Statia - Diving and Walking

The sail to Statia was a nice afternoon hop, unfortunately we had to motor up most of St Kitts coastline as we were sheltered but this did us an opportunity to see Brimstone Hill Fortress a huge 18^th century fort which we were disappointed not to have visited.

Green coastline of St Kitts

Brimstone Hill Fortress on the hill!

You can just see the outline of the impressive Fort

You can see Statia from St Kitts and as we pasted the headland we were able to sail the rest of the journey, as you round the headland the most noticeable thing was the tankers lying off shore, there is a large fuel platform out from the island.  We were surprised that the anchorage was quite busy but funny that most of the boats we had just seen in the anchorage at Bassettere but what was most concerning was the swell and the rolling, night 1 of the sleepless nights!

We headed ashore the following morning, along the shoreline are a few small hotels and a restaurant and a couple of dive schools.

Goodbye St Kitts

Hello Statia

The rest of the town is up on the cliffs edge including the fort, we had a look around, you can pretty much see the entire town within 30 minutes.  There are a few pretty old buildings but mainly it is quite rundown with very few houses and a few restaurants.  The island seems to survive due to the fuel/oil plant, with the few tourists that visit mainly doing so due to the diving.

Entrance to Fort

If you look closely you can see Magnum in line with the cannon!

The pretty Old Gin House hotel

Governors House

Quaint council building!

The Quill is the volcano on Statia and is a protected nature reserve, you have to buy a pass to be able to walk in this area and this pays towards the maintenance of the walking trails which are really well signposted and to gain access to the crater there are lots of ropes to help with the climbing, otherwise this would be impossible.  We had a fantastic walk up to the craters edge and then into the actual crater, it demonstrated how unfit we have become! 

Mark admiring the view at the edge of the crater

Amanda camouflaged by huge silk cotton tree

Mark not so camouflaged against the silk cotton tree

Mark hauling himself back up from the crater

 The wildlife is quite cool with quite a few close encounters.

There were 100's of landcrabs, you could here them scurrying off the path as you approached

We saw 2 red belly racing snakes, this one was posing for a photo on a tree, the other was very close to being trode on by Amanda

Wild chickens joined us at the crater rim to share our bananas, cheeky things jumped on our laps

We had a fantastic dive in Statia, I know our experience is still limited but the visibility was amazing, we saw some huge lobster, we saw our first shark and some beautiful Angel fish which we had not seen whilst snorkelling.  The dive school was very professional and cheaper than we would have paid elsewhere in the Caribbean, so all good, thanks to Scubaaqua – http://www.scubaqua.com

We had some nice strolls around the village, the locals and workers were all very friendly, funny that just walking along the road people beep and wave, you feel very welcome.

Magnum at anchor

First graveyard I have seen with a palm tree - lovely old ruins of Church

Pretty house

Church

Enjoying the view of Magnum from the Golden Era hotel - nice cheap veggie burger lunch :)

Our new friends, we said hello and they then followed us around the village

We really loved our stay in Statia it was so unspoilt but it was such a shame that the anchorage was so rolly so we hardly slept and it meant that other passing boats often stayed for only one night but glad we had the time we did.