Visiting Nevis Island by Ferry

We took our first trip to Nevis Island last week.  (pronounced NEE-vis) A former Senior Missionary couple, the Woffendins are on vacation doing some house-sitting on St. Kitts for awhile and we accompanied them to visit some of their friends on St. Kitts sister island of Nevis and explore the island a bit.  We took a car ferry across and back.  This is a new ferry boat for St. Kitts (a fine, used ferry purchased from Greece).  The crossing took nearly an hour, as the boat is not so fast and the dock was further down the coast. As the photos suggest, the ferry was almost empty.

Hamilton! (Birthplace, not the Play)

Did you know that the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton was Nevis island.  He lived on Nevis until he was about 7. Hamilton and his brother and mother then moved to St. Croix. His early life was tumultuous, including being orphaned at age 11. When he was about 16 he was sent off to Boston for an education, and the rest of the story is pretty well known. We visited the stone house where he was likely born, which is also a small museum about Hamilton (upstairs) and about Nevis History (downstairs).

We also drove up to the ruins of the Hamilton Estate, most notably the sugar processing equipment. Alexander didn’t really have much to do with the Hamilton family, as his namesake birth-father apparently abandoned Alexander and Alexander’s mother shortly after Alexander was born. Still, the Estate remained in the Hamilton family for quite some time, and it was interesting to see the abandoned equipment in the process of being overgrown by the vegetation.

We visited some church members on the island and had lunch at their house. The father is a gardner/horticulturalist for some large estate on the island, and his house is a plant nursery, along with ducks, a turkey and other animals.

We especially liked the flower of the Poinciana Tree, sometimes called the flamboyant tree. We’ve seen large Poinciana trees nearly covered with these bright red and yellow flowers.

We took the ferry back to St Kitts in the afternoon. Nevis, we’ll be back!

A House with a View

Later in the week, we spent some time at the house where the Woffendins are housesitting. Very nice house set on a hill on the Southeast Penninsula of St. Kitts, with great views.

A Good Walk, (not) Spoiled

Several mornings a week we take a walk through the golf course of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club. Even early in the mornings it is plenty warm this time of year, but the views and clouds are always spectacular.

This three-masted schooner (the Vela) showed up in Frigate bay recently. Six night sailings starting at $3000/person….

Next up, our daughter Carine comes to visit next week, so we’ll be doing a few touristy things. Stay tuned!