Tuesday 11 January

Once again we awoke in the dark, but we were soon treated to a beautiful sunrise as the silhouette of St Kitts became ever more visible.  St Kitts is really the island of St Christopher.  In the distance we could see the volcanic cone-shaped island of Nevis shrouded in cloud – a bit like the mysterious Bali Ha'i.

This is clearly the place to be as we were the first of four ships to arrive here.  Joining us were Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, Celebrity Silhouette and Crystal Symphony. 

We were booked on The Best of St Kitts and it proved to be. After eating too much at breakfast we packed our bag and went ashore.  St Kitts and Nevis, with a population of 53,000 is very religious with lots of religious slogans on cars.  Homosexuality is illegal here and the Government says it has no mandate to change that. 

The small neighbouring island of Nevis is the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton of the musical fame. 

Once sugar production had finally ceased, the mainstay of the economy is now tourism with a few small industrial units producing microprocessors for the US market. 

With this in mind they are looking to expand the tourism offer here and are proud that American Airlines are about to offer a daily service from Miami and a twice-weekly service with BA from the UK.

Egret nesting and roosting site. No snakes on St Kitts, so no natural egg predators.

Our guide told us that there are twice as many monkeys on St Kitts as people although we saw none in the wild at any point.

We drove northwards along the west coast, passing a number of significant places along the way. St Kitts was the parent island to almost all British colonisation of the West Indies.  The British recognised its fertile soil where they could grow sugar cane and then tobacco and they used it as a base to spread outwards around the Caribbean. 

We stopped briefly at the spot where Thomas Warner set up the first settlement at Old Road Town in 1623 and at the cemetery where one of Thomas Jefferson’s ancestors is buried, next to Thomas Warner. 

We also had a short stop at Bloody Point where in 1626, British and French colonists massacred 2,000 Kalinago people.

Our first stop was Romney Manor once owned by Sam Jefferson, the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.  This was a beautiful botanical garden set in a rain forest where we were given 30 minutes to explore.  Over the years, most of the activity on the property was growing and distilling sugar cane.  The Wingfield Estate grew, harvested, and loaded sugar cane there until the mid-2000s.  In the 1970s, Romney Manor became a batik enterprise centre under the direction of its current owner.

Wingfield Estate began its transition to the beautiful gardens and active archeological site it is today in the 2000s, when the St. Kitts government discontinued all sugar cane operations on the island.

In the distance you can see Sint Eustitius and beyond it the smaller island of Saba, whose small populations are managed by the Netherlands as part of the Dutch Antilles.

An all-time favourite at Romney Manor is the magnificent Saman tree, the largest living organism in St. Kitts. Over 400 years old and 24 ft in circumference it covers half an acre.

After Romney Manor, we then went to the well-preserved fortress of Brimstone Hill, a National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Designed by British military engineers, it was built and maintained by enslaved Africans. It is one of the best-preserved historical fortifications in the Americas. 

We then drove back to the ship. 

We felt slightly embarrassed that we had no cash for a tip but, hey-ho, we haven't carried cash since lockdown and we aren't a tipping nation anyway. 

We had a walk around the shops in the port area, but we don't need anything and Elizabeth is on a “don't buy any new clothes for as long as possible” resolution for 2022. 

We were disgusted to see locals handing baby monkeys to tourists for photos. Who remembers Elizabeth and the iguana in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico?! 

Today was ‘Mask Day’. There were three ‘incidents’. The first one was when I was up at the top of Brimstone Hill on the ramparts of the fortress.  We had all been wearing masks in the buses en route and I thought no more about it when we were high up on top of the fortress in the open air. 

Suddenly, one of the staff out on the very edge of the ramparts and in a fair to middling gale asked me to put my mask back on. I told her that we were in the open air on the windy top of a hill.  Her reply was to point out that all those around me did have their masks on.  WHAT!!

The second one was when Elizabeth and I came in from the deck and went straight towards our cabin. For the first time we had forgotten to put our masks back on.  Suddenly we were definitely reminded by a fellow passenger to put the on as she was right behind us. All right, keep your hair on, madam.

The third and last occurrence was when we went into the dining room for or evening meal. An anonymous voice over the PA told the naughty pupils in the dining room off about mask wearing.  Not only were they to be worn AT ALL TIMES in public areas on the ship, but they must be worn over both the mouth and nose and including WHEN WAITING FOR FOOD TO BE SERVED. Come on, man ….