough again, but who cares, we will be looking for a quiet anchorage tomorrow.
We left St. Martin with the first bridge opening at 9.30 in the morning. There was not much wind around so we had to motor towards Saba. The sea was flat as a pancake and having a little breeze from the back made our trip very hot but pleasant. It was nice being on the water again and once we left St. Martin behind there was nothing but deep blue water around us. It was only 26 nautical miles to Saba and we reached the island after an easy 2 ½ hours. We had our fishing line out to try our luck with some fish for dinner tonight; with no luck! We find a free mooring ball on the northwest side of the Saba, in Well’s Bay where we settle down for the rest of the afternoon. We get immediately rewarded being there. A family of six dolphins is passing our yacht very close, we enjoy this experience for a moment before we jump into the dinghy to follow them and maybe to get a closer look. Afterwards we have our lunch, go for a little swim, shower in a down pour of rain and enjoy the rest of the day in this rolling Bay. Saba has an area of only 13 sq km and is an unusual Island amongst the Caribbean Islands – its steep volcanic cliffs rise straight out of the water, leaving no room for beaches. Christopher Columbus first sighted Saba on his second voyage in 1493. A rain forest exists some 915 m above sea level and a constant cloud of moisture surrounds the area. We decide against a hike up into rain forest, but I would have loved to explore the rain forest with its 15 species of wild orchids that you can find among other tropical foliage such as ferns, giant elephant ears and banana and mango trees.
Trip to St. Kitts
After an unstable night we got up fairly early this morning and left the mooring ball in Well’s Bay at just after nine o’clock. We are all a bit touchy after such rough night and enjoy the quietness of the ocean. We leave Saba behind and not before long the next Island comes into sight; St. Eustatius. This is a bigger Island then Saba with 31 sq km and it consist of two dormant volcanoes linked by a central plain. While the northern volcano has been eroded to a cluster of hills, the southern one, known as the Quill, is perfectly formed and rises steeply to nearly 610 meter. St. Eustatius is home to some 58 species of birds and 18 species of orchids. St. Eustatius was first sighted by Columbus in 1493 and changed hands 22 times between the French and Dutch and the English in 1665, before Dutch possession finally became permanent in 1816. We passed St. Eustatius on the west side and it looked very commercial with huge oil tanks and big tankers waiting to be fueled up. It would have been interesting to check into St. Eustatius, but we decided against it and sailed on until we came to the next Island; St. Kitts. We arrived in Basseterre, St. Kitts just shortly after 3 o’clock and managed to be anchored right next to our friends Craig and Nix on their Catamaran “Safari”. There is a big swell rolling into the bay, but Basseterre is the Port of call and so we need to check in here. It’s Sunday and our attempt to check in was without success. However our joined dinner on “Safari” and the Spaghetti Bolognese and Salad along with a few bottles of red wines was a total winner. The children had a movie night in front of the Catamaran and everyone was happy and enjoyed each other’s company. The night promised to be rough again, but who cares, we will be looking for a quiet anchorage tomorrow.
St. Kitts
Well ….did we care throughout the night……we had a very horrible night and as soon as we had checked in we lifted our anchor and looked for a calmer place to stay for the next night…..and we found one in Ballast Bay. We dropped our anchor at around 11 o’clock and the first thing was we breathed in deeply and then jumped into the crystal clear water…..ahhhhhh ….no rolling waves, just a calm bay and our stomachs were able to settle down again. We went for a long swim and straight after we jumped into the dinghy and went for a nice snorkel along the shore. The marine life was incredible and we saw lots of interesting fish and corals. The hunger brought us back to JUCA and once we had our lunch we attended to a few things on the boat and thereafter we rested for a while. ST. Kitts was also discovered on Columbus second voyage in 1493 and it used to be called after him; St. Christopher. However when it finally fell under British rules in 1783 they adopted the shortening St. Kitts. St. Kitts has got a population of close to 40 000. It seems to be an Island off the beaten track, but it has a lot to offer in regards of sightseeing. The Island is dominated by Mount Liamuiga, that reaches an incredible 1156 m above sea level and the crater dips 363 m down below the peak. The mountain is surrounded by tropical rainforest, which hosts monkeys, birds, butterflies, fruits and beautiful flowers. The monkeys were left behind by the French who kept them as pets and now outnumber the human population by a ratio of approx 2.5 to 1. What catches my main interest is the Brimstone Hill Fortress which is positioned approx 244 m atop a rock cliff. While sailing pass it already looked very imposing and intact and has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site, so should be very interesting to visit. Later in the evening we were joined by three other boats in the Bay, one of them was the Catamaran Calabra. We had a quick chat to Johnno and Monet and discovered that they had hired a van for the next day to explore the island, we arranged to join them on this trip…..how exciting!
A trip around St. Kitts
As arranged we met with the Calabra clan at nine at the dinghy dock, where Solomon and his van were already waiting for us. All 4 adults, 2 teens and three children fitted easily into the car and off we went for a trip around St. Kitts. We got picked up at Ballast Bay and started our journey via Conaree Bay to Grange Bay. As there is only one road going through St. Kitts, we drove through every little town there is on this little island. Solomon showed us where his hometown is, in which house the prime minister of St. Kitts lives. We stopped at a place called Lodge where we could see that the Lava had flown into the ocean. The children had their highlight of the day here….they got a little toy monkey each; which made them happy all day. The highlight of the trip was obviously our stop at the Brimstone Hill Fortress. The Fort was mounted with cannon in 1690, and it took 105 years to be completed. The Fortress was designed by British Army Engineers and built by African slave workers. The Fortress is still in pretty good shape and was very interesting to visit and to explore. It is amazing what the people in those days accomplished with no machinery. We also visited the Bloody Point where in 1626 the French and the British people massacred 2000 Carib Indians in one night……the reason….they could not press them into slavery so it was better to get rid of them altogether….horrible the thought process of people in those days. We paid Basseterre the capital of St. Kitts a quick visit for some sugar cane before we made our way back home. Back on the boat we had a burger for lunch before we went snorkeling for the afternoon. We finished this marvelous day with some Spaghetti Marinara and some Lobster tails on Catamaran “Calabra”….delicious!
Navis
After our home school we left for Navis. We lifted the anchor around 10.30 and made our way to Navis. The whole trip took only an hour, the wind was coming from a good direction so we managed to get the sail up for this short trip. Navis is a bit smaller than St. Kitts and until 1983 was ruled by the British. Since September 1983 the British Union Jack has been replaced by the green, red, yellow and black flag and is now representing a newly independent nation. Nevis is a volcanic island surrounded by coral reefs. Forested slopes rise from palm lined beaches to the island cloud-shrouded summit. Apparently this island is pretty untouched by tourism, so we were really excited to spend a few days there. We quickly changed our mind, when we went ashore to check out the town. We got approached by the not very friendly Port Authority police as soon as we set foot on the island. When they wanted an extra $20 from us for the mooring that we had hardly used we decided to check out of Navis and to sail on to Antigua with the first morning light. When we get back to the boat we discuss our new plans and loosen our lines from the mooring ball to stay the night in Tamarind Bay. We are going to leave for Antigua at 5 o’clock in the morning.
As arranged we met with the Calabra clan at nine at the dinghy dock, where Solomon and his van were already waiting for us. All 4 adults, 2 teens and three children fitted easily into the car and off we went for a trip around St. Kitts. We got picked up at Ballast Bay and started our journey via Conaree Bay to Grange Bay. As there is only one road going through St. Kitts, we drove through every little town there is on this little island. Solomon showed us where his hometown is, in which house the prime minister of St. Kitts lives. We stopped at a place called Lodge where we could see that the Lava had flown into the ocean. The children had their highlight of the day here….they got a little toy monkey each; which made them happy all day. The highlight of the trip was obviously our stop at the Brimstone Hill Fortress. The Fort was mounted with cannon in 1690, and it took 105 years to be completed. The Fortress was designed by British Army Engineers and built by African slave workers. The Fortress is still in pretty good shape and was very interesting to visit and to explore. It is amazing what the people in those days accomplished with no machinery. We also visited the Bloody Point where in 1626 the French and the British people massacred 2000 Carib Indians in one night……the reason….they could not press them into slavery so it was better to get rid of them altogether….horrible the thought process of people in those days. We paid Basseterre the capital of St. Kitts a quick visit for some sugar cane before we made our way back home. Back on the boat we had a burger for lunch before we went snorkeling for the afternoon. We finished this marvelous day with some Spaghetti Marinara and some Lobster tails on Catamaran “Calabra”….delicious!
Navis
After our home school we left for Navis. We lifted the anchor around 10.30 and made our way to Navis. The whole trip took only an hour, the wind was coming from a good direction so we managed to get the sail up for this short trip. Navis is a bit smaller than St. Kitts and until 1983 was ruled by the British. Since September 1983 the British Union Jack has been replaced by the green, red, yellow and black flag and is now representing a newly independent nation. Nevis is a volcanic island surrounded by coral reefs. Forested slopes rise from palm lined beaches to the island cloud-shrouded summit. Apparently this island is pretty untouched by tourism, so we were really excited to spend a few days there. We quickly changed our mind, when we went ashore to check out the town. We got approached by the not very friendly Port Authority police as soon as we set foot on the island. When they wanted an extra $20 from us for the mooring that we had hardly used we decided to check out of Navis and to sail on to Antigua with the first morning light. When we get back to the boat we discuss our new plans and loosen our lines from the mooring ball to stay the night in Tamarind Bay. We are going to leave for Antigua at 5 o’clock in the morning.
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