Sailing to Dutch St. Eustatius. Diving the reef. Getting Nitrox trained. Climbing into the pre-historic volcanic crater wilderness.
s/v Cloudy Bay (Hallberg-Rassy 54) has a wonderful sail from our favorite island of Nevis to Dutch run island of St. Eustatius (Stay-sha). Sailing down the lee side of St.Kitts we see the island in its full splendor for once, with no cloud covering its majestic volcanos. Approaching Eustatius we see its volcano, The Quill, along with the famous “white wall” on the NE side.
We anchor in Oranje Bay next to Oranjestad town which still has a lot of quaint colonial Dutch architecture. The lower town, once a bustling and thriving wharf was decimated by the English in retaliation to the island giving the first American ship a gun-salute in 1776. You can still see the remains of the stone wharfs, and some warehouses are nicely restored.
We have 2 dives in the National Marine Park and take our Nitrox exam with the ScubAqua dive school, run by a very pleasant Dutch gang.
One of the days we climb The Quill and into the crater, which is like a lost world, untouched by Europeans. You could be in a Jurassic park film set. We were overall very charmed with this little island, its cute town and warm people. But forecast meant we had to move onto St. Barths before we were really ready. 18-21 January 2019