We have had some brief stops in the above places, currently in Nevis off Pinney's beach. Enjoying a calm anchorage.
Our sails between the islands have all been quite comfortable and well received by me (no sickness -even managed to make lunch yesterday on our way to Nevis from St.Kitts). Gracie still seems to fall asleep after a matter of half an hour of sailing, generally due to feeling green and Isabelle bounces around like she's on land and has really found her feet (must take after her daddy).
We had 2 nights in Sint Maarten, venturing ashore to run errands, find spare parts, get groceries (the difference an actual supermarket makes) and whatever else we managed. The anchorage was still a little rolly as we were right near the channel to come into the harbour and all manner of traffic would come by creating waves. The girls now know that big boats make the yacht rock and shout out that they 'have to hold on'. I was also trying to get some laundry done here to no avail and decided we'd go to St. Kitts and try our luck there.
It was a pleasant 4 hour sail (25 miles) and we had our first encounter with dolphins since sailing. It was lovely to see them jumping in the water, having absolutely no trouble keeping up with us, they are so fast. Just as quickly as we spotted them they were then gone, back to more cloud watching.
St. Kitts is a typical Caribbean island with quite a long history. Hard to believe some of these places were building churches and harvesting sugar cane before our native country was even discovered! I took the girls on the only railway line still running in the Caribbean, an old sugar mill run that goes around most of the island. It was a good trip that allowed me to see other villages on the island, some industry, farming and the different coastlines on the rough Atlantic side and the tamed Caribbean side. The girls thought it was all good fun, but perhaps a little long in the end (2 hours). We then hopped off and got on a bus to complete the 12 mile trip, with travel commentary the whole way. This put Gracie to sleep and inspired Isabelle to take many shots out the window of cars, houses and mostly herself!
Back in the dinghy to the yacht and we were off for Nevis to find an even better anchorage....again we'd had some rolly nights in swell.
Only 10 miles to Nevis over lunch time, girls napped and Joel raced a catamaran heading in the same direction. We've had a catch up day today, trying to re-house a few items (most of our stuff) into better homes on the boat. The girls have spotted a turtle or two and now know what to look for. The beach sounded like it would be great, but I think we could roll our dinghy if we tried to beach it, so I think we will just be happy staying put, cooking better food without having to hold on and have this boat looking ship-shape ready for a big sailing day tomorrow. We're headed for Guadeloupe (expected to take 12 hours)!