2025-01-26 Windy week in St. Kitts - broken toe - up to St. Croix

It was a windy week in St. Kitts, so mostly on the boat.  Sunday we went for a nice walk with new friends Neil and Jenni on Lorikeet.  They are here in St. Kitts with us waiting out the high winds.   We walked over to the ocean side to check out the waves.   On the way over and back we saw lots of monkeys.

The African green monkey (vervets) is not native to St. Kitts, but brought onto the island long ago as pets.  As early as 1700.  They of course have multiplied.  Estimates say there are about 37,000 monkeys on the island.  That is about the same as the population.   About 550 monkeys for each square mile of land.  St. Kitts is working to reduce the population, but they are a tourist draw, so they don't want to eliminate them.   It is becoming quite the issue.

African green monkey

The issue is of course food for the monkeys.  They do a lot of damage to crops.  We saw them on the dry end of the island, where no crops are grown, so assume that they have begun to scavenge trash as well, since they are omnivores.   Some were not particularly afraid of us, but others scampered into the brush more quickly.

Monday we went for another walk with Lorikeet, to get off the boat.  Took a different trail and walked down to a rocky beach.  All was good, then all of a sudden Kris took a fall.   She doesn't know how she fell, or what happened, just was walking on the rocky shore, then on her butt.  Her toe hurt, but thought she could walk it off, so we continued on the walk, then back to Lorikeet for a boat tour and visit.  

The toe still hurt, so that evening Kris spent some time with various frozen foods propped on her foot to ice the toe, which was now swollen.

Dean thinks this is the best use of frozen veggies he has seen in a while.

Pretty sure the toe is broken.   So for Tuesday and Wednesday, Kris pretty much sat on the boat with the foot elevated.  Dean went for daily walks with Lorikeet.  And the wind blew around 20 knots, with higher gusts.

Thursday, Lorikeet rented a car, wanting to go for a hike to a bat cave on the rainforest side of the island, and we joined them.  Had to change plans, as heavy rains the night before made the trail too wet, so decided to do a trail on the dry south end of the island.   

Kris brought a book to hang out and read and relax while Dean, Neil and Jenni hiked the trail.  

Kris had a nice view of the south end.  Island of Nevis in the south

Dean, Neil and Jenni walked the Shitten Bay trail 

The trail, more of a scramble than trail at some areas

Shitten bay at the end of the trail is a popular spot for cruise ship tourists to come for a snorkel, 2 or 3 boats every day bring tourists here.

Jenni and Neil getting ready to hike back.

After the hike, we headed into Basseterre, where Jenni had found a good place for lunch at Palm Court Gardens.    Beautiful gardens and delicious food.   Had a bit of an issue after ordering, it was nearly an hour until food came.  They were very apologetic, and offered free desert, so all worked out.

Palm court garden

View from the restaurant

Cruise ship guests can pay about $20 to hang out for the day at the gardens, enjoy the pool, and sip drinks (drinks extra of course)

Neil and Jenni off Lorikeet with Dean and Kris

Kris's toe still aching, so while others climbed the stairs for a high up view, she stayed down.  That should speak to how the toe feels

We stopped at a hardware store and groceries on the way back.  Also stopped at a scenic overlook. 

View of south end of island, Charm anchored in the far distance.

The overlook is a main island tour destination, so lots of vans parked there as well, with cruise ship tourists wandering about.

Had to take a photo of this van for our son Derek, who was quite the fan when he was young.

View of north side of island, Mount Liamuiga is covered in clouds, as usual.

A fellow selling coconut juice had a couple baby monkeys in diapers.  He lets the monkeys sit on tourists shoulders for a fee.   

Friday, we decided to sail off to St. Croix, but had to check out first.   We went in at 10:00 to do this, and finished around 1:00.  Power outage on the entire south end of the island caused the longest checkout ever.

We upped anchor around 2:00 p.m. for overnight sail.  Kris wearing one shoe to protect her toe.  She is so happy that she actually had a bruise.  Seems every time she hurts herself, she has nothing to show for it, while Dean always gets a nasty bruise and more sympathy due to a visible injury.  Kris quite happy she actually has a bruise this time - not that anyone would ever see it on the underside of the toe.

Kris's bruise on middle toe.  We know, it just looks like a big shadow, but it is the biggest bruise she has had in around 20 plus years.

Decent sail up to St. Croix, averaged over 7 knots for 20 hours on the trip, which is pretty decent.

We will hang out here for a few days, then up to St. Thomas in preparation for our son Derek's visit on the 11th of February.