St. Kitts

Today is Friday and we enjoyed our visit in Nevis. We are now in St. Kitts. We arrived at lunch time and spent some money to spend the night here in the marina in Basseterre. We have topped up our water and provisions. Two cruise ships are sitting here and the stores here are amazing. I only bought a bathing suit for James, a special hat for him and a pair of shorts for me. One cruise ship just left and boy do they honk their horns. Last night's Barracuda for dinner was pretty good. It is a very firm fish and took no time at all to fry up. The rice with it was firm, some organic healthy stuff that took so long to cook and still was not nice and soft. We shopped for groceries today and it was like being in America now. We bought sour cream, salsa and pasta sauce which was not around in the other islands. Also bought some Oscar Meyer turkey slices... mmmmm! James bought himself “kraft dinner” for lunch today. The prices here are expensive though.

Traci and I went a second time alone to the Ram's grocery store just to pick up a few more things that we couldn't carry the first time, including drinking water (the water we bought from the marina for our tanks has some floaties). Packed to the gills, this store, we were probably 10th in line for the checkout and many were behind us. Traci and I waited patiently and lo and behold, we arrived for out turn, the cashier says she is on break and everyone go to another line!! What the #$@!*&! The two men from India that were behind us were furious and said if this was India that cashier would be fired. So, they left their cart full of food and left. We just moved to another cash. As we waited patiently there and now we are 3rd in the line, that other cashier comes back and a swarm starts at her cash. She doesn't come up to us and say hey... come and be first at my cash, no no no. Our new cashier, says just right after us that she is closed, we just exhaled and said whew! It is an experience. Everyone brings their whole family to shop and socialize in the grocery store. We went back to the boat and had actual showers in the marina's washrooms. No hot water BUT unlimited fresh water, no washing with salt water and rinsing with the rationed fresh water. I stood under the shower so so long... and used a hand dryer to “blow dry” my hair for the first time in 3 weeks. When I get home a warm shower will be luxury. Dave and Traci's boat's hot water tank is broken, it is normal for most boats to have hot water, but no problem, water is warm. My friend Lyne would even be in the water (hair and all!). This water is clear blue and warm, warm, warm! We walked into town for a dinner. We went to a grill place not far from the marina, but we did walk too far the other way and saw some sights! I mean all the locals celebrating a Friday night by eating at food stands, with bands and music playing. Our dinner was great, Paul said it was the best snapper he has ever eaten. Christmas music is played everywhere and it seems odd to us as we have been conditioned to associate Christmas with snow.

Saturday morning we left about 8:30am for St. Eustatius (Statia, for short). This island was only 20miles from St. Kitts, but we had to leave as the sailboat in front of us at the marina was leaving and we were blocking them. We were leaving anyway, they beat us here to the island though, friendly race. This island is full of history and ruins one can see from the water. Unfortunately, we are flying our “Q” flag all day and can't check in. The customs office is closed until tomorrow at 8am. So, no shopping at all the duty free stores they have here.... the whole island is duty free, a big shipping and trading station. Right now as I type this there are 7 oil tankers sitting offshore waiting to come in. The snorkeling here is awesome. I will go soon, but James and Dave went and saw hundreds of fish near the shore reef (not by the boat Lyne, it is clear around the boat, no weeds, just sandy bottom). Dave brought up a conch, and the conch inside was gone but a mini octopus was inside the conch, so cool.

I'm making a sausage pasta sauce for tonight's dinner and James was able to buy “Zebra Cakes” down here in St. Kitts, the ones we can buy at Giant Tiger (well, I don't buy them, but James has seen them). The store here even had President's Choice brand name goods, their pasta sauce tonight. We may head to St. Martin, the French /St. Maartin is the Dutch side.