Loved, loved these islands! A little off the beaten path but so worth it.

We arrived as Carnival was underway in St Kitts. They celebrate Sugar Maz November – through New Year’s. Loud, fun, colourful. Don’t miss the street food.

Basseterre – Port Zante Marina

The anchorage in Basseterre is very rolly and as both sea and winds were high we took a berth in Port Zante marina. I think it was $15/day and a little discount as we stayed longer than 1 week.

We used Raz, mentioned in Doyle’s guide, to get our bottom cleaned and were very happy with his work. $80/ 42 ft monohull. However, we arranged for his mother to do laundry and were appalled at the $80 price tag for 2 large loads that we’ve never paid more than $40 for. Plus other cruisers’ clothes were mixed in with ours. Luckily we knew them and could sort things out.

Water is $15US for your stay whether a day or the 2 weeks we were there. So stay longer and clean your boat!! We shared an electricity meter with two other boats on either side of us and each paid $15 for our stay. The Wifi in the marina was down all the while we were there and the Digicel sim I bought couldn’t get a signal in the marina. There were 7 or 8 cruising boats in the marina while we were there and we all had a great time. Several of us cruised together for a while.

Getting Around

It is very easy to use the local bus service to visit the attractions around the island. We visited Brimstone Fortress and Clay Villa among other sights. Very worthwhile. To get to the bus station turn right after exiting the marina and cruise ship mall. Walk along the street about 1/4 mile and you’ll run right into it.

Anchorages

The Southern peninsular of St Kitts has some good anchorages. Three of us from the marina anchored in S Friar’s Bay and used the dinghy dock on the North end of the bay to walk to the beach bars. The beach is steep-to, so landing your dinghy is treacherous.

Nevis

In Nevis, we found the moorings at Pinney’s Beach to be very good. Four Seasons Hotel had an open AP for WiFi that our Bullet could pull in most of the time, very nice. The only problem here could so easily be rectified if the beach bars would build a dinghy dock, or if Four Seasons allowed us cruisers to use theirs. We used the town dock for visiting the island, but there were many cruisers on the moorings and no one would go ashore to enjoy the beach bars. Seemed a shame, such nice beach bars – all unvisited.

Dale Ross

S/V Wahoo

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Basseterre