Our goal for the day was visiting Brimstone Hill Fortress on St. Kitts.
In the wee hours of the morning (around 9 am) we weighed anchor in Nevis and sailed back to White House Bay on St. Kitts. Our first anchoring attempt didn’t hold, but the second one did. Subsequently the Starlink was set up and we proceeded to search for a rental car. That didn’t go as planned. After calling several places and finding them out of stock, we changed tack and tried taxi companies. That, too, met with failure. I had given up when Sascha found a driver available and willing to pick us up and drive us to Brimstone Hill Fortress that day for an acceptable price.
Noon
Jay Jay turned out to have been a good choice, although it was a surprise to see him in full BDU’s. Particularly as we’d just docked at a closed facility clearly marked with “private” and “keep out” signage! But he’s serving army so that was OK. In many Caribbean islands wearing camo by civilians is not allowed and severely punished. St. Kitts and Nevis are among those countries.
We drove to the Fort and Jay gave us a running commentary in our comfortable HiAce (with Wi-Fi).
The kiln that was used to make the bricks for the fortress is hidden on the entrance road. I mentioned it before we got there – and it turned out that Jay Jay hadn’t noticed it before despite having driving that trip many times. To his credit, it is difficult to spot.
The Fortifications were impressive, and photogenic, as can be seen in the pictures below.
Dinner
The return drive turned into an impromptu tour of Basseterre by car. Plus we did get stuck in rush hour traffic which wasn’t as bad as many of the other islands. We were dropped off at the closed dinghy dock and returned to Zanshin to thaw out our remaining 2 T-Bone steaks and a filet mignon using sous-vide.
With some sauce and potatoes the BBQ’d steaks were very filling and tasty and a great termination point for a successful tourist day.