Onward to St. Christopher's

We spent one more morning on Nevis and visited the birth place of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States. A damned foreigner! The tiny house is right on the waterfront and has some interesting bits and pieces from the period he lived there. He was sent off to school on the St. Croix (Virgin Islands) at a fairly tender age and thence to the States.

We had a very pleasant if somewhat mosquito-y lunch at an open air cafe next door to the wee Hamilton museum/home. I did promise to mention these dadblasted mosquitoes. The Caribbean (or maybe its the Leeward Island) mosquito is small, fast and (here's the bad bit) silent. Oh you may tell me that it's the Canadian mosquito's whine that drives you mad. Wrong. You at least know you are under attack. You can muster a defense. These are stealth mosquitoes and there seem to be a variety of responses to their bite My reaction was an intense itch that had me scratching madly for 20 minutes or more. Dana, on the other hand, didn't itch but developed red and angry weals that took days to heal. Enn got welts but no itches. Willie itched but not as badly as I. We've been bitten on the soles of our feet, our derrieres, our toes, our fingers, our armpits. These are mosquitoes with no sense of decency, of fighting fair. Before bed each night, we would drench ourselves in mosquito repellent, which often needed to be refreshed in the wee small hours. It is the end of the rainy season and I am hoping the mozzies will become less numerous as standing water becomes a thing of the past. Mind you, they probably breed in brackish water, which means we're doomed...

Anyway, back to Nevis. That was our farewell to Charlestown and Nevis. We raised anchor and headed the short hop northwest to St. Christopher's (better known to all and sundry as St. Kitt's).

The only possible anchorage was in the Basseterre marina, Basseterre being the capital of St. Kitt's. The coast of St. Kitt's is entirely unfriendly to cruisers, which is too bad since there are nice beaches it would have been fun to visit.

Marina at Basseterre, St. Kitt's.

The marina is a rather dreary cement enclosure with more than its fair share of mosquitoes (because it is well protected so there is very little breeze...breeze blows the little beggars away). Another major disadvantage is that it is cheek-by-jowl with the cruise ship dock. This means you get to share all the live entertainment aboard the cruise ship, whether you want to or not. On the up side, there is an extremely well laid out and maintained building for toilets and showers. Positively luxurious, even without hot water. We all got very clean.

We arrived too late to clear in, so hunkered down for rum punch and Dana's repas du voyage, which proved to be a very delicious pasta dish full of shrimp and vegetables. On the morrow, we would clear in and have a little explore. Django was also in need of a good cleaning. Our agenda was set.