St. Kitts, WI

We arrived at St. Christopher Island (a.k.a. St. Kitts) at 7:30 AM and were greeted to the 86⁰ heat  and 85% humidity of the Caribbean.  Boy what a change from the cold North Atlantic.  

Once a sugar-producing powerhouse, St. Kitts is lush with unspoiled vistas and old sugarcane plantations.  What do you do with all of the plantations that no longer grow sugarcane?  Make them bed-and-breakfasts or some other tourist attraction!  So our first stop of the day was at the "Fairview Great House and Botanical Garden" (a re-purposed sugarcane plantation.)

The Great House has been meticulously restored to the 1701 time period when it was built.  Furnishings included this 16-seat mahogany dinning room table sized to accommodate petticoats typical of the era.

The master bedroom was huge even by today's standards.  Note the high ceiling needed for comfortable sleeping in the semi-tropical climate.

The lawn and garden areas around the house would have been maintained by the plantation's slaves.

On to the next re-purposed plantation; Romney Manor (est. 1626).  Its gardens were spectacular. The original owner, Sam Jefferson, acquired the property shortly after the French and British (jointly) massacred the total population of Carib Indians on the island so land grants could be given to wealthy Europeans.  Sam Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson's g-g-g-grandfather.  Today the estate is the home of Caribelle Batik Studios.

Batik is a method of producing colored designs on textiles by dyeing them, having first applied wax to the parts to be left undyed.  Above, the artist has waxed the fabric in preparation for dyeing.   Each color or pattern change requires an additional wax/dye step.

Jan spent a few minutes "inspecting" the beautiful batik merchandise.

Recently dyed batik fabric was drying on the clothesline.

The Caribbean islands were continually being attacked by Britain's enemies of the day, the French and Spanish.  To protect the plantation owners, forts were constructed.   The largest British fort on St. Kitts was Brimstone Hill Fortress.

Perched 750 feet above sea level, the fort had a commanding view of the island and surrounding sea.  Pictured above is the Prince of Wales Bastion which once housed the brigade office, main guard barracks and a powder magazine.

The fort was designed by British military engineers, then constructed and maintained by slaves over the next 150 years.  Above is the citadel.

The fort had 49 canons and in 1780 was considered impregnable, "The Gibraltar of the Caribbean".  That was until the French laid siege in 1782 and the British garrison surrendered.  One year later, the Treaty of Paris returned the fort and island to the British.

Nautical Term of the Day -- Pooped

The poop is the stern section of a ship.  To be "pooped" is to be swamped by a high, following sea.