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DECEMBER 2012 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 22
MY
wife, Nancy, and I
sailed down to the
Eastern Caribbean
with the Caribbean
1500 Rally in November of 2005.
Except for plane trips back to North
America for family visits, funerals,
weddings and every alternate
Christmas, we’ve been sailing between
the Virgin Islands and Trinidad &
Tobago ever since. Beyond a few things
stored at our children’s homes, we
own no property in North America.
By early 2012, we were discussing
“taking a break”, admittedly unable to
define precisely what that meant.
Nancy had taken up watercolor painting
and limited space on the 38-foot
Silver Seas forced her to pack up all
her materials after each session. I was
becoming tired of the constant maintenance
and one thing after the other
breaking. At times I wondered whether
we owned the boat or the other way
around. Nancy missed simple things
like a bathtub and a blender. The list
went on. I guess we had simply come
to a point where the inconvenience of
living on a 38-foot boat had overcome
the thrill of sailing and exploring. But
still we couldn’t visualize exactly what
our “break” would look like and where
it would take place. We began to take
a “we’ll know it when we see it” attitude.
A Sailor’s
Sabbatical in
St. Kitts
by John Rowland
On St. Kitts, John and Nancy (center photo) enjoyed land-based proximity to both the
Atlantic and Caribbean (top photo), while their Silver Seas rested in a pit for some
comfortably paced refit work
One of our daughters and her fiancé booked a trip to St. Kitts for late February
2012, so we made our way up the chain to be in St. Kitts at the appointed time. We
hadn’t been to St. Kitts for over five years but it didn’t take very long to be reminded
why we’d had such a good time on our previous visits. The visit with Samantha and
Todd went well, but late Christmas Winds (why conditions in late February and early
March can be called “Christmas” anything
is beyond me) kept us in Port
Zante marina for a while, and the
more we became reacquainted with
St. Kitts the more that “we’ll know it
when we see it” feeling took shape.
So it’s now October and hurricane
season is winding down. Silver Seas is
tucked into a pit in the yard below
Fort Brimstone and Nancy and I are
enjoying a comfortable apartment in
Frigate Bay while we do some refit
work on the boat, working at a very
comfortable pace.
This “break” has enabled us to
effect some needed refit activity without
total disruption of our living
space and do it at a reduced sense of
urgency, such that we can actually
enjoy the effort. Major plumbing
changes, rewiring systems and
removing systems made obsolete by
newer systems we’ve added all require
some major tear-up of the living
space to get at things. Re-bedding
gear in the running rigging and
hatches is much easier to do when
you are not living aboard.
What prompted us to choose St.
Kitts? I can only say that we found
ourselves comfortable here. Let me
tell you how we see St. Kitts.
The Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis
is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas. The population is about 43,000. St.
Kitts is the larger of the two islands but its area is only 65 square miles and has a
population of around 35,000. This contributes to the “small town” feel of the place.
The people here tend to be friendly, tend to remember folks who are around for more
than a few days, and work hard to make you feel welcome.
There isn’t a large yachting community in St. Kitts. During the season it becomes
a transient stop for folks moving between St. Martin and the more southern islands,
a day-trip diversion for folks sailing out of Antigua, and a “check it off” stop for
yachts cruising with a “bucket list”. At times I miss the kindred spirit of other seasoned
cruisers. The absence of a large yachting community is a change from the
previous six years of the “summer camp for cruisers” atmosphere of Grenada or
Trinidad in the off season. Then again, it is nice to strike up a conversation with
someone at one of the local hangouts and be pretty sure the topics won’t immediately
run to what’s broken on the boat.
Our little single bedroom apartment meets our needs quite nicely. The Atlantic
Ocean borders the north side of the property and, since we are at a narrow part of
the island, the Caribbean Sea is less than a ten-minute walk away. The swimming
pool is 20 steps from our front door and the air conditioning comes in handy in the
late summer. Nancy has a corner of the bedroom set up with a worktable and an
easel, with room for all her art materials. Yes, we have a bathtub and a blender and
a kitchen much easier to work in than our galley on Silver Seas.
St. Kitts is a beautiful island. There are spectacular views and outstanding beaches.
St. Kitts is shaped like a mandolin. The island lies from east-southeast to westnorthwest,
say about 290 to 300 degrees, with the narrow neck of the mandolin on
the southeast end. The Atlantic Ocean lies to the north of the island and the
Caribbean lies to the south. At the very eastern end of the island is a narrow channel,
across which lies the sister island in the Federation, Nevis. There are elevations
providing views of the beaches on both the Atlantic and Caribbean simultaneously,
with Nevis Peak, rising 3,232 feet on the opposite side of the channel, as a backdrop.
There is some great swimming and snorkeling on the Caribbean side of the island.
Other than the reef-protected beach at the Marriot Resort, the surf and the currents
on the Atlantic side make the northern beaches quite dangerous.
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