January 20-25 Nevis/St Christopher (St Kitts)

On January 20th we made the run over to Nevis/St Christopher(St Kitts). Being the very first colonies in the British and French empires, they are now independent countries that share dual authority. As such, cruising yachts can check into one and receive coastal cruising clearance for both. Sounds simple enough. NOT!! All I can say is that three hours later, after running around Nevis between customs, immigration and the port authority, dragging Brian and Taffy around with us to feel our pain, we have our 7 day coastal clearance in hand. And surprise. Nevis requires the use of mooring balls.
We head down the coast to Oaulie Bay and got settled on a mooring ball. At least these are high-town moorings with some serious hardware. We don’t mind paying for them when we don’t have to worry about Hakuna Matata breaking off one in the middle of the night. The following morning we went over to Tamarind Bay. There was excellent snorkeling here. Around the coastal rocks, there are thousands of bait fish, so thick that you cannot see through them. Even so, Craig found a lobster nest. They are just always just deep enough to be unattainable by free diving, so we return to the boat for scuba gear. Craig catches while I maintain surface support, monitoring his air tank and bagging the catch. These are a bit small, so we capture eight. I chopped up the tails and served them over vermicelli with a cream/jalepeno sauce. We also dinghied over to an adjacent beach and went to the Christobel club, owned by a Danish couple who gave us the inside scoop on Nevis/St Kitts.
We traveled over to Basseterre, St Kitts the next day. Expecting to pull into the new “world-class marina” so that we have a comfy spot to off-load guests and luggage to a dock, we are surprised to call them and find they are full. What to do? We consult the charts and head to Frigate Bay and Timothy Beach. There are a lot of clubs, restaurants and a dinghy dock. The only thing is that the wind has shifted to the west. The bays all face west, so we are in for a very rolly night. The cruising guides all refer to these anchorages as untenable when then winds are from the west and that is exactly what it was. Nobody slept, and coupled with the party music that did not stop until 0630 the following morning, it was a rough night for all of us.
On Sunday, we dropped off Brian and Taffy in the care of a taxi and took off for another anchorage. It was great having Brian and Taffy on board with us. Thanks for everything!!!
We went over to White House Bay which was very nice. Several other boats sought refuge in there while the front was passing through but there was plenty of room and despite several French-flagged boats, nobody did anything stupid. It was cool, cloudy and rainy at times with gusts to 25knots. We relaxed, snorkeled and fished, being rewarded one night with two giant mangrove snappers.

A coastal Nevis shack en route and Oualie Bay:

Tamarind Bay. OSHA does not appear on the scene of this construction site:

Frigate Bay:

Views from BasseTerre:

White House Bay: