Passage to St. Kitts and on to Nevis --- 8th and 9th January, 2018

 8^th and 9^th January, 2018

When we were finally anchored in White house bay on St. Kitts, Mike turned to me and asked “was that four or five squalls?”  I had been wondering if it was five or six squalls.  Either way we were totally soaked through by the last squall that hit as we were picking our spot to anchor.  It may only have been ~45 nM but it was some day of sailing.

Going back to the start....

It was with some trepidation on my part that we departed Anse de Colombier (St. Barth) at 7 am on Monday.  Our initial destination was a point off the north of St. Kitts.  With the wind forecast to be from the east the first leg of the journey (essentially due south) should be straightforward if somewhat bumpy because of the swells and wind waves.  Not long after leaving the yellow navigation buoys of Gustavia behind, the sky became ominously dark.  This first squall passed us by somehow with just a few drops of rain.  Not too much later another wall of dark clouds appeared.   We rolled up the genoa in good time before the gusty winds and lashings of rain hit.  This was to be the pattern of the day--sails set, sails taken in, squall, light wind leading to more sail being rolled out.  For my part, I soon started to feel unwell despite having taken meclizine the night before and again at breakfast.   There followed a few unpleasant hours clutching a bucket.  I’m sure I don’t need to say more on that topic.

Once we arrived at the north end of St. Kitts we needed to turn to the southeast to make our way along the west coast of the island.  We elected to motor-sail that section as we were feeling pretty tired and we could see more squalls forming over the island.  A few hours got us to White House bay near the southern end of St. Kitts.  We dropped the anchor as the “bonus squall” hit.  Mike said this last one was a bonus because it washed the salt off the boat.  All I know is, I was wet and cold and tired.  Amazingly, the sea-sick feeling had diminished in the afternoon after one of the many deluges.

This morning we elected to carry on to Nevis and check in at Charlestown.  We anchored off the town and went to shore.  While the processing was not speedy, the officials were very pleasant and helpful.  After eating lunch, we backtracked about a mile north to the mooring field and picked up a mooring.  To our surprise in the afternoon, we had visits from two sets of sailors—friends of Mike’s from the rally.  Armed with lots of helpful information from these friends, we hope to explore Nevis over the next few days.   As always we will be keeping an eye on the weather looking for an opportunity to make the hop to Guadaloupe

Gloria

White House Bay, St Kitts  ~ 17.24 N, 62.65 W
Charlestown, Nevis   ~ 17.15 N, 62.63 W

Gustavia, St Barths

Squall at White House Bay, St Kitts

Sunset from our mooring off Charlestown, Nevis

Moored off Pinney's Beach, Charlestown, Nevis ... with Mt Nevis behind