Cleared out of Statia, headed to Nevis, again into the wind – made water, filled the tanks, cleared into Nevis so we could go ashore and walk the 4 seasons beach.

Dinghy’d over to the 4 Seasons dock, they said we didn’t belong there and had to beach the dinghy – oh well.  Time to figure out how to lift the new dinghy engine?!?

Seems we had bent a part, when we put the new outboard on that prevented it from being lifted.  Sorted that out, we were able to beach the dinghy but that bent part would need to be fixed.  Crappy design that requires a compression fit to make a pivot, sorted it out later with a big hammer.  Tho it did require removing the engine and learning how to creatively use the main sheet to get the engine off and on without dropping it in the ocean.

Weather is not in our favor, big waves, close together, so instead of a bonzai run Guadeloupe we opted for a yellow flag visit to Monserrat and had Renedevous bay all to ourselves.

Great snorkel to the north, lots of fish, some decently healthy coral, lots to check out and see.

Up early and out into the Atlantic, its rough, crash / bash – good morning world.  Around the Atlantic side for a shot to Guadeloupe, took about 3 hrs to finally get over the underwater shelf where the waves would not beat us up too badly, and we set sail to a new anchorage at the top corner of Guadeloupe.   Nice place for a needed rest stop.

Down island starts.  Moving south for Hurricane season.

Saba – a huge rock that can be seen from Saint Marten its a divers paradise, but we’ve just have never been.

Its pronouced sAaaaaba, not SahBa like the one in the BVI.  Also one of the places the weather has to be just right to visit comfortably.  We had that weather so we went.

Left SXM with full sails and rocketed over to Saba, a mere 20 miles away – found a Wahoo along the way.

Arranged for a taxi after clearing customs to show us the island, a town at the bottom called “Bottom” where the government offices are and another town called “Windward side” where the rest of the folks live.  Kevin gave us a great tour, and we scheduled him for the next day too.

We hiked to the top of that gnarly rock.

The top is covered in clouds, it rains, its wet, its slippery .. but nothing a good set of flip-flops can’t handle.   And Christine needed her steps on her fitbit after all.

We made it to the top and back down safely, but since its in the clouds there wasn’t a view as reward at the top.  The only reward was at the “windward side” grocery store that sold cold beers.  And an awesome bakery for breakfast after the hike.

The down sides of going to Saba first is it cuts the wind angle so it was more of motor into the wind from Saba to Statia – no biggie, its a new island to see.

The Saba White/Red/Green (uniform colored) houses were not the same on Statia, they import more than 3 colors.  Saba was unique that all the houses had Red roofs, white buildings and green Shutters – its a law there – made everything look nice.

Statia was back to whatever colors you wanted.  Statia has a volcano crater, so yup, we hiked that the very next day after Saba.
As we were out looking/wondering around – a local gave us a ride to the trail head. The ‘Quil’ is what its called, he said we would need some water, as he noticed Wayne and I had fresh beers and Christine had a single water bottle.

We hiked on anyway, heck its shorter than yesterday’s hike.

I saved one sip of beer for the top, then we climbed down in to the crater, its says proceed at own risk or with a guide.  We had met a fellow Catana owner, Morning Glory, out in the bay, who is returning to the states after an 8 year round the world trip and they were also on the trail that morning.  We passed them on the way up, and as we were cooling off at the top, they caught up and we all scampered down the rocks to the crater bottom.

Ropes and rocks and awesome banyon trees at the bottom.

We made it back to the grocery store for a cold beverage, and then found a place for lunch.   Back to the boat for some relaxation and dinner and vowed no more hiking of volcanos on this trip as everyone’s legs were sore!