Shortly after the Heineken regatta, we became official landlubbers on St. Martin. As much as we love living aboard Taka Trois, working on a boat has become increasingly impractical and uncomfortable especially during the rainy season and with a significant mosquito problem on the island, not to mention that we found that it’s hard to be taken seriously when your address is a marina.
So we found and rented a small one bedroom apartment a stone's throw from the marina and moved in mid-March, furnishing it entirely with a shipment we had organized from IKEA. After putting together over 30 pieces of furnishings, I felt justified in dubbing myself the Queen of IKEA and Patrice, who helped with the bigger items, my Prince Consort. It was a lot of work, but for the sake of efficiency, expedience and innovative space solutions for a very small apartment (think rabbit cage), it was perfect. Her majesty is pleased with the result and needless to say, we are both enjoying the creature comforts of a land-based abode namely air-conditioning, a decent fridge/freezer, a proper shower and a toilet that doesn't need pumping to flush.
So we found and rented a small one bedroom apartment a stone's throw from the marina and moved in mid-March, furnishing it entirely with a shipment we had organized from IKEA. After putting together over 30 pieces of furnishings, I felt justified in dubbing myself the Queen of IKEA and Patrice, who helped with the bigger items, my Prince Consort. It was a lot of work, but for the sake of efficiency, expedience and innovative space solutions for a very small apartment (think rabbit cage), it was perfect. Her majesty is pleased with the result and needless to say, we are both enjoying the creature comforts of a land-based abode namely air-conditioning, a decent fridge/freezer, a proper shower and a toilet that doesn't need pumping to flush.
Our new apartment, located under the green roofs to the left in the distance, did not take us very far from Taka Trois pictured in the foreground. In fact, we can see the top of her mast when we come out our front door.
A mere two weeks after we moved off the boat however, we turned around and moved back onboard (no wonder why my mother always asks me where I am every time I talk to her). Since the beginning of the year we have been talking about sailing down to the island of Dominica, a place we have been longing to visit. The arrival of our daughter, Claire-Elise, for three weeks from Manhattan gave us the perfect excuse to head off and do some cruising.
Dominica (pronounced dough mee nee ka) is about 210 miles/345 km from St. Martin, which for Taka Trois translates into a two day sail non-stop. To ease our 'New Yorker' into sailing, we decided to break up our trip with a stop in Nevis, an island we had earmarked last year as a place where we wanted to spend a bit more time (go to this blog’s archive from April 2013 to read about our last stop there).
Our wish came true as due to weather conditions we ended up spending three nights there moored off Pinney's Beach near Charleston just opposite Sunshine's, one of our favorite beach bars in the Caribbean. We were delighted that our friends, Ann and Steve of Receta, were also moored there.
Our wish came true as due to weather conditions we ended up spending three nights there moored off Pinney's Beach near Charleston just opposite Sunshine's, one of our favorite beach bars in the Caribbean. We were delighted that our friends, Ann and Steve of Receta, were also moored there.
Nevis, which was derived from the Spanish, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves by a process of abbreviation and anglicisation. The Spanish name means Our Lady of the Snows in reference to the story of a 4th-century Catholic miracle: a snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. Presumably the white clouds that usually cover the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of this story of a miraculous snowfall in a hot climate.
I knew that Greenland and Iceland had been misnamed by the original cartographers, but I did not know that Christopher Columbus originally christened Nevis as San Martin. It appears that in the confusion of numerous poorly-charted small islands in the Leeward Island chain meant that this name ended up being accidentally transferred to another island, Sint Maarten/Saint Martin.
The indigenous Amerindians (Caribs and Arawaks) were wiped out as it was first conquered by the Spanish and then passed to British hands with the usual blood-letting. Sugar-cane madness and exploitation of slaves followed before it gained independence together with St. Kitts, her sister island, in 1983.
Today it is a sleepy little island relying mainly on tourism to survive. Its claim to fame for the Brits is that Admiral Horatio Nelson met and married his wife there and for the Yanks, it's the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA and chief of staff to George Washington.
With Ann and Steve as our cohorts we strolled through the charming town of Charleston (the only town on Nevis actually), provisioned our boats with fresh produce from the local market and took a leisurely drive around the island visiting the botanical gardens and and several charming restored plantation inns in the Gingerland district in the south east part of the island. For highlights of our tour click on the arrow below:
I knew that Greenland and Iceland had been misnamed by the original cartographers, but I did not know that Christopher Columbus originally christened Nevis as San Martin. It appears that in the confusion of numerous poorly-charted small islands in the Leeward Island chain meant that this name ended up being accidentally transferred to another island, Sint Maarten/Saint Martin.
The indigenous Amerindians (Caribs and Arawaks) were wiped out as it was first conquered by the Spanish and then passed to British hands with the usual blood-letting. Sugar-cane madness and exploitation of slaves followed before it gained independence together with St. Kitts, her sister island, in 1983.
Today it is a sleepy little island relying mainly on tourism to survive. Its claim to fame for the Brits is that Admiral Horatio Nelson met and married his wife there and for the Yanks, it's the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA and chief of staff to George Washington.
With Ann and Steve as our cohorts we strolled through the charming town of Charleston (the only town on Nevis actually), provisioned our boats with fresh produce from the local market and took a leisurely drive around the island visiting the botanical gardens and and several charming restored plantation inns in the Gingerland district in the south east part of the island. For highlights of our tour click on the arrow below:
I must pause here in my narrative to share a serendipitous moment of our day. Wherever Orléachs and Duerrs gather, conversations are often centered around food and Ann and Steve seem to be cut from a similar mold. During our trip around the island, I randomly mentioned in the car that sticky toffee pudding* is my all time favorite dessert. Shortly afterwards we arrived at the lovely Golden Rock Inn, a sugar estate carefully restored by its artist owners dating back to 1801 perched in the hills of Gingerland (aka Wonderland as the place has a surreal Alice in Wonderland feel to it--see photos in the slideshow above). We decided to stop for a cup of tea and were amazed to find that the special of the day was none other than that sinful, but delectable British pudding! How sublime!
*Sticky toffee pudding is an English steamed dessert consisting of a moist sponge cake made with finely chopped dates, covered in a toffee (caramel) sauce. It is considered a modern British ‘classic’.
We would’ve loved to linger in Nevis and climb Nevis peak, but Dominica was calling. So after a memorable last evening watching the sun set over Taka Trois and Receta while sitting at Sunshine’s Beach Bar sipping killer bees,* we bade farewell to the crew of Receta and continued our journey south early the next morning.
*Killer Bees: The bartender would not give us the ingredients nor tell us how this libation got its name, but we suspect it probably has honey in it as well as a lethal amount of wicked local bush rum. It's also a popular way for cruisiers and locals to kill time.
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