Day 9: Our Failed Attempt At Exploring Nevis and St. Kitts
Day 9: Our Failed Attempt At Exploring Nevis and St. Kitts
Thanks for visiting Nevis…Not! Our failed attempt at visiting Nevis and St. Kitts.
We woke up this day with every intention and hope of exploring beautiful Nevis. Known for its monkeys and Sombrero mountainous region, we couldn’t wait to explore. And yet, the day couldn’t have panned out any differently.
The Devil’s Dinghy Dock On Nevis Island
Our day panned out like this: We started off dinghying up to the dinghy dock of the devil. This dinghy dock was the saddest depiction of a “dock” you’d ever seen; huge swells crushing over the dinghy “landing area,” tons of splintered wood and rusted huge nails jutting out on both sides for dinghy parking. Paired with a super strong current, it was the perfect elixir for sucking your dinghy under the dock and then beating it to a pulp.
Visiting Nevis and St. Kitts? Nope.
“YOU CAN’T PARK HERE. COMMERCIAL ONLY. YOU MUST TIE UP AT THE DINGHY DOCK.” Which, as if on cue, was pummeled yet again by another massive swell.
We spent, I’m not kidding you, 45 minutes, maneuvering the sketchiest dinghy dock known to man. There’s a nice concrete, sturdy dock right next to it for commercial vessels, and a fellow sailing couple and their pup, in the same predicament as us, sizing up this nightmare in waiting attempted to tie up to the concrete dock and a local immediately ran up to them and said, “YOU CAN’T PARK HERE. COMMERCIAL ONLY. YOU MUST TIE UP AT THE DINGHY DOCK.” Which, as if on cue, was pummeled yet again by another massive swell.
When you're responsible for safely delivering a multi-million dollar sailing yacht, this counts for the dinghy, too. None of us were comfortable with this situation for holding our dinghy, so we decided Laura and I would walk (note: more like tight rope) across the dinghy dock with 3 bags of trash. Danny brought the dinghy on the inside of the concrete dock, up towards the shore, out of any commercial vessel’s way.
Lord Of The Trash
The moment Laura and I stepped ashore we were promptly met by Lord of the Trash. He’s about 6’2”, dark skinned, shaved head, mid-fifties and is a part-time taxi driver.
This impromptu law enforcement officer immediately demanded we pay for our three bags of trash. Once he finished micromanaging that task, he then attempted to bully us upstairs to pay the trash fee, which we were waiting on Danny for so we could walk and pay the fee, along with clearing customs. The whole situation became hostile for no apparent reason, other than this cab driver was bored AF and power hungry. We caught up with Danny and Lord of the trash lead us to the next tattle teller, tattle telling on us for stepping foot on their Island with trash.* (*because we didn’t just throw it in the ocean or burn it? So sorry.)
“Come with me.” She demanded, and we followed her up to a customs office, where she knew good and well no one was operating because it was good Friday. We were corralled with about eight other boaters.
The Holding Pen
Danny, trying to pull some strings on the phone while we were in the “holding pen” of customs on Nevis.
As mentioned in my previous article prompted by the challenge of clearing into customs on Dominica, the pain the butt of checking into customs in the Caribbean is no joke.
We learned of the six other boats represented, four came to customs yesterday, three tried to check in, one was denied it because it was 3:50 PM and the customs agent wanted to close 10 minutes early, and the other two were told to wait till the next day because all of their electronics/computers were down. So to boaters chose to wait on their boats overnight, delaying their travels for afraid of getting a fee or ticket for not checking out of the country. This was a classic scenario of lazy, Caribbean logic in the customs house.
We sized up the situation and realized it was a wash. We walked the quay wall as our Tour de Nevis, a motorcyclist stopped in the road to rev his engine and gawk at Laura and me, and that's when we knew: we had seen enough of Nevis.
After giving up our dreams of seeing Monkeys on Nevis, we made our way over to try our hand on St. Kitts. Here’s our gorgeous boat from the dinghy!
Let’s Try Visiting St. Kitts
We sailed over to Saint Kitts to Shipwreck, a place written about for the monkey action around the bar. We came to South Friars Bay and Frigate Bay, lowered our dinghy and discovered Shipwreck was shipwrecked and no longer in business anymore.
Sailing Over to St. Kitts from Nevis!
There was a ritzy Beach bar on the other side of the bay, but there was also a rock and coral band stretching the length of the beach. We couldn’t lift our motor to clear the rock, so we aborted our mission, made our way back to the boat, and had a picnic lunch consisting of paté, cantaloupe, Clorox-smelling brie, crackers, and Russian potatoes. It was delicious.
At least we got these killer shots of our sailing catamaran anchored off St. Kitts at Frigate Bay — if nothing else!
Nevis and St. Kitts— We’re Breaking Up.
The moral of the story? OUR experience of Nevis and Saint Kitts felt like a break-up letter. It would read:
Dear Nevis and St. Kitts,
Even with your green-back monkeys, cool Sombrero-shaped volcanic hat, and our high hopes, your xenophobic-vibe and extreme distaste for travelers wanting to see your beautiful island, we’re breaking up. Drop my favorite sweater on my doorstep and return all my records. Bye.
So, unfortunately, a big thumbs down for our experience of Nevis and Saint Kitts. Maybe under different circumstances, it would have been different, but our experience was just plum frustrating. Fortunately, eight hours of sailing later, we made our way to one of the highlights of the trip: Eustatius.