Ballast Bay, St. Kitts

(Written February 21, 2009; posted by SSB February 25, 2009)
Well we did make it to Basseterre, St. Kitts before the north swells hit. However, we were not prepared to deal with a SE swell in the harbour. The first couple of nights were horrendous. We even had a stern anchor out to hold the bow into the waves, but the boat rocked and rolled like Jerry Lee Lewis all night. On Friday morning the swells were 2-4 feet and the wind was about 20kts. While we were doing the Coconut Telegraph another boat, Catalyst, mentioned that they were in White House Bay,
St. Kitts and it was not rolly at all. We decided that after going ashore to access wireless and do some internet business we would move to White House Bay.

We left Basseterre at 1240 and arrived in White House Bay at 1430. We had a good motorsail with just the foresail up and got an average of 5 kts. The wind was from the NE at about 20 kts and the seas were calm. In fact the swell settled down almost as soon as we cleared Basseterre Harbour.

When we arrived at White House Bay there were only two boats there, Catalyst and Calypso. We anchored in 18 feet of water and settled in. Yes the swells were much less - less than 1 foot. By nightfall 3 other boats had arrived, however, 2 of those left early this morning.

This morning was spent doing some chores around the boat. Griff explored a leak we had discovered above the salon table after the last rain we had. One of the dorades, the vents that bring air in from the deck when the hatches are closed, was where the leak was. Actually, it wasn't a leak but the fact that the dorade could not be closed and therefore allowed the rain to come in. We'll just have to turn the wind scoop around on deck so that the rain is not blown into that dorade. I did a couple
of loads of laundry by hand. Here in St. Kitts having the laundry done is very expensive and is only available in Basseterre. With the brisk wind that was blowing I decided I might as well do the laundry myself here on the boat. Great idea! The only problem being that the wind here is not a drying wind like it is at home and the clothes took most of the morning to dry.

After lunch we decided that we had put more than our 1 ½ hours per day of boat work so we headed ashore to do some exploring. There isn't much in White House Bay other than a dock, a sign that says it is Christophe Harbour, and a port-a-potty. The dock was obviously new and had a structure on both sides that looked like it was to hold fishing rods. At least that's what we decided it was. We later found out that the dock is new. It was erected to launch a new development that will take up the entire
south-west peninsula of St. Kitts. There will be a marina for super yachts and ordinary yachts, condos, golf course and a high end hotel. That will certainly change the atmosphere of this end of St. Kitts.

We headed up the road towards the salt pond that was on the map. Once we got there we decided to take the road leading to Ballast Bay, the next bay along the coast. It was a leisurely walk along a dirt track. We finally reached Ballast Bay and walked along the beach. As we walked along we talked about how we thought the bay got its name. The beach is a rock beach - no sand. We think in the olden days that sailing vessels may have come here to pick up rocks for ballast. To reinforce this idea
there was a Square Rigger ship anchored in the bay today so it looked like it might have done two centuries ago.
Today those rocks were being picked up by a team of locals that were using them to make pathways in town. Griff talked some with an older fellow who was obviously either the supervisor or the boss. He talked about how the young people today do not like to work. They just want everything without sweating to get it. He said he didn't care what they did as long as they worked. His crew was hand picking rocks from the beach and loading the back of a pick-up truck.

We picked up some interesting shells and a few sea fans which we hope we can get back home in one piece. It would have been nice to pick up some of the rocks to make a path in the yard at home, but alas we didn't think we could get them back to Canada with the luggage weight restrictions the airlines have.