Position 17:17.55N 62:43.55W
Freewheel
Julian & Anne Whitlock
Sun 28 Nov 2010 00:58
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St Kitts/Basseterre 24-25th
November
Much more pleasant journey across from
Antigua as running with the still strong winds and
large seas. Arrived at Basseterre, the
capital of the island, and moored alongside the
outer wall of the 'marina' which had no
spare space for a boat of our size inside. Still a very
pleasant welcome from all the staff and
efficient booking in system with the officials
in the adjacent cruise ship facilities
grandly named Port Zante. The town and its new
facilities appeared an awful lot smarter
than when we were last here in 2005 and there
appeared a new affluence which surprised us
as their main economy was based on sugar
cane which was effectively killed off by
the EC which forbade the UK paying a subsidised
price for the crop. It appears that the new
money is coming from the sale of land to overseas
developers and an increase in tourism. One
of the most extensive and complex developments
is based on a new superyacht marina with
multi million $ housing attached in the hitherto
unspoilt southern tip of the island. We
were intrigued to see what they were doing and how
far it had progressed as it involved
connecting a large landlocked salt pond of some hundred
acres to the sea. Apart from some very posh
signs at the site there was little signs of the equipment
and personel needed to carry out such a
massive engineering task. They had made a cut to join
the lake to the sea but apart from one very
small dredger and a couple of large diggers there
was nothing else visible. We guess that the
salt pond was very shallow so to dredge such an area
to accept any sailboats let alone super
yachts is a task not dissimmilar in scale to the Aswan dam
so we are dubious as to it's
completion.
We revisited a couple of places we had been
previously and were delighted to find them as
impressive as before. The first was the
Brimstone Hill Fort. A massive area of 17th and 18th
century fortifications on multi levels
built on an old volcanic mound close to the western shore.
It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site putting it on a par with the
Taj Mahal and Pyramids!
We had an absolutely superb buffet lunch at
the Rawlins Plantation which was the second
of our 'revisits'. The old plantation house
is surrounded by beautiful gardens and with
an incredible view from its verandas over
the channel to Sint Eustatius. A little run down
from its former glories but the staff and
food and views were all perfect.
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