St. Kitts & St. Eustatius (and lots of pics)

We are sorely lacking Internet here and take our equipment to the island every once in awhile to pick up mail.  Today, posting the blog, is no exception.  Usually a cold beer helps with the process!

We arrived here in St. Eustatius (Statia Island) last Tuesday, straight from Basseterre, the capital of St. Christopher (St. Kitts).   It was a pretty good 22 mile sail, with the distance exposed in the straight being only 8 miles.  We did ship some pretty big salty waves over the bow, but nothing too scary.

We had moved to Basseterre both to get our clearance out, and to catch a bus to the northwest corner of the island to see the fortress at Brimstone Hill.  While getting instructions, all locals we talked to suggested it was not possible to walk up to the top of the hill, and that it was best to hire a taxi to get us there.  Undaunted, we stepped out of our bus, and enjoyed a steep, short walk in the shade to the fortress, ultimately rising only 800 feet to the highest fortification.  It does amaze us how the locals down here seldom walk or hike, can seldom read maps, and do not even use street names to get around.  When getting directions, we are often better served by asking another tourist.

The hill was created by a strong vertical injection of lava up through the sea bottom sometime during the making of the rest of this mountain chain some 35-40 000 years ago (I think I read that somewhere), bringing walls of ocean-floor limestone with it.  After erosion, it stands out very near the island shore, and, with some cannon, can easily dominate this corner of the island.  Work started on the fortress in 1690, by the English, after the French took their Fort Charles down on the shore.  A few cannon balls from up here, and the French said: "Okay, you're king of the castle" and surrendered.  That wasn't the greatest battle, however.  In 1782, 8000 French trapped 1000 English in the fortress, and they fired at each other for over 30 days.  The English negotiated their way into an honourable surrender only as their powder was running out.   The cannon fire must have been astounding, and one would imagine it should be easy to find the odd cannon ball.

Restorative efforts have been magnificent, and the primary citadel, eastern bastion, Prince of Wales Bastion, and much of the rest of the place looks pretty good; and take up three different elevations of the hill.  Still, the ruins of the many barracks, officers' quarters, engineers' quarters, and of course the many slaves' quarters are overgrown or missing.  This has been our most impressive fort so far.

We are once again in awe of Statia, remembering visiting here in 2009 with s/v Strider.  The port and only town has a shoreline that is totally ancient ruins.   Since the Island's heyday, when it was known as the Golden Rock, the sea has risen over a metre, and the port's wall is under the water, about 40 metres out under the water.  The shore is cut up with old foundations made of mortared round stone, and the round stone of the totally ruined walls make up the beach between these walls.  All this area was port offices and storehouses, since Statia made its wealth by trading, not so much by farming.  As there was always a war of some sorts going on, the Dutch provided the way to get around rules and tariffs, and made a mint doing it.  This was the Caribbean's primary port for buying and selling slaves straight from Africa.  The local museum dwells greatly on this terrible source of misery.  Statia ended up with a large Jewish contingent, complete with a synagogue, as many moved here both to make a living and to escape the terrific persecution being doled out elsewhere.  However, they could not escape totally, as the island was regularly taken over by English and French, and the persecution of the new masters was often worse than in the parent countries.  We came away thinking that the larger part of the work in creating the museum must have been done by Europeans, as only they could have taken the time to talk about the unhappy local Jewish history amid the absolutely evil backdrop of the slavery.  The history of Statia is really interesting, but we direct you to Wikipedia to scan it.

Statia, here we come!  The volcano we will conquer!

Part of the ruins down by the water where they warehoused goods for duty free trade

More and more ruins...

Yesterday, Friday, Dawn and I hiked up the volcano, and climbed down inside it.  Supposedly, it has been at least 1500 years since it was active, so the risk was quite slight.  Still, 4 hours of perpetual motion, and possibly the most difficult of hikes so far, has taken its toll on us, and today is a day of rest.  I can report that the crater was steep, rocky, and slippery; with everything moist and covered with the most resilient green moss.  The crater bottom had a beautiful garden trail that led to one of the largest cottonwood trees I have ever seen.  We saw only one Red-Bellied Racer Snake (Dawn may have deafened it), and one rooster on the trails; although we searched in vain for the American Kestral and the  Antillean Iguana.  The rooster was particularly well trained by hikers and appeared at the end of the trail looking for 'snacks'!

At the top of the volcano, we were met by an aggressive rooster who wouldn't take no for an answer!

The picture doesn't show how steep the climb into the volcano was! The ropes were definitely appreciated!

This tree could cure anyone of being a 'tree hugger'!

The volcano as seen from Cat Tales.  All the way to the top and then down INTO the volcano!!  Dawn stopped short of getting the whole way down, but Laurie continued!  Dawn saw no reason...

We are looking at Monday for our sail to St. Martin.  It is a 36 mile passage, all in exposed water, but the weather window seems to be developing well.  Dawn and I have been traveling alone for 3 weeks now; and although it has been nice, we look forward to crowds and friends again.