We arrived in Saba yesterday.  All I can say is that we had to work to enjoy this island and it is definitely worth the trouble.  The National Park Service has put out mooring balls, which we were thankful for.  The water is deep, approximately 75 to 100 feet where we are.  The swells and waves can be rough.  Our boat is floating around the ball quite often as well.  We are glad that we booked a bed and breakfast for the nights that we are here, not only for the sea state, but also for the 1000 foot climb that is required to get the first town, called “The Bottom.”  The dingy ride from the anchorage is also an adventure, as we glide over 6 to 8 foot swells, only to drop down on the other side of them.  It is quite jarring on my back.  We are careful to put our electronics in a dry bag, as we know that the probability of us getting wet is quite high. 

Tying up our dinghy was also a challenge.  There wasn’t much room for us to tie it up, as the space fits roughly five dinghies at a time.  Steve had to put a stern anchor out to keep the dinghy from crashing into the dock.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t good holding for the anchor, so he was searching for some rocks for the anchor to catch on.

By the time we got in and cleared through immigration, it was just after four o’clock.  At that point, we decided to call a taxi to take us to our bed and breakfast.

Well, we ended up spending a week in Nevis tied up to the mooring ball while waiting for a good weather window to sail north.  This morning we checked out of the country of Nevis and plan to set sail at 6a tomorrow morning for Saba.  Because of the rolliness of the anchorages on both St. Eustatia and Saba, we are concerned about staying on the boat.  Because of the weather, Steve decided that we should skip St. Eustatia and travel straight to Saba, which is supposed to be less rough.  While waiting for the immigration representatives to show up, we met a young couple from California who had just visited Saba.  They mentioned that they stayed in an Airbnb while on Saba.  The more we thought about it, the more we decided that that was a good idea so I booked an El Momo cottage in Booby Hill, which is a five minute walk to the town of Windward.  It is supposed to have a lot of stairs and was referenced as a “Robinson Caruso” getaway.  The location received good reviews so we are hoping for the best. 

After checking out of Nevis, we moved the boat back to Ballast Bay on St. Kitts.  Doing so cut an hour and a half off of our sail tomorrow.  We again are planning to leave at 6a, as soon as we can see in the light.  It will still be an eight or so hour sail tomorrow, but we should be able to arrive before the sun starts setting.  With some luck, we will find an available mooring ball. 

On 2/3/23, the wind shifted directions and our anchorage was getting a little rougher than it had been.  We decided to motor back to Nevis since our time was cut short there.  We picked up a mooring ball this morning and are all set to stay here for a few days.

The anchorage is quite convenient in that it offers us a place to tie up our dinghy at a dock.  There is free garbage disposal available as well as several markets for us to provision from.  We are facing a long beach with a picturesque, dormant volcano in the background. 

This is a funny story. Yesterday we walked through town to the IGA, which is one of the larger supermarkets on the island.  Nevis doesn’t have great sidewalks so often times we need to walk along a path just above the curb.  As we were walking, single file, a black donkey came out from some shrubbery and faced Steve approximately eight feet in front of him.  Steve quickly moved onto the street and continued walking.  The donkey got frightened, turned around, and ran back from the direction it came.  We walked past where we saw the donkey and then turned around.  Two donkeys were now coming out of the shrubbery, the young black one and what appeared to be an older grey donkey.  They were making all sorts of noise, as though they were yelling at us, while walking in our direction.  We were far enough away that they gave up on the idea of approaching us.  It was really funny, as it appeared the young black donkey ran and told the older grey donkey that we were in their territory. 

On 2/2/23 we decided to take our dinghy to the next bay to our north called Frigate Bay.  It was a smaller bay than Friar’s Bay and appeared busier.  Beach bars lined the majority of the beach and chairs were set up along the water’s edge.  This was a combination of a black and white sand beach.  We learned quickly that the black sand becomes hot very quickly. 

In the afternoon we headed back to the Shipwreck Beach Bar so that we could take advantage of their wifi.  We spent about two hours working on our computers before ordering dinner.  And, while there we saw some of the wild monkeys.  I only had my phone with me, but I was able to take some pictures of the monkeys. 

On Feb. 1, 2023, we decided to take a taxi to the Brimstone Hill Fortress.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site, so we thought we had to see it.  On the way to the Fortress, our taxi driver pointed out some of the other historical sites on the island.  St. Kitts no longer farms sugar cane and mainly relies on tourism for its economy to flourish.  While the southern part of St. Kitts is sparsely populated with lush green mountainsides and small cliffs, the rest of the island is fairly built up.  The Frigate Bay area contained many of the chain hotels and a golf course.  Basseterre appeared more industrial than charming.

Driving up the hill to the Fortress was an adventure.  Many parts of the road were barely wide enough for our taxi to get through.  And, we saw some wild monkeys in the road. 

We were the first visitors of the day at the fortress, so we had it to ourselves for a while.  We were thankful for this, as I’m sure that the cruise ships would send busloads of people to explore it. 

We were impressed by the sheer size of the fortress.  It was much larger than any other fortress that we have seen in the Caribbean. 

And, it was fairly well preserved, making it easy to see the different areas such as where the cannons were, the living quarters, and the water catch basin.  The views from the fortress were also beautiful.  We could easily see St. Eustatius and Saba in the distance. 

We decided to try to find a way through the reef along shore so that we could beach our dinghy near the Shipwreck Beach Bar.  We were successful and actually used the same location to tie up several times because there was a steel cable there that enabled us to secure our dinghy with a lock. 

The Shipwreck Beach Bar was terrific!  It was extremely casual, as many people popped in after spending time on the beach and in the water.  The bar itself was up a half a dozen or so steps from the beach.  Sand made up part of the floor.  The food was excellent.  I ordered Swordfish tacos and Steve had some jerk chicken.  And, they offered a drink called the Funky Monkey, which contained coconut rum, chocolate, Baileys, and I don’t know what else.  It was very good.  While there, we met a family from Dartmouth, which is located in Southern Massachusetts.  It is funny how we can meet people from close to our home so far away – it has happened many times.

We were able to take our dinghy into the small bay and beach it on the sandy shoreline.  Then, we waded into the water, careful to avoid the prickly sea urchins.  The water inside of the cove was fairly cloudy without much sea life.  However, once we swam just outside of the bay, over the rocks, the water was crystal clear and we saw schools of Blue Tangs and a variety of other fish like trumpetfish, Sargent Majors, Groupers, Rainbow fish and more.  We also saw a Ray.  This area for snorkeling definitely lived up to its reputation with so many fish in the area. 

There was also a lot of fire coral, which is jagged, yellowish coral growing on top of rocks. 

And, as we returned to shore, we saw several star fish in about a foot of water. 

The wind started getting “squirrely” in this anchorage, which meant that the boats were spinning around their anchors in random directions.  So, after staying here one night, we decided to move our boat further north to Friar’s Bay.  This bay has a long strand of beach along it.  The Cambrola Restaurant is at the northern side of the beach and a dive of a restaurant and bar called “Shipwreck Beach Bar” is at the southern end.

I can tell already that this area is teeming with life.  I saw a turtle poking its head up for air and gliding along the water’s surface.  Every once in a while a fish will jump high out of the water.  Surface fish will move in waves at the surface of the water, making it look like a silver swell moving along.  Flocks of small white birds fly across the bay gracefully.

We woke up this morning, 1/31/23, to see a large, white, Seabourn cruise ship anchored behind us.   In the distance, at the cruise port in Basseterre, we can see two additional cruise ships.  St. Kitts must be a popular destination for them. 

We took our dinghy into the bay right off of the Carombola Restaurant and beached it in front of where the Seabourn tenders were landing.  They were setting up on shore to welcome their guests.  Apparently they rent out the whole restaurant and beach for the day when they are in anchorage.  They were not happy that we put our dinghy where they were.  However, since we were only walking the beach that morning, we were able to leave it there. 

When walking on the beach, we could clearly see the reef lining running parallel to the beach, approximately 15 feet off of shore.  While there were a couple of beach bars along the stretch of beach, hidden in amongst the trees, they didn’t seem as though they were open.  Only the Shipwreck Beach Bar and the Carombola Restaurant had people sitting on chairs outside of their establishments.

Once we got back to the Carombola Restaurant, we found the private cove that people wrote into Trip Advisor about.  It was a picturesque little cove off of the far side of the restaurant, complete with a small strip of sand and a rock outcropping in the middle.  So, we decided to try snorkeling out there.

On 1/29/23 we moved our boat to Whitehouse Bay.  While Ballast Bay was fine condition wise, we were getting boat wakes from boats entering the marina.  So, we moved our boat to the next anchorage to the north. 

We went snorkeling right off of our boat.  The water in Whitehouse Bay was very clear, even in 20 feet of water where we were anchored.  As we started snorkeling, we went under the boat and swam on our anchor.  We could clearly see it stuck into the sandy bottom.  Then, we started snorkeling towards shore and I saw a ray on the bottom, looking up at me, seemingly smiling.  It was camouflaged in a color that matched the sandy bottom.  As we neared shore, we came upon rocks which made up the reef. 

There were many different kinds and sizes of fish swimming around in these rocks.  And, we saw a family of lobsters hiding under one of the rocks.  We saw a variety of grouper, rainbow fish, Sargent majors, blue tangs, trumpet fish, and more.  And, there was a variety of coral growing on the rocks.  It was a really good place to snorkel.