Dalton W. Williams
Sint Eustatius (Statia),
Fort Oranje
Oil Trading
Wednesday morning Gretchen and I started out for Saba but the winds would take us to St. Barts so that is where we spent the first night after leaving St. Martin. I anchored out in a small inlet away from the towns and only went ashore there for a brief walk. The next morning Gretchen got up early and awoke me later to help her raise the anchor at 7:30 and we were off to Statia, where the wind would take us!
The islands we are visiting now are all very mountainous and all were formed by volcano's. They are often called "The Mountains That Brush The Clouds". The name comes from their high mountains that are usually covered by clouds. This is certainly so for Saba, St. Kits and Montserrat and to a lesser extent on Nevis where the volcanic mountain is not as high.
Statia
Arriving
at Oranje Baai in Statia shortly after lunch, it was a very hot day with
little wind which is very unusual for the Caribbean. The first thing I did on
arriving was to put up the tent over the boat to keep the sun off the cabin top.
Finishing that I joined Gretchen swimming as I dove over the side to cool off in the crystal clear water. The tent
- really a large canvas awning that hangs from the rigging - keeps the
temperature from getting quite so hot inside the boat. Even with this, it still made it
into the low 90's by the time sunset came. Sunset was spectacular as you
can see from this photo of Quietly at anchor with the tent up.
After the swim, we cleared in which was the usual Dutch one stop affair right at the head of the dock in Oranjestad and very easy. Then Gretchen and I joined friends David and Andrea from Gallant and adjourned to "The Old Gin House" where in the last century they made Gin for export back to Holland and America. Today it is a small hotel with a lovely lobby in the old Gin factory. David and Andrea's children Alex and Tom joined us enjoying cool drinks under the fans ceiling fans in the lobby before walking back to the dinghy dock at sunset.
Everyone came over to Quietly
for sundown. I disappeared into the galley to make bar-b-q meatballs while
others brought drinks and cashew nuts. We enjoyed French wine, beer and
diet Pepsi along with wonderful conversation until well after dark. I enjoyed a glass of French wine I
purchased from a small French wind dealer in Marigot before we left. I usually like sweet wines from Germany but while
in Marigot the French dealer let me taste several sweet French wines and I found
a Sauterne wine that I really liked. I purchased four bottles. At the rate that
I drink, the four bottles will last several months. Diet Pepsi on the other hand
disappears far to fast!
The
next morning met another couple,
Dave and Melody from Godiva who stopped by Quietly to ask if we would like
to join them for a taxi
tour of Statia for three hours. We were delighted to go and shared the
expense of the taxi which made it a wonderful outing for everyone.
While waiting for the taxi, Dave and I took the opportunity to sit in a
makeshift shelter at the end of the dock where she showed me some software on
his notebook computer.
On our tour we learned that Statia is a small island of less than five square miles with a population of 3,000, mainly black with a few Dutch citizens.
Fort Oranje
The
first place our driver took us was to Fort Oranje overlooking the bay.
Fort Oranje has been beautifully restored and is now partially used for
government offices and the Tourist Office. The fort is definitely worth
the time to see and even plays a part in US history supplying much of the
weapons, ammunition and supplies for the war of independence from England.
And it was here that the First Salute by a foreign power was made to a warship
of the United States of America. On November 16, 1776 the guns of Fort
Oranje or order of the Governor of St. Eustatius were fired in salute to the new
nation.
Oil Trading
In the 1700's and 1800's Statia was a very prosperous trading center. Over 20,000 people lived here and often there were more than 100 ships in the small harbor where I am anchored today. Then as today Statia was a trans shipment point. The island raised about 6,000 tons of sugar per year but exported 60,000 tons annually during the British embargo of America. The other 54,000 tons of course came here from America and was then exported to Brittan as Statia sugar with the profits being split between the Statian traders and the American farmers.
Today
the island is still in the same business... Only with oil! As I am writing
this, there are four huge
super tankers here, some with oil from certain embargoed countries (you can guess where)
off loading their cargo of oil onto the on shore storage facilities and others from America loading
oil from the on shore storage tanks ... Oil from Statia...
We
toured the storage facilities in the taxi. There are 123 huge oil storage
tanks here with super tankers docking each day to off load or on load oil.
It's just business... And it is right out in the open. Oil from
Statia where there is not a single oil well. Sometimes I wonder how naive we all
are!
The second big industry here is government and the third is tourism. The people are friendly and there is no poverty with everyone having a job either in the oil industry, government, of tourism. And not much of that from what I can see. There are three hotels on the island and the largest has 18 rooms. They cater to dive enthusiasts who come to dive the reefs and wrecks around the island.
Though tourism is one of Statia's major industries, today there were only five sailboats like Quietly here, yesterday there was six. The two dive shops had a few divers on their boats and talking with a couple who had been diving the shops are very good. But looking at the number of tourist, it is delightfully low key. I saw no farming activities though the island has many cows and goats wondering loose. The taxi driver explained that everyone knows their cow or goats. When we asked what people do with them, he laughed and replied "Eat them."
Gives you an insight into the pace of life here. Simple and direct, but very nice.
Saturday morning as we prepared to sail to St. Kits, getting away proved to be somewhat of a challenge as I had never before put out two anchors. In this case I had put out a stern anchor and the bow was tied to a mooring ball. I had put out this combination as suggested in the cruising guide as the winds are 90 degrees away from the night time swell which would make things a bit rolly as the boat would swing into the wind and the swell would roll the boat. Thus the mooring ball in the front and the stern anchor in back to hold Quietly nose into the swell.
Now that I have confused the heck out of you... perhaps not... the problem came when the dinghy got caught in the stern anchor line. When I relaxed the line to untangle the dinghy, the line got caught on Quietly's prop. I had to dive on it to get everything where it should be. Then I released the mooring and the boat swung around (as it should) and I retrieved the anchor while Gretchen motored slowly toward it and we were on our way to St. Kits.