Nevis and St Kitts are only a few miles apart and are federated together, we arrive at Nevis first, it is the smaller island but we stay here for 3 or 4 days.
Charlestown is fairly small, we walk around it in half an hour, Ferry terminal welcomes cruise ships but there is not many "Funny Disney like shops" that we had observer in other Cruise islands - we see a good example of this in St Kitts later. Actually only small ships call at Nevis and they do not dock but have to anchor off.
Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in drafting the constitution but arguably more importantly he founded the concept of capitalism, borrowing and spending other peoples money, I wonder where we would be without him... he does get his face on the ten dollar american bill.
We visit the museum, along with cruise ship passengers.
And we also wander around the town, not touristy, just a small working town. There are celebrities here - John Cleese was in the supermarket a few days ago. There are converted sugar plantations in the hills, the beaches are good, we are anchored off Penney's beach a mile North of the town and go ashore on Sunday to a collection of (many) beach bars, Sunday night is when the locals let their hair down and the loud "music" is .... remarkable.
We meet Ruth and a couple of her friends for a drink, we end up going away from the noise, inland to a nice Indian restaurant for something to eat after getting a lift.
The town itself has some nice houses, and a lot of banks (as does St Kitts)
Churches do feature here, but not the vast number of different versions of faith worship we have seen on some islands - 14 different denominations on Antigua - sometimes 4 churches adjacent to each other, All the same God I guess, such is human foible (or vanity?) Nevis and St Kitts have retained a fair amount of British influence.
There is also a big school and associated sports ground. Cricket anyone? The schools throughout the Caribbean have kids in really smart, well turned out uniforms. Looks good, no rebellious examples of the "modified uniforms" some kids use in Ulster.
Here is the first Hotel, not sure if on the island or perhaps in the Caribbean. I had met a lovely man who had come back to the Island to retire after working in Manchester. He had renovated the outdoor hot water baths pictured below and the hotel above is (was - it's shut) was known as the Bath Hotel.
Given the state of my crew I tell the man I would hope to persuade them to come up and bath here. No soap allowed. I try and make a donation for its upkeep but he says no. He is happy to work away in his retirement.
We also visit some "posh" bits - this is the Golden Rock Restaurant (boutique hotel I think as well). A converted sugar plantation, it serves the best lunch in the Island, thanks Ruth for the recomendation.
We take a taxi around the Island, it doesn't take long to circumnavigate and call at a beach in the North where there is a dive school at Ouilie bay. The ownere Ellis is a bit laid back and vague about the pricing. We resolve to sail up and anchor in the bay and make tentative plans to dive - he has a wreck dive over on St Kitts.
And off to St Kitt's 2 miles away and 5 up the coast to the town of Basse Terre and the port area of Port Zante.
We also take a taxi tour around the Island and visit a Batik shop where we get a demonstration of the wax painting and dying techniques that make the fabrics really vibrant.
On the way up to this "Estate" we pass the old sugar and RUM workings.
I reckon my mate John and I could make one of these...
We also pass some small houses
We also passed Bloody River - not the Bloody Bridge of the mournes but a river where the French and English managed to wipe out all 2000 of the indigenous Arawak indians of the Island. Here is a Petroglyph of theirs. The (new) locals whiten it every year.
We move on in the taxi to Brimstone hill - a very large hill at the NorthWestern Extremity that was fortified by the English. Views are good! we pass it on the boat about Midnight the next night on the way to St Martin.
We are on anchor outside the tiny marina at Port Zante - the marina staff are helpful, let us use leave our dinghy in the marina and we discover and use the showers too.
Our ship is the small one.
We also meet Austin - owner of Pro-dive - a neat dive boat and we negotiate two dives for 100 USD. We ask for a wreck dive and he takes us to "Rivertaw" a wreck that is teeming with vast quanties of fish. They have also dropped a dumper and car nearby and also dropped old quay concrete to make a reef. After the wreck he takes us to a coral reef. Here are the photos - and also a video of a turtle.
Finally I have three videos to upload but this is breaking the blogger tool. I will try and upload them on their own blog post.
-Alan Doyle to note the Turtle - he wanted to see one. We will keep the whale video for later
We also see Lionfish - these are a recent invader to the Caribbean and are going to be a major problem - the female produces 2 million eggs and have no predators. Divers have been told to eat the little feckers. Not easy as they have poisonous spines. Cleaning them needs industrial gloves and good scissors.