Back to Tourists and more Volcanic Drama

Back to Tourists and more Volcanic Drama

Just the boats at anchor - 3 more were on docks

Independence Park

Crossing to St Christopher & Nevis – the twin island country part of Great Britain, we were plunged back into the flood of cruise ship tourists.  St Kitts, as St Christopher is commonly known, is a favorite cruise ship stop. They are organized in true British fashion to provide the most efficient and enjoyable vacation experience for the cruise ship visitors. On our second day there we watch four mega ships arrive all with in minutes of each other. They currently can only dock three big boys so one anchored out and passengers were ferried from the ship to shore. That added traffic only exacerbated our rolling around in the harbor already uncomfortable with the less than favorable wind direction. While the Port Zante Marina mostly provides docks for concessions to serve the cruise ship passengers, they managed to find us a space for our fat boat and we were able to move inside for a couple nights on a dock with both power and water!  We had not dropped our fenders or lines since leaving Crown Point Marina in St Thomas back in January – I almost forgot how to sling those lines, but Steve slide us up against the wall for a few nights without any rolling about. This gave us ample opportunity to explore St Kitts. 

We got an early taxi to the train station to ride the only functioning railroad in the Caribbean.  This train was built in the early 1900s to transport sugar cane to the processing plants.  The island once had more than 60 mills and stacks to grind and boil the sugar cane. We could see many of the stacks as we approached the island from Statia although most of the windmill structures are in bad repair or have been destroyed by hurricanes.  

old sugar cane rail cars

remains of cane processing plant

The train winds through the eastern side of the island from the airport area to Sandy Point on the north western tip. Catering mostly to cruise ship clients, they are big into making the trip fun as well as informative.  Bountiful free drinks were provided by a crew of hostesses, a running commentary from Patricia over the loud speakers educated us, and frequent choral interludes by the trio of acapella vocalists entertained us. Free drinks can be a mixed blessing as a few passengers may have over indulged – it was 8:30 in the morning – but overall it was an interesting ride.  The tour ended with a bus ride back to the boats again with running dialogue on the history of St Kitts. 

One interesting point on that tour was the connection with the hymn Amazing Grace.  The author of the text wrote the hymn after surviving a storm at sea. As a result, he found his faith and eventually became ordained and the pastor of one of the churches on St Kitts. (Sorry, I wasn't fast enough to get a photo) We also passed the oldest Anglican church on the island which includes the tomb of Samuel Jefferson, great, great, grandfather of Thomas Jefferson, our 3^rd president. The family sold its holdings on fertile St Kitts and moved to Virginia. (That property is now a ruin but has been re-purposed into a batik art factory and botanical garden.)

On another day we arranged a taxi tour to Brimstone Hill Fortress a national park.  This impressive and huge complex took over 100 years to build out between 1690 and 1794. During most of this time St Kitts was divided between the French and the English so the fort was deemed essential to the security of the British side and its other holdings in nearby islands.  The fort was not occupied for almost a 100 years in the last 1800s to mid 1900s until the citizens of St Kitts began to restore and preserve the ruins.  Today it is a magnificent example of sweeping fortifications perched on steep hills with clever engineering and masterful construction.  The Engineers were British soldiers and the labor was done by the St Kitt slaves.

Statia from the fort on St Kitts

Authentic re-en-actors

drain to catch water

We made an afternoon stop in Nevis for a quick trip to walk in the only town there – Charlestown. It has many well-preserved colonial style buildings with the flavor of a town well lived in rather than one primped for tourists.  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and interesting sunrise for our early start to the next volcano.

early light with a little rain