Favourite Islands Part 3: Saba to Montserrat

Moving on to the inner arc of the Leeward Islands:   these are rugged, more sparsely populated islands that are primarily of Dutch and British history.

Here's the first instalment and second instalment of this series if you missed them.

Saba
We first fell in love with Saba (The Unspoiled Queen) when we visited by plane on our initial sailing trip to the Caribbean in 2008.  Since then we have sailed there once in 2012 and visited by plane again in 2014.  Saba has a well-earned reputation for being a difficult place to visit with your own boat:  the island is steep-to which means that anchoring is pretty much out of the question unless you carry about a kilometre of chain.  There are lots of mooring balls but unless you get to visit in a dead calm with no northern swell, you will not want to spend much time on the boat.  But, that's the reason we visit Saba.  We want to get off the boat and explore this pristine and quaint little island that appears to have stepped right out of Gulliver's Travels.  You can hike to the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the top of Mt. Scenery, or you can dare the near-vertical descent of the The Ladder to relive history and the path of absolutely everything that came to Saba prior to construction of the port.  We adore hiking on this island and for a long time called Saba our favourite.  Now there are rivals but it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
     Love:  a tiny encapsulated island where you're certain everyone knows one another
     Hate:  the reputation of the anchorage puts people off

Saba rarely reveals it's crown

The little village of Windwardside perched on the saddle

The Ladder - with the Customs House perched above.

St. Eustatius
We only visited Statia for the first time this year and really enjoyed it.  This is another island with a rolly anchorage if there is any north swell.  Our first impression of this island is that it is much like Saba with it's Dutch history only rougher round the edges - there's a certain 'outback' kind of feel to Statia.  This was once a huge busy port but is now a sleepy backwater that sits under the presence of Quill, it's dormant volcano.  The main town is lined by weathered clapboard houses along cobblestone streets with small signs of improvement in places.  We have climbed Quill and explored it's micro-climate crater but have yet to branch out to other areas of the island.  We will definitely return for more of this friendly laid-back isle.
     Love:  this history of this place
     Hate:  another rolly anchorage makes long stays in the winter months difficult

Oranjestad overlooked by Quill

Many choices for hiking in the park

Quiet streets of Oranjestad.

St. Kitts
We visited St. Kitts in 2015 on our way south and have to say that this island did not leave a really good taste in our mouths.  There are some great sights to see and Brimstone Hill Fortress should be visited at least once - it is the only UNESCO World Heritage site in the Eastern Caribbean.  However, after driving around the entire island and spending a couple of days on the streets of grubby Basseterre we never really felt welcomed to the island.  This is the only place where I have been acutely aware that I was the only white person in sight.  I will give St. Kitts it's due that this was the first 'new' island we visited as we started our travels south and perhaps now that we have experienced more of the British heritage islands (Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada) perhaps we would have a different opinion of St. Kitt's.  There is also no really good anchorage with easy access to town so you have a choice of either a rocky, rolly anchorage at Basseterre or being miles from town but more protected down at Whitehouse Bay
     Love:  Brimstone Fortress (too bad it's not on another island)
     Hate:  the feeling of being an outsider

The Circus in bustling downtown Basseterre

Beautiful batiks at Caribelle.

Brimstone Hill with Telca Marina below.

Brimstone Fortress - a formidable defence structure.

Nevis
Nevis is paired with St. Kitts as a dual-island nation and yet couldn't be more different than her neighbour.  It helps too that we have friends with a cottage on Nevis and so we've been treated to a 'local' view.  However, the island has a great mooring field within easy reach of the main town of Charlestown, the population is laid-back and friendly and the island has some great history and geology to explore.  As with all these islands, it can get rolly here with a north swell.  Nevis was once the largest sugar-producing island in the Caribbean for the Brits so there are umpteen old ruins to explore, there's some good hiking and Nevis Peak is said to be one of the most difficult Caribbean volcanos to ascend (we have yet to do it.)  This is also one of the few islands where you will find monkeys (the locals consider them a pest) but for those of us who don't have to live with them, it is quite exciting to see them in the wild bounding through the trees or stopping to screech at you from the branches above.
     Love:  this island is just the right size
                - small enough to be accessible but large enough to still offer a challenge
     Hate:  there's no real dinghy dock at the town dock

Welcome to Nevis!

The town square - a great place to lime under the Flamboyant tree.

Church ruins - some of many on the island.

Love em or hate em, there are monkeys on Nevis.

Montserrat
Montserrat is a unique experience in that it is the only island with a currently (and sometimes violently) active volcano.  The volcano has been erupting since 1995 and has now completely destroyed the original capital city of Plymouth and rendered about two thirds of the island uninhabitable.  People come to Montserrat to view the awesome power and destructive capability of Mother Nature but there is much more to discover on this island.  From the northern anchorage at Little Bay you have little indication of what you will see south of the Central Hills but this really gives you a sense of the resiliency of those islanders who have remained on Montserrat - rebuilding and carrying on with their lives.  The northern part of the island encapsulates a wide variety of landscapes from rugged cliffs, dry scrubby savannahs to lush rainforest in the mountains.  Hike around, take the bus or lime at a local watering hole to get a real feel for this island before gawking at what we've all come to see - the eruption of Souffriere Hills volcano.  If you manage to get to Montserrat in March, you will have a unique experience with St. Paddy's day celebrated among the most Irish influenced, Guinness drinking islanders.
     Love:  incredible contrast and the power of nature
     Hate:  when people miss the rest of the island, and when the tour guides encourage them to do so!

The anchorage at Little Bay with a small surf rolling in.

We were lucky enough to catch a local cricket game - boy was it dry that year!

The north end of the island from atop the lush Central Hills rainforest.

Looking south - to the destruction at Plymouth.

One thing all these islands have in common is that most of them have small anchorages that are prone to roll when there is a northern swell.  If possible, visit them as late in the season as you can to reduce the risk - perhaps on the way south in the April-May timeframe if you have heading south for hurricane season.  The rewards are worth it though as these islands are quite distinct from the other more populous islands and a world apart from the French islands.

One more instalment to come - the Windward islands down to Grenada.

Another Island that Brushes the Clouds - St. Eustatius

St. Eustatius - more fondly referred to as Statia, lies just a 40-mile jaunt south of St. Martin in the little chain of islands that includes Saba to the north-west, St. Kitts & Nevis to the south-east and Montserrat beyond that.  Saba and Statia are part of the Dutch Caribbean and it is common to find the customs agents and other officials speaking Dutch around the port, but most people speak English more often than not.  Each of these islands also hosts, or more properly is there because of, a volcano - some more active than others such as the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat that we visited last year.

As we approached the anchorage on Statia, the customary cloud cover topped Quill, the dormant volcano that we were here to climb.  We could however, just make out the edge of the rim, since Quill is a unique volcano where we were hoping to climb down into the crater at the top.

The tiny little harbour at Statia with the town of Oranjestad on top of the cliffs.

The history of Statia goes back to settlement in the 1600s, followed by 22 handovers between the Dutch, the English and the French.  There seemed to be a pattern of the English taking it from the Dutch, the French taking it quickly to prevent English dominance of the area and then the Dutch somehow ending up having it back where they built up a powerful duty-free port full of merchants, cut-throats, slaves and thieves.  Repeat this multiple times until 1816 when the Dutch finally held the island up to the present day.

Originally, the slim piece of land between the water and the cliffs was filled with warehouses, shops and taverns, where more duty-free trade occurred than any where else in the Caribbean.  It is hard to imagine today in this sleepy little backwater, and following a hurricane in the later 1800s most traces were destroyed other than the stone foundations of a few of the more sturdy buildings.  The little town of Oranjestad today sits on top of the cliffs, away from the fury of the storm surge when hurricanes blaze through.

A few restaurants and a dive shop now sit along the waterfront below the church and Fort Oranje on the cliffs above.

The crumbly cliffs of volcanic ash line up all the way down the coast.

After checking in with customs, immigration and the harbour office, we purchased our national park passes and hiked up a goat trail to the town above.  There is a road, but it's a long-way round and between the gravel trail and an old slave road we explored later, these are the two quicker ways to ascend the cliffs on foot.

Statia's main business today is as home to massive fuel bunkers and a refuelling dock, and the north end of the island sees a steady stream of massive cargo ships.  While we were there, there seemed never less than six ships either at the dock or standing off awaiting a tug to help them to the dock.

A breakwall around the town pier offers the only protection, although today the seas were calm.

Looking north, Saba on the horizon and cargo ships awaiting fuel in the background.

After the hustle and bustle of St. Martin, the streets here are quiet and narrow, with quaint old buildings along the way.

Statia is also a very dry island with scrubby brush and cactus - this one beautifully in flower.

We decided to head up to the top of Quill in the morning before it became too hot, but the humidity and lack of exercise over the last couple of months definitely took its toll and found me (not so much Henry) huffing and puffing my way up the relatively easy path to the rim.

The first part of the walk took us up Rosemary Lane, straight towards Quill.

At the top of the lane we diverged onto a dirt road and then the trail that wound it's way up the remainder of the gentle slope.

The national park area is well signed with loads of good information about the local flora and fauna.

And here was a real surprise for us, we actually saw a Red Bellied Racer snake.  Can you see his body wriggling through the leaves and his head on the left.  No worries, not poisonous.

There were a number of trail options, all beautifully signed.  How often do you see fine calligraphy on a hike??

Horror story come to life??  I almost feel sorry for the poor tarantula and those big black wasps that buzz around now scare the daylights out of me!

Has he cornered the market??  At this point we could choose the trail down into the crater or up to a viewpoint on the rim - we did both.

On Dominica the Mountain Chicken is a frog that has been eaten to near extinction.  Here we feed the mountain chicken,  which is ironic since it will also probably be eaten, but doubtfully to extinction.

Henry scrambling down the path, dwarfed by this magnificent silk-cotton tree.

More staggering trees and lush, moist undergrowth.

Buttress roots wind their way around the tree, sometimes forming cavities with great hiding places.

After a bit of time wandering around the crater, we hauled ourselves back up the ropes to the rim and then headed upwards for what promised to be a magnificent view of the north end of the island.

We were rewarded!!  Statia is formed by two volcano islands linked in the middle by flat ground formed of volcanic ash.  Here the airport has ample room but the land is much too arid for any productive farming.

Looking down into the crater and over to the opposite side of the rim - the trees at the bottom are unbelievably huge, reaching for the sky.

We finished up our time on Quill and headed back down into the village of Oranjestad in search of lunch.  The CoolCorner beckoned with cold beer and yummy Chinese food - a local watering hole where the business of the day was conducted in the bar as folks came and went.  Fortified, we carried on wandering around the charming little town with it's well-preserved ruins and quaint little cottages.

Ruins of the Dutch Reform Church and it's tombs dating back to the 1700s.

Well preserved, with wonderful views over the anchorage.

In the market for a little Statia cottage? - don't plan on flipping this one soon, I doubt there is a hot market here.

Cobblestone streets lined with old shingled buildings - imagining this place back in time is relatively easy.

Fort Oranje stands guard over the anchorage and the entire west coast.

The old slave road leads up from the harbour and provides pedestrians (and goats) with a shortcut to the village.

Looking up the coast, past the fuel terminal to neighbouring Saba.

A Fort Oranje canon has Mowzer in it's sights.

One of the few remaining original buildings in the lower town area - the Old Gin House is now a restaurant and hotel.

With the Classics Regatta underway in Antigua and beckoning us over, our time in Statia was soon over, and off we headed further east.  

As a happy note as we finished up our time in these little islands, we finally caught our first fish on Mowzer.  No, we haven't been fishing unrewarded for the past year, we only picked up gear recently and started trolling a line behind the boat on the last few passages.  However we'd been unrewarded until we picked up this lovely little yellow-tail snapper - great eating!!