We arrived at Basseterre, St. Kitts late afternoon on Sunday March 25th from Montserrat after one of the best day sails we have had this year. We anticipated a relatively long wait due to contrary winds from the north. The harbourmaster, Charles, found us room at the end of the fuel dock where we remained throughout our stay. A day later, a British sailboast rafted off us due to the lack of space in the marina. When we arrived there were no boats anchored off the marina in the bay but two days later there were 8 sailboats. Nobody was moving north due to the northeast wind which dropped to a near calm on Saturday and then on Easter Sunday there were very light easterly winds.

Basseterre, typically has 2 to 3 cruise boats each day with an increase in traffic this year because of the reduced traffic to St. Marten. In fact Port Zante where the cruise boats dock here is very similar to Phillipsburg with its myriad of shops and duty free stores. We have visited the island by taxi and a tourist train using the old sugar harvest track on mostly on the west side of the island. Fort George and the Brimstone Fortress afforded great views of Eustatius and Saba to the north of St. Kitts. The restored fort provided good background on the life of people in the 17th century on the island.

The difference between Montserrat and St. Kitts was notable with regards to cleaniness of the island. Here we found plastic bottles discarded in ditches and dry creek beds. I would imagine during the wet summer season these bottles could wash out to sea and eventually join the millions that collect around Panama. There does appear to be an effort to be more environmentally conscious with an ecopark at one end of the island.

The sister island, Nevis, was interesting with restored plantations now boutique hotels, one a Relais & Chateaux and one with a great view of Montserrat. Their capital, Charlestown, with its colonial day buildings and no Port Zante cruise terminal is more attractive and unified than Basseterre. Unfortunately the botanical garden did not reflect any of the indigenous vegetation on Nevis and added nothing to our visit. The island itself seems to be in a better state of care than St. Kitts.

On Easter Monday we took a look at the annual greased pole contest at the St. Kitts ferry dock. In one contest a greased horizontal pole is suspended above water with a ham attached in a knotted bag at one end. The objective for the contestant is to reach the ham and undo the knot to retrieve the ham before falling off the pole into the water. The second contest is a vertical greased pole on the beach with a 100 hundred dollar bill on top as a prize.

On Tuesday (April 3rd) we left for St. Croix.