St. Barts to St. Kitts

Cero mackerel that Conrad finally agreed to hold.

We had a nice fast sail from St. Barts to St. Kitts. The 60 degree apparent wind angle made things much more comfortable than the 30 degree wind angle the day before, even though the seas were just as big.

We skirted a couple squalls that churned the seas up even more and had us reaching 10 knots at times, with a reef in. Just as one of these squalls passed through, we caught this black fin tuna and had to slow the boat down. We managed to get him aboard and the kids immediately started lobbying for sushi.  The kids like to play a game where we estimate what our dinners would cost in a restaurant. Have I mentioned that we don't have a TV? We decided that the sushi the first night and the seared tuna with wasabi-ginger mashed potatoes the next night would have been a few hundred dollars for the family. Even better, we have kids that like sushi and wasabi-ginger mashed potatoes.

When you visit a country on a boat, it is a sign of respect to fly a courtesy flag for that country. We have been making our own courtesy flags using canvas and fabric paint. You're supposed to iron the fabric to set the paint. Since we don't have an iron, Matt improvises with some pans on the stove.  The main challenge is figuring out where we're going so we can make a flag beforehand. We were painting the St. Kitts and Nevis flag the day before we arrived in St. Kitts and Matt put the grommets in after he checked in with customs. The flag for the Dominican Republic went unused since we ended up going all the way to Puerto Rico.

At $20-30 a pop for commercial flags (that don't hold up so well anyway),
we're happy with homemade. From a distance, you don't notice a difference.

We walked around Basseterre (St. Kitts) and bought some produce and bread. Although cruise ships stop here, it is very much a working town. I was surprised by the open sewer lines running through the downtown area. Conrad picked up a coin from one of gutters before he realized he was touching poopy water. Good thing we carry hand sanitizer with us.

We will spend a few days in St. Kitts and Nevis while waiting for the weather to settle and then head south.