Six Weeks of Sailing
July 15-23, Pinneys Beach, Nevis, and Christophe Harbour, St. Kitts
On Sunday, July 15, after an 11-hour sail into the wind, Jeff, Ed, and I arrived back in Nevis. We had come from the high winds and rough water (and little sleep) in Saba to a calm, almost glassy mooring. We arrived not long before dusk, and we enjoyed the quiet. We watched turtles periodically poke their heads above the surface of the water, which had beautiful hues of blues, pinks, purples, and grays.
For the next five days, we stuck around Pinneys Beach just north of Charlestown, a couple of times looking for another anchorage. North of us, Oalie Bay was too shallow for our monohull, and White House Bay in St. Kitts wasn’t well protected, so both times we returned to our spot at Pinneys Beach, where there were plenty of mooring balls, at least in July.
At one point a plastic instrument cover slipped overboard, and I jumped in to see if I could locate it. I was quickly distracted by a couple of curious and assertive remoras (also referred to as suckerfish), each a few feet long. Remoras are not dangerous, but they use a sucking disc on the top of their heads to attach themselves to other creatures or moving objects, like sharks, rays, whale sharks, and—yes—divers. They were trying to get a little too friendly with me, which made me both scream and laugh through my snorkel at the same time as I kicked at them to keep them off. Jeff donned diving gear to retrieve the cover, which was a little too deep for me to swim down for, and he had to do a little remora fending as well.
We hung out a lot on the boat and frequented a few spots just off the beach—Turtle Time, Sunshine, and Double Deuce, whose proprietor, Lyndeta, always responded to “How are you?” with “Highly blessed and fully favored” followed by a good 30 minutes of opinions and stories. We much enjoyed karaoke at Double Deuce one night, when Nambo, a local, took liberties with the lyrics of “Sweet Caroline.” (I don’t think Ed, Jeff, and I will ever hear that song the same way again.) I later bought a crude clay sculpture from Nambo: it is a “multipurpose hippopotamus bulldog” (translate “multipurpose” as, since I wasn’t interested in it as a smoking device, Nambo suggested I use it as a candle holder). In one of the places we frequented, a very sweet, small old woman who worked there asked me to help her set the time on a small pink analog travel clock. She asked for help every time we visited the restaurant, and sometimes multiple times within a visit.
Pelicans fishing off a boat named “Opportunity” throughout our stay gave us some good laughs, and we enjoyed elaborating on the boat’s name: Missed Opportunity, Take This Opportunity, etc.
One day, we took a few dives with Scuba Safaris around the southwestern tip of St. Kitts. Jeff and I were stoked to find a Flatirons Scuba sticker on their filing cabinet—it’s the scuba shop we instruct for in Colorado. There were a lot of flamingo tongues and a few large stingrays, among lots of other cool creatures!
We finally sailed back up to St. Kitts, where we would be picking up new crew. I arranged for us to stay in the new Christophe Harbour marina for a couple of nights.
We had no idea what we were getting into when we booked at Christophe Harbour. It turns out that the harbor is designed for super-yachts; aside from the rigging, our boat barely reached above the dock. It would have been even more comical if any of those yachts were in their berths—we were the only boat in the marina because it was the beginning of hurricane season. (I’d tried to get us into the marina during the maybe-hurricane a few weeks before, but they turned me away when I called. They said it was for insurance purposes, but we found out when we arrived that it was also because of our size. Our boat could move under the dock when water surges with a storm.) Despite our diminutive stature, the staff in the marina were extremely gracious and helpful.
In case you are filthy rich and own a super yacht, I’ll help with pricing: purchasing a berth in the new marina ranges from $1.9 million for the smallest berths, for yachts that are 100’-150’ in length, to $7 million for a 400’ long berth. (Our boat was 46 feet in length.) You can see some cool photos on their site.
We had a lovely time during our stay in the harbor. We walked over to White House Bay to snorkel and then again both evenings to dine at Salt Plage, an outdoor restaurant with a cool vibe, great food, and stunning sunsets. Aside from that, there’s not much around but beauty, and it’s an expensive cab ride to the rest of the island. (We did spring for a ride to the beach restaurant Shipwreck, which we had quite enjoyed during our first visit to the island.)
Jeff’s family and a friend, Amy, arrived the second evening for a week on the boat, and we left St. Kitts (aka St. Tits, thanks to one crew member’s legitimate and non-inebriated slip of the tongue) to spend a night in Nevis before sailing south. We sadly sent Ed on his way to the airport after a really cool 10 days with just the three of us.
One of the claims to fame for the quiet island of Nevis is that it is the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. Now, if you know any teenagers or pre-teens, you may be aware of the “Hamilteen” phenomenon of kids who are obsessed with the musical but also have not actually seen it. (As a fifth grade teacher, I’ve seen multiple Hamilton Halloween costumes.) We were lucky enough to be traveling with Jeff’s niece Kennedy, who fit this bill and was beside herself to see the building (now museum) where Hamilton entered the world. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and the museum was closed, but Kennedy got a nice hoist from her mom to get a peek through some windows.
We got some provisioning done and readied for a big sail the next day, to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. Then we had one last night in Nevis.
Learning the Language 
Wonderful post with incredible pictures. Learnt few sea creatures and plants. Thanks for sharing.
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