The Culps of the Caribbean

Unsolved Mystery of the Ghost Ship Facts: The sailboat was last tracked to Costa Teguise, Spain on February 26, 2018, per Marinetraffic.com. The deceased captain washed ashore in Portugal in March 2018, per his obituary.  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/may/09/rob-mitchell-obituary The sailboat is beached on rocks on the coastline of the Caribbean island of Nevis; observed on January 2019 and remains on Nevis today [May 2019]. Distance between Costa Teguise and Nevis is 3,200 miles (as the crow flies). Hurricanes Florence and Helene crossed the Atlantic directly between Spain and Nevis in Aug/Sept 2018. Questions: What event caused the sailboat and the captain to get separated? How many days was the derelict sailboat at sea before it arrived on Nevis? "Katniss" on the rocks on Nevis The captain's obituary at The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/may/09/rob-mitchell-obituary Marinetraffic.com tracking info f...

A ruin of a sugar mill and chimney towers high above the eastern coastline of St. Kitts.  This area is called Canada Hills.  Rather hidden from view, the remants of this old (late 1700's) estate of James Davoren is chiefly visible from the coast as it sits so high atop a mountain.  What one discovers along with the ruins are waves of rhino grass, a cool breeze off of the Atlantic Ocean, about half a dozen free-range cattle and SPECTACULAR VIEWS.  It was evident that The perilous two-track, rock-strewn drive up the mountainside rarely sees vehicular traffic. The 1828 map of St. Kitts.  The mill is noted in the center of the map below. Same location below from Google Maps Same view but with my geo tracker map. The Windmill Base. The windmill and the chimney, looking southeast with the Atlantic on the left and Nevis far in the distance. Looking southeast to the peninsular and Nevis beyond it. The Atlantic Ocean coastline ab...

The 2014 Hurricane Season is upon us.  What does that mean?  Before now and the end of November there is a chance of being hit by a hurricane.  We live in an all concrete house that is dug into the side of a mountain. Sounds rather nutty survivalist, but that is how most of the new homes here are.  Internally we will collect some 1-gallon containers of bottled water.  Last year Amy amassed 16 gallons of bottled water.  Well we still have 8 gallons left.  My Kittitian friends store about 3-gallons. Last year the closest hurricane was about 30 miles south of us and it did not even rain here that day.  So, who knows what will be in store for us this year.  We have a satellite phone in case the island phone/internet system is down.  That way we can keep our families informed.  Below are some photos of the last hurricane that hit here.  Hurricane Georges.

We went beach combing today along a long vacant stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.  We spotted a ginormous buoy tangled up in a tree branch and a big wad of ropes.  Amy suggested we find a piece of broken glass to cut the ropes.  Seriously?  We see that fictional stuff on TV.  Tried it. It worked!!  Now the buoy will retire as our swimming pool toy.  Markers on the buoy indicate that it floated here from Nigeria.

Every visitor to St. Kitts must stop atop of Timothy Hill.  The Atlantic to the East, The Caribbean (technically as sea) to the West.  200 Yards between them. We drive by this spot about once a week and it never ceases to be awe inspiring.

Saturday's weather was blustery with the rain and the wind, although still 80 degrees. Once it cleared in the afternoon we made it down to the nearest beach which is about 1/2 mile from home.  The surf was all worked up from the wind. On Sunday, the weather was perfect.  We went down to Key's Beach which is about 4 miles away.  It is a very long stretch of a sandy beach that faces a wild Atlantic Ocean.  Amy spent a lot of time picking up beach glass.  My day was made when I spotted the trail of a sea turtle that had laid it's eggs the night before. To read more about the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network click the link below: http://www.stkittsturtles.org/www.stkittsturtles.org/Welcome.html Lastly,  I had spotted a large boat that was parked on a street in town.  Amy wanted to see it.  Here it is:   Nope, not on a trailer. On the street.

My workplace sits near a cliff. A short walk down a path through the sugar cane behind it leads to the steps down to beach.  I explored it today.  The people at the office rarely go there and it is fairly inaccessible to the nearby villagers.  On the southern end it is rocky and on the northern end it is black sand. View from the top of the steps. Even on the calmest day the Atlantic generates 5-6 ft waves here.   A chunk of coral.     The northern end with the black sand.                   As this beach is rarely visited there is a collection of items that have washed up on shore that have fallen off of boats and such.  Along the high tide line, trapped amongst the drift wood are an unusual/comical number of sandals and flip-flops. This blog will be boring if I keep putting pictures of beach scenes on it.  So I will curtail that.

With no plans on my calendar today I ventured out to explore the neighborhood. This cow is chained up for grazing so that it doesn't wander off. As you can see it can easily get into the road.  This is a heavily traveled main road around the island. The village of Lodge is located in a gaught (gut) which is a steep valley that handles run off water from the mountain to the ocean.  My apartment is at the top of this valley in the village of Molineaux about a 1/4 mile away. Just up the street is what appears to be an old abandoned church.  It's not.  It is just shuttered during the times it's not in use. In the distance on the north end of the island you can see the island of Eustacius. Closer up.  The island of Eustacius has a massive white cliff side.  From the air you can see a large number of fuel tanks and many oil tankers waiting to transfer fuel for this end of the Caribbean. Selfie at Romney Manor.  Caribelle...