TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums General Caribbean Sailing St Kitts, Nevis area

Hi All,
Chartering for the first time out of SXM and want to head south. St Kitts, St Eustasia, St Barts, Nevis, etc I have my charts and guide book but any insight, places to moor/anchor, must sees or places to avoid would be appreciated.
Thanks

DaveZ - the other thread in the SXM forum with the same topic has a number of responses. I just sailed past SXM two days ago, heading down to Antigua but I'll be back up there for the Heineken Regatta next week (I volunteer for it). I do have some pictures and links on my website to some of your possible destinations, if you want to take a look. Check out https://www.sv-zanshin.com/r/pages/countries/countriesvisited.php

I think it depends on what you like and don't like.

We really enjoyed St. Barths. Gustavia was quite nice with lots of high-end shopping and restaurant options as well as some moderate choices too. It was trendy and busy - even in the summer. Around the corner from Gustavia was Colombier anchorage. A bay with a very nice sandy beach and some good hiking up on the hills around it. The beach was somewhat busy during the day but cleared out at night. Plenty of mooring balls, but if I remember correctly I think that anchoring is not allowed there (though I could be wrong). We had a BBQ dinner with some quality steaks, potatoes and veggies that we bought earlier in Gustavia and a nice bottle of French wine. St. Barths is a very French island.

We stopped at Nevis & St. Kitts and didn't find them overly exciting. That was probably at least partly because we were hunting down a new water pump and making repairs at that time though. Enjoyed a peaceful evening anchored at Ballast Bay at St. Kitts. Had a very good but very expensive meal at the Four Seasons on Nevis, another good dinner (and more affordable) up on the Hillside in Basseterre. I think if we would have gotten inland and away form the boat we may have enjoyed Nevis & St. Kitts more.

If you have the time and can make it far enough down, Barbuda has an absolutely amazing beach and Antigua is a very interesting island. The frigate bird tour on Barbuda is worth it and other than that, did I mention how great the beach is? On Antigua we enjoyed English Harbour (where we had a massive squall/lightning storm come through) and Nonsuch Bay was nice as well. Several places to anchor around the bay and there are a few mooring balls behind Green Island. You would have a few long sails to make it to Antigua/Barbuds and would need the winds and swell to cooperate, but we personally enjoyed those islands more than Nevis/St. Kitts. Just my opinion.

Thanks so much for the info, lots to consider but fortunately we are all pretty low key and make our plans on the run.

We like Nevis/St Kitts much more than St Barths, so opinions do vary. Nevis has no cruise ships and is pretty much a sleepy island with a few high end resorts.

The tour of the fort on St Kitts in interesting. Just hire a driver for a tour. Not many beaches on St Kitts.

Would you consider this a "safe" area for a single American woman to travel by herself?

In a word - YES!

Nevis, yes safe. St. Kitts maybe not so much.

We were land based in St Kitts a few years ago. Seemed pretty safe and our little experience shook me up to a point I would never go back. We were on our way home from dinner, driving uphill when a group of guys (6) walked in front of our car making us stop. They all began rocking our car violently, shaking us up. Worse part, they all exposed themselves <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> in front of us and just kept laughing. Finally they walked away. I did not see any type of a weapon, just kids out having a good time. Well I was really upset and vowed I would never go back. Scary at the time, you never know. Besides I felt St. Kitts was boring. LOL

That does not sound like a good time. Sorry you had to experience.
Brings back memories of that movie "Porky's". Did the police suggest a line up?

Get Shorty maybe?