Lyn's Log, 14th December 2006
Nevis

Charleston, Nevis.
N17º08', W62º38'
11,469 miles.

We arrived off Charlestown, Nevis, in the afternoon and anchored as close to the shore and pontoons as we could with small mooring buoys, fishing pots and local craft all around. The wind continued to be gusting so we stayed on board till morning and confirmed that the anchor was holding. We found Customs quite early in the morning, at the end of the cruise-ship pier. This pier had a lower level making it possible for people like us in small dinghies to land, whereas the local small motorboats, much bigger than our dinghy, were along the other side of the pier. A cruise ship was anchored way out at the back of the bay.

Having been rather neglectful of formalities in previous islands, we visited Immigration in the police station, which proved just as well as we learned a yacht had recently been fined £2,500 when people went ashore without checking in. We walked out of town to the old Bath Hotel and then found the Nelson Museum. Nelson married a local widow called Fanny. we then found the hot spring baths in a field behind the hotel grounds. One had recently been renovated, courtesy of a few local companies, with a roof over the top and clean steps into a small tiled square pool. There was no-one around so in I went - it was the first hot bath I had had in several months. I sat on the steps with the water up to my neck for the ‘restorative’ waters to work on my body. The other pool that had not yet been renovated had green slimy patches on the tiles and did not look inviting.

Back in town we found the pier was fenced off and guarded by security, as now the cruise ship passengers were using it. Our dinghy had been moved out of reach and with some difficulty we recovered it. Rowing out to the yacht, we became aware that it had dragged about 100 metres during the strong gusts that morning. Fortunately we had not hit or fouled any of the moored boats. (And our worst nightmare of losing our yacht over the horizon had not come true!)

We re-anchored a little further up the island at Pinney’s Beach before having our lunch. This was a lovely long stretch of sand backed by mangrove and palm trees. At one end was the end of Charlestown and a couple of hotels were at the other end. The afternoon was spent sauntering along the beach, stopping at the ‘Sunshine’ beach bar a couple of times for their great rum punches, paddling along the water’s edge or exploring in the mangroves. In the morning we strolled to the edge of town to see the Hamilton House Museum (he of US Independence fame). Then it was time to up anchor again for the short sail to Basseterre on St Kitts.