Nevis!

http://www.caribbeanislands.us/st-kitts.htm

Nevis and St. Kitts are one Country.  You can check into either and freely sail between them.  I'd like to say that we choose to skip St. Kitts since we understood that it was more touristy then Nevis.  As a general rule we try to avoid any island with a cruise ship dock.  However, truth be told, we had great wind and we eager to move on down the island chain and capture a helper monkey for the boat.  This was a wonderful sail of about 30 nm which we made in one big tack.  The three most important reasons to visit Nevis:

(1) Alexander Hamilton was born here.

(2) They have wild monkeys!!

(3) They have wild monkeys!!!!!!

Nevis was a turning point for many reasons.  First, it was during our sail here that we began our Jimmy Buffett affliction.  Its really disguising how much of him we have listened to since Nevis. 

Also, from here was the first time we sighted Antigua.  Antigua meant two main things to us.  We would see my family for the Easter Holiday and it was basically the last island that lay to windward!

Nevis was also the first time we took a day to relish in our current lifestyle and lay on a beautiful caribbean beach all afternoon.  Truth be told we had been keeping a pretty busy pace of sailing, touring, diving, hiking, and sleeping in rolly anchorages.  Ahh!!! It was nice to sit for a bit. 

Our adventure here consisted of renting mountain bikes for the day.  The road that circumnavigates Nevis is about 20miles.  We biked that road, as well as several other trails, and side trips.  I'd say pretty confidantly we did 25miles but wouldn't be surprised if it was 30.  The up hill sections were no fun but the down hill ones... whoo doggie!!!  We had two really epic down hill jaunts.  The first one on some trails coming down from up on the mountain at the beginning of the ride, and the second speeding down the main road into Charlestown after lunch.

Pictures:



We had been unsuccessful up to this point at catching any fish.  Here Andrew wonders why?



West coast of St. Kitts

Rainbow around the sun

Coming into Charlestown, Nevis.  There are literally hundrreds of mooring to choose from!

Downtown Charlestown.  The kid who backed out of buying my car before I left STT was named Charles Pemberton.

Birthplace of Alexander Hamilton.  We were too cheap to pay the $13 EC (about $5 US) to go inside.  Plus we were hungry and heard it was boring in there anyway...  It looked real nice from the outside.

Haunch and spew!  Here we are right before we attacked Nevis on these shread machines.  It was a hard ride but such a fun experiance!

Thats right.

Wind farm in Nevis.  2.2 Mega watts of power (theoretically).  None of them were spinning when we rode by.

Where did they mount the toilet paper holder?

Vrooom!!  I wish I coulda bought a t-shirt here!  Drag strip in Nevis!

Monkey!!  We had a few sightings but they move pretty fast and don't let you get too close!

Almost our little helper monkey.

Lunch at the Golden Rock Inn

There is alot of farming that goes on in Nevis.  The countryside is dotted with beautiful farms and crops.

Next Off to the Volcano of Montserrat!