Basseterre, St Kitts
26 February 2019 | Basseterre, St Kitts
Philip Greetham
After a spirited sail from Marigot Bay (mostly 18 knot winds with gusts up to 28 knots & the wind speed indicator stopped turning), the wind turned around the island of St Kitts (pic), forcing us to motor the last hour, which is when we had a problem with the starboard engine - it stopped. Intending to anchor at a peaceful beach on the southern end of the island, we had to change plans and anchor at the main town of Basseterre so we could get assistance with the engine.
First thing next morning, I (Phil) spent a couple of hours on the engine to no avail. It was obviously a fuel problem but checking and cleaning all filters was to no avail as fuel was not coming through from the tank. Starting to get worried, we went ashore to try to get some help. It appeared that there was only one guy who worked on engines - the Rastaman Mechanic - however, he had no premises and no-one knew his phone number. Wandering around looking for him proved fruitless in the deserted town, it being Sunday. However, Basseterre is a delightful old town the architecture varying from solid British to fancy French. (pix) It was largely built in 1876 after a fire, and the circus (pix) was supposedly modelled on Piccadilly Circus. 😀 What is now the museum was the old treasury building. (pic)
Asking around for the Rastaman on Monday we struck gold - a guy I asked at the fuel dock had seen him go out to a boat at anchor to work on the engine - it was the boat anchored next to us! Fortunately he fixed both our engines in the end - ours was a fuel blockage between the tank and filters which he was able to clear by blowing back down the fuel line - I'll know next time!
Not wanting to waste the day, we shared a taxi with a British couple off one of the two cruise ships in port down to Cockleshell beach on the southern tip of the island (pix). Along the way we passed over the saddle where you can view the southern peninsular of the island and beyond to Nevis, to the left Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea to the right. (pic) We spent the afternoon tasting the spicy chicken wings and pork ribs washed down with Carib beer at the beach bar. (pix)
Unfortunately we made it back too late to check out with immigration, so had to leave the following morning after the formalities were completed. When we approached St Kitts on Saturday evening we passed Brimstone Hill. We could see the remains of another English fort, testimony to the English battle with France over the Caribbean. It was finally captured by the French after a siege during which 1000 British soldiers held out for months against 8000 French troops.