So after nearly a
month in Antigua we are moving on. We are all
stocked up and had a EC$1200 shopping bill. Not quite so bad when you divide by
4, but still pretty shocking! We are hoping that the dry goods and drinks will get
us to St Martin at the end of March. This is a
large French Island
We set off at 9am
having checked out of Jolly Harbour Marina and treated ourselves to chocolate
croissants and fresh coffee from the Epicurean supermarket. We expected no wind
but there was some so we hoisted the main and even the spinnaker, but after an
hour there was not a breath and we motored the majority of the 40 miles to Charlestown
in Nevis. A fairly uneventful trip, except for the catching of a little tunny and spotting a whale.
Typical with a fridge full of fresh food we catch a fish. With no useby dates
on food, I am sure we are making fresh food last longer by the simple sniff
test.
Nevis as we approach.
Nevis with St Kitts in the distance.
We picked up a buoy in
Charlestown which is the capital. There are nearly 100 buoys laid. I don’t know
why, as in the whole time we were there, I think probably 15 boats used them. It is
also amusing that boats cluster with others. There are masses to choose from
but a boat will pick the one up next to you. This is nice when they are your
friends but annoying when they are a big motor boat with a generator running or
a charter boat having an alcohol fuelled row.
The next day was
Saturday and Russell went ashore to clear customs whilst I did school. It cost
EC$ 30 at customs but when we finally managed to check in with the port
authority we were relieved of a further EC$ 160. This did include US$ 25 for
the mooring buoy for a week. You are not allowed to anchor if buoys are
provided and if they have all gone you still have to pay the fee for using your
anchor. The other fees were US$5 per person for national park fees plus some
environmental taxes. Still compared to the UK UK
We went for a walk
ashore in the afternoon tying the dinghy at the town dock where a number of
ferries come from St Kitts daily. We went to tourist Information but as it was
Saturday it was shut. We were able to pick a map up from the customs office
which was useful. The taxi drivers were all touting for business but we just
took a stroll up the beech and settled for a spot off Sunshine’s bar. This was
brightly coloured and draft beer was EC$ 5 so we had a couple whilst the boys
surfed in the waves whilst looking at our yacht. This is becoming fairly
routine now and I am not sure what we are going to replace it with when back in
the UK.
The boys were a little
concerned at the number of pelicans that were dive bombing for fish very close
to them.. The boys were surprised to see monkeys, unfortunately these were
tethered to a bar and you could photo them for a fee of US$ 5, which was a
shame as they run wild around the rest of the island.
For school we decided to do junk modeling and make some model boats.
After school it was time for some fun on the new outrage.
On Sunday we took the boat a few miles north to Oualie beach with the plan of hiring bikes from Winston. He was shut on Sundays and despite Chris Doyle saying it was a sheltered anchorage, on this day it was not, so we retreated back to where we had started. At least it had charged the batteries and given us hot water so not completely a waste of time.
We then decided to go to the Golden Rock Inn which is a boutique hotel with 11 rooms. http://www.goldenrocknevis.com/home.htm
We decided to have lunch as then you could use the pool and Chris Doyle guide said it was a pleasant couple of hour walk back to Charlestown
It was very laid back though and we were warmly welcomed and had a lovely chat with the new manager called Peter. He had only been there 5 months and was keen as everyone is to hear about our adventures of sailing from the UK. I am thinking that a T shirt with “we left the UK in August and it took 17 days to cross the Atlantic…” so we don’t have to repeat ourselves, might be a good idea. I am hoping the kids lack of enthusiasm when asked “and what do you boys think of the adventure?” is down to them being asked the same question every other day rather than them actually not enjoying the trip.
The food was fab and not badly priced at around £60 for the 4 of us and that included my lobster sandwich which came with salad and fries. We didn’t need to worry about our children disrupting the other diners, as a large table filled with Americans celebrating a 60th birthday was next to us. They spoke very loudly about the events of the week and some bits were a little close to the knuckle. Oli had spotted that one of the men had put the camera under the table and taken pictures of the ladies. The camera was then passed to other men asking who the pictures were of. Apparently one lady had see through knickers on, so I am guessing the camera had a good zoom. One of the ladies apologised when I bumped into her in the toilets. I said not to worry, but they had learnt a new game. The women obviously had no idea that the photos had been taken and I think Oli probably got the men into a lot of trouble.
We enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool with the back drop of the big mountain behind us and views across the sea. Conscious of our couple of hour walk back we set off. This was not easy as the map was quite vague, but finally a house keeping staff pointed us in the right direction and we enjoyed walking most of the way back.
Being a Sunday the deserted tracks were empty and every so often we came across houses with children who wanted to talk and look at our map, give us directions and generally break the journey. One little girl who was probably 3 or 4 told us“we don’t let white people round here” which made us giggle. We apologised and continued on our way.
The views were great and a real contrast as we headed through the old plantations, many which are now hotels. We stopped at the Hermitage for a sprite and headed off again. It took us nearly 3 hours to get back and our feet were definitely feeling it. The boys did brilliantly, although they did say never again and I have to say I was in agreement with them. The sandwiches I had made thinking we would be going on a bike ride were waiting in the fridge and we ate these for dinner whilst watching and Indiana Jones film.
The monkeys. They are green vervet monkeys and were brought to the isalnds in the 17th century and kept as pets.
Glad we chose to walk back. At least it was mainly downhill.
The next day we were
rather stiff and settled for a day of school and booking bikes to do a gentle cycle
around the island on the guides recommendation of reasonably flat roads. Our
friends Chris and Steve said they were going to hire bikes too. We set off back
to Oualie beach on the boat and all went ashore where we picked up the bikes
and started off clockwise as advised. It was all fairly nice and we zipped
along on good quality hire bikes at a cost of US$ 90 for the 4 of us. Then the
undulating hills started. We did more up than down and steadily we got higher
and more tired. The Waitrose biscuits and water were keeping us going and on
many occasion we had to resort to pushing the bikes up the hills. Russell and
Oli managed to cycle up the really steep hill, whilst I cajoled and pushed
Ethan and my bike up it. Ethan has 2 speeds when riding a bike. You either
can’t catch him or he has stopped refusing to go any further. This continued
for most of the day but we did get round. Chris and Steve decided to take it
easy and we went to Peak Heaven which we had been recommended to have a good
kids play area. We were told it was ¼ of a mile off the main road. This turned
out to be pretty much straight up and it was a hot and very hard struggle to
get up there. The historic village of Rawlins (close by) is elevated 1200 ft above sea-level. The view was amazing, the beer tasted better than ever and we ate
our picnic and the boys played. It took us 45 minutes to push the bikes up and
less than 10 minutes to get down. The brakes were on non stop and Ethan quickly
learnt that brakes were required when pushing as well as riding. I am surprised
I had any brakes left when we got to the main road and Russell’s were actually
smoking. We all agreed that Peak Heaven was lovely and better got to by taxi.
Above - not a runway but a dragrace strip! (www.stjamesraceway.com/)
Below- the view from Peace Heaven.
I managed to catch my hair in the chain. Serves me right for trying to be a kid i guess.
Luckily the rest of
the way was pretty much downhill or flat. We stopped at sunshine’s and caught
up with Chris and Steve. Frustratingly for them they could see their boat still
on the mooring, but knew there was 4 miles to get back to our starting point.
They were tempted to swim to the boat and get Winston to come get his bikes but
we all plodded back on to the end. The legs were jelly like and the bum a
little sore but we all agreed that we had enjoyed the day but we would not be
trying the island cycling tour again.
We motored back down
to Charlestown and I made a chicken curry for all of us plus friends from “Ruffian”,
Ian and Fiona. We had a lovely evening even if we did consume a bit too much
wine.
The next day we went
ashore and in search of some hot baths that Ian and Fiona had visited the day
before. They were free to use. It was quite a strange place. The river was fed
by a spring which produced really hot water. The local people told us how it
had changed over the years as they had created a tiled pool and also dammed the
river. They seemed to be doing a lot of work on one of the pools and I wonder
if once they have tidied up the area if they will start charging to visit. The
pools were seriously hot. Its water temperature ranges from 104F to 108F degrees and you could barely put
your feet in, never loan the whole of your body. I found it was easiest to just
get in, but you could only do a minute or so before feeling like you were
boiling. It was really interesting talking to the local people who come here
everyday to bathe. In one you can use soap. I was tempted to bring my washing.
We stopped of at a
supermarket and picked up a few bits before heading off to St Kitts. We had
really enjoyed our time on Nevis.
Told that the water had magical properties, Russell rubbed it on his head hoping it would cure baldness.
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