Nevis, St. Martin/Maarten

This is the very end of our Caribbean adventure and we are now gearing up for the next stage. Nevis was a great adventure though we had a rather frustratingly slow sail from Antigua. The wind was directly behind us and, coupled with a rather dirty bottom, it was a very slow 14 hour sail to cover 40 miles. However, we fell in love with Nevis itself and were delighted to get there. Next time, we will spend a lot longer there.

Just a couple of photos though.

The authorities made clearing in a pleasure as they were all very friendly, especially compared with the ones at Antigua. Charlestown was a delightful capital with an excellent produce market and there was also plenty of fresh water on the quay. The scenery is spectacular as the whole island is formed from a single dormant volcano which forms a near perfect cone.

I took advantage of the clear water to do a thorough scrub of the bottom but we also enjoyed a good meal ashore in a place called Sunshine Beach Restaurant. This had the distinction of being recommended in both the Doyle cruising guide and also in our edition of the Lonely Planet for the Caribbean. Sadly, owing to pressures of having to provision, find new batteries and such like we had to spend only four days there and move on to St. Martin.

Thus, after a very slow night sail past St. Christopher, St. Eustiaus and Saba we fetched up in Marigot on the French side of the island. The chandlers for batteries are located in Dutch Sint Maarten but as you have to clear in and out of each side we will probably stay on the French side. We will however move into Simpson Bay Lagoon though as this wil make for a shorter dinghy ride to where all the yottie shopping places are. Plans are to head north for the Azores around Sunday18 assuming the weather is playing ball of course. The weather has become a bit “interesting” with a tremendous thunder storm one night though thankfully, the lightning was a reasonable distance away.

We will be leaving here for the Azores very soon but I will update before we depart!