SAINT EUSTATIA (STATIA).

Beautiful early morning sail to Oranje Bay in Statia ( pronounced Stay-sha) in hazy visibility.

The contrast in the welcome of the people of Statia to that of St. Kitts was overwhelming. Customs stayed open during his lunch break to check us in and the National Park office answered all our questions and pointed us in the right direction for lunch and an ATM.

Statia was named by Columbus as St. Anastasia during his voyage around 1493.

Since then the island has changed hands many times before the Dutch Jews held it permanently from 1816. It became a free port and known as the Golden Rock because of it's status as a successful trading centre and between 1775 and 1800, it was the busiest port in the world. On the 16th of November, 1776, Fort Oranje (now preserved and restored down to the last detail) was the first place in the world to fire a salute to the new independence flag of an American ship, the Andrew Doria. Gradual decline of Statia's status due to heavy taxation by the French and English led it to become one of the most unspoilt of the Caribbean Islands with historic remains of the trading port warehouses and other buildings lining the shore. In 1996, the marine park was set up to conserve and manage the marine sources, this is in contrast with the many ships anchored off the shore to offload their fuel into an oil transfer station, within the marine park.

The currency here is American dollars which threw us as we expected it to be euros as it is part of Netherlands. The administration of the island on behalf of the Netherlands is done via Bonaire.

Oranjestad is the only settlement on the island and divided into Upper and Lower Towns. Walking around Lower Town on the foreshore we came across a substantial sized Lesser Antillean Iguana which we found out is a common sight on this tiny island.

The main part of the town is a steep walk up a cobbled road (Old Slave Road, used in the 18th century for slave traffic) to Upper Town in Oranjestad. Here you can visit examples of the architecture of the wealthy times, ruins of the Honen Dalim Synagogue, remains of an old Dutch Reformed church, restored Government House and the Simon Doncker house which houses the local museum.

We anchored in Oranje Baii (Bay) which is a hive of activity with tug boats to-ing and fro-ing between tankers, pilot boats whizzing about and the regular traffic of dive boats ferrying their clients to prime dive sites.

Various publications disagree on the quality of restaurants on offer. We tried a "home style" local restaurant and Stephen enjoyed the best fish and chips he had tasted in years. Later that evening we joined Sephina at an American/French restaurant which served Ricard (at last)! Pleasant wines and average food. The American proprietor, Alan, was comical with a photographic memory of statistics for the island. He told us that the oil transfer station is used by the Chinese to store their speculative oil purchases for eventual delivery to the USA earning Statia around $15 million a year. This island does not rely on tourism for trade. He also said that he has difficulties in employing Statians as they prefer not to move, ie Stationary rather than Statian. According to the government statistics there is no unemployment on the island. This is in sharp contrast to many of the other Caribbean Islands where unemployment seems to run around 30%. We almost had to do the washing up as between us we did not have enough dollars to pay the bill (very expensive for the quality of the food) and Alan had failed to tell us that he didn't accept credit cards. He was extremely laid back and looked forward to us raiding the ATM the following day to settle our debt.

We heard whilst writing this blog, that Cyclone Pam has ripped through Vanuatu causing huge damage in Port Vila with many deaths. This was one of our favourite places and the pictures on the internet show the devastation where we as a fleet had been moored. It could be the worst natural disaster in Pacific history and our thoughts go out to all the wonderful people we met there.

Throughout our stay M was still having to be started using the manual pull cord and despite wearing sailing gloves the kick back was leaving its mark on Stephen’s “accountancy” hands.

Very uncharacteristically Debbie was laid low for two days, we presumed with a virus and we delayed our departure so when better we could snorkel over the ruins of the sunken warehouses. We spotted old anchors, a cannon and the remains of the outlying of the walls. We saw some impressive fish and were mesmerised by a shoal of cuttlefish displaying their underwater skills.

We had now accumulated enough boat jobs that would mean St. Maarten, well blessed with chandlers and duty free status would be our next port of call. Our main priorities were sorting out M’s electric start, generator service, new grey water float switch, new ‘fridge thermostat  and replacing the sound proofing around the generator. It also means we could enjoy more time with Sephina and could welcome Bubbles back.