St Kitts, Caribbean Islands
April 20, 2014 - Easter Sunday
Holed Up
The Easter winds have hit the Caribbean. It seems that each year the Caribbean gets high winds right around the Easter holiday. This year has been no exception. Shawn and I greatly enjoyed Statia, an Island 25 miles north of St Kitts, however the anchorage became extremely uncomfortable as the winds built over the last few days. I felt like a martini. And more important, there was no way i could have one without spilling to say the least. Things were so bad that we spent as much time on shore as possible to stay off the boat that wouldn't stop rolling side to side - and borderline seasick while on the boat. Let's just say we started "happy hour" at the local Chinese restaurant an hour early, stayed through the munchie hour, then through dinner, met some locals, and reluctantly went back to the boat with leftovers.
While anchored we even tried the trick of running an anchor from the back of the boat to keep the boat pointed into the swell - which was about 90 degrees from the wind. The anchor slipped almost immediately after we were able to get it set. There was no escaping the rocking - So we split to St Kitts.
Moving from one country to another in the Caribbean is relatively easy. Easter however is a huge holiday with major impacts to the customs/immigration offices. A very surprised woman cleared us out of Statia (she was ironically also at the Chinese restaurant the night before). Port fees paid, we left and beat into a strong headwind and heavy seas for 4 hours to get to St Kitts.
St Kitts is totally closed today. We were able to clear into customs (again a VERY surprised representative was able to help us) - however his immigration partner apparently didn't make it into work. We paid the port authority their fee and ran out for Chinese! The only restaurant that is open in St Kitts on Easter. After lunch we have fingers crossed we will find immigration open at the airport.
The forecast lightens tomorrow and we hope the seas will as well. We plan on making this a quick stop as we move further south to Guadeloupe.
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