Many titles for this blog

Title could be  SQUALLS, WEATHER FORECASTERS, FIRE DRILLS, BIG SEAS, BIG WINDS, any would fit.

Our trip from St Martin to St Kitts was anything but boring.  In fact it was most eventful.  We were raising the anchor at 5 AM to head out of Marigot Bay when we were hit by a squall.  Getting out was a little tricky as we had put the main sail up and the squall blasts sailed the boat while we were trying to avoid other anchored boats.  Not to mention starting the day soaking wet!

We had been waiting for a weather window for a week and not surprising they lied.  All of the forecasters!!!!  The forecast was for east winds changing to north east winds 15 knots.  What we got was east south east winds around 20 gusts to 25.  

We dodged squalls all day long.  One time, we thought we had just squeaked by and wham we got hit with a 30+ knot gust.  That definitely caused a fire drill.  While Kirk dumped the genoa (forward sail) I dumped the main sail.   The genoa brake was on and when it was released all hell broke loose.  Not to mention that the main sail went flying out even though I had it wrapped around the winch.  We did slow down and the boat settled but was quite a ride there for a minute.  Kirk wrote in the boat log that he keeps that we got spanked.  

When we finally got to St Kitts, which we did not plan on stopping, however,  we radioed Zero to Cruising and decided to stay here for a while and do some land touring with them since the weather window we thought we had got slammed shut.   Oh wait, another change of plans, they have engine trouble and so priorities were set.   We were going to keep on moving as no idea when they will have their engine fixed.

The next morning we set about to fix all the damage we had done during our fire drill.  The sheets where attached to the forward sail were shredded so they had to be reversed.  Lots of fun on anchor in a  pretty crowded bay with lots of wind.  We got the sheets reversed and patched up the sail with sail tape.    Hopefully we will not have a repeat performance and can sew it up right when we get to Grenada.  We will have to take the sail off and decide if it needs to go to a sailmaker or if we can do it ourselves.

After completing that job, then came the decision of where to clear out of customs.  St Kitts or Nevis?  You get different answers depending upon who you ask, and no one was available by phone.  We left our lovely anchorage and went back to town only to find out the person was at lunch.   Another hour to cool your heels,  then when he was back the door was locked and no one answered the knocks for a while.    Long time for what could (should ) be quick and easy.  For an island that is depending upon tourism, they certainly do not make it easy for cruisers to stop here.

After we left St Martin, we passed a bunch of small little islands.  The one that was most interesting to me is St Eustatius or Statia.  It is an old volcano.  For more info on the volcano see Zerotocruising.com 

Michael and Rebecca just finished hiking up and down inside the volcano.  Very interesting posts and pictures on their blog.

I noticed that around the bottom is brown and up at the top is green.  Kinda like the opposite of the frost line in the Rockies.  You cannot really see it in these pics, so you will just have to trust me on this one.  This is because the clouds hit the tops of the mountains and it rains at the top, but not at the bottom.  Kirk also thinks the the salt spray from the ocean has something to do with it.  

Really does look like the top blew off eh? 

Here is a picture of the chart that guides us.  See the little black boat at the bottom, middle?  That is us...

Check out the depths on either side.  This is a channel that runs between Statia and St Kitts.  The ocean goes from 2,000 feet to 85 feet.  Now where do you think all the water goes?   Whooshing through this channel.  Statia is right at the bottom of the chart.  Is like a washing machine going through here.  Even though squalls were all around us, we did not have a direct hit with a squall when in this channel.  Thanks God for keeping us safe.

This is approaching St. Kitts.  We are in the channel.  St Kitts reminds me so much of Ireland.   It is green rolling land that then leads up to mountains.  The north side of the island is very green, while the south side not so much.  Is like St Croix that has a rain forest at one end and a desert at the other.  You can see the rain coming out of the clouds.

Here is the view of town Basseterre from our anchorage

Dry hills at our anchorage south of the town

Pretty barren looking.

A little oasis in the middle.  A developer is putting in a golf course and a marina and so this part must be irrigated.  Palm trees even!!!

Looking south out of the anchorage

Pics of town 

See those green hills behind town.