Our position is 17:28.871N 62:59.318W

The day after Boxing Day we were up reasonably early to get ready to leave. This was delayed by the visit to the marina office to check out as the guy wanted to show me all the pictures on his facebook page of him and his friends joining in the celebrations of the previous day. A lot of them had been taken by a professional photographer and captured the atmosphere far more successfully than my efforts. He told me that although the music didn’t start until 4am, the drinking started at midnight so little wonder that so many of the participants were drunk by 10am. Also the hosing or “wet down” was a tradition related to washing off the body paint some troupes were wearing and not really to do with keeping people cool. The main troupes were Red Devils (horns and tridents, sponsored by Digicel), White Angels (fluffy wings and white T shirts) and Extreme (body paint). Each troupe danced behind its own band. One band was called Sugar Mass and one girl had plaited lumps of sugar into her hair (not sure how easy that would be to get out!)

Eventually I managed to prise myself away, after paying one of the most reasonable marina fees ever, and we were able to depart. As we seemed to have used all our mooring warps it took a little time to get free but we were soon sailing gently up St Kitts west coast, past all the sights we had driven past on Saturday. The passage was uneventful except for the wave in the cockpit when we were eating mince pies, and we were tied up to a mooring in Oranjestad harbour by mid afternoon.

St Eustatius, or Statia as it is more commonly known, is Dutch and actually has the status of a town in Holland and as such can access European money for pointless dock expansions and other worthwhile projects. It has a history of being a prosperous, trading island (except when the British were in charge and plundered everything), Currently they act as a hub, unloading big cargo ships and oil tankers in their deep water bay and loading shallower draft vessels to take the cargo or oil to  smaller, shallower islands. Even though it is part of Holland the currency is US$ rather than Euros and the atmosphere is more Caribbean than Dutch. This is unlike the French islands we have been on, where it is just like being in France.

The main part of the town is at the top of a cliff overlooking the harbour so it was a bit of a stiff climb up there after clearing in, to visit the tourist information office and get the lowdown on what was good to do. Then it was back to the boat so discover whether the rolling was going to be as bad as everyone told us to expect. Ted had made some attempts to minimise it with a sort of spring line back from the buoy, but the changeable wind made this a non starter. In fact the first night seemed relatively roll free, although when I woke up in the morning we were pointed in completely the opposite direction to all the other boats around us.

After dropping our washing at the marine park office for the laundry to collect and hopefully return later in the day , we decided against the 2 and a half hour trek up to the volcano crater and opted instead for the walking tour of the items of historic interest, starting in the very comprehensive museum. All the buildings (and ruins) of interest on the route were extremely well documented with information boards and the little fort, which overlooks the bay, was very tidily presented. It is best known for being the first to acknowledge a ship flying the new US flag following the war of independence, although it is unclear whether this was intentional or in confusion. When we got to the end of the tour we went in search of a post office to buy stamps for postcards. This turned out to be closed for lunch so we went into the Cool Corner bar to wait. It transpired that the food on offer was Chinese and as we only wanted something light we lunched off a couple of spring rolls. Then after buying stamps and some bread – for a small town it had a surprising number of supermarkets, many run by Chinese and selling an interesting range of goods (one had car tyres alongside the groceries) – we went back to the boat to try out some snorkelling over the submerged ruins of the 18^th century lower town sea wall. Statia has very little tourism but is famous for diving but most of the good sites are either too deep for snorkelling or too far away. This place was not as good as had been hoped but Ted took a few pictures, while I attempted to row the dinghy fast enough to keep up with his swimming without knocking him out with an oar.

After recovering the laundry it was time to think about going ashore for dinner. We opted for the Blue Bead (nearest to the dock) and had a very good, if somewhat over generous, meal. Back at the boat the rolliness seems to have got a lot worse than last night but we will be off in the morning to St Barthelmy (known as St Barts). This is due North so let’s hope the wind stays in the East.

Leaving St Kitts with Nevis in the background                                View of Brimstone Hill Fort from out to sea                                                                            

Approaching Statia                                                                                             If it wasn't for the island it could be Torbay!                                 

      Orange Baai anchorage                                                                            European money being spent on introducing mains water

                                                                                                                      (previously everyone had to gather and store their own water)

The path to the Marine Park Office                                                     Old coastal ruins

The path to the Old Slave Road and Upper Town                        View of Lower Town Road and Saba from the Old Slave Road

The museum                                                                                                     18C bedroom in the museum

The Dept for Women's affairs had the best kept buildings and decorations                 Black Father Christmas at the Catholic Church

Orange Fort                                                                                                    View from the fort

Fish on the ruins of the sea wall                                                                          Concentrating on postcard writing