Fort Hamilton, Bequia

On Sunday, we decided to take a walk and explore the other side of the bay and the ruins of a fort overlooking the harbor.

 This beauiful little stone church, St. Michaels Catholic Church, is set back from the main road,

just up the hill.

The road follows the bay and then winds it's way up the hill through residential neighborhoods until it reaches the site of the old fort.

 The view of Admiralty Bay from the top of the hill is the reason the British chose this location.

 Nothing remains of the original fort which was built in the late 1700's.  A wall has been constructed to hold a number of cannon that remain and to give you an idea of how this site could be used to protect the harbor and the island from American Privateers and French Raiders.  Interestingly, the fort is named for Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the American constitution who was born on the island of Nevis in 1755.

A panoramic view of Admiralty Bay from the site of  Fort Hamilton.

Back onboard and it's time to make some decisions about where we'll go and what we'll do this year.  The sea is settling down and it looks like we'll have good weather to head north.  Our friends on S/V Orchid are headed to St. Martin to prepare for their Atlantic crossing to the Mediterranean and we'd like to meet up with them before they leave in April.  So our plan was to take advantage of this next weather window and just keep moving, stopping just for the night until we reach Les Saintes.  I'm beginning to think that PLAN is a dirty, 4 letter word!  Everytime we try it, something seems to stop us.  PLAN to meet Natalie in St. Lucia and the weather turns bad.  PLAN to leave Wednesday and we break an engine part doing a routine oil change.  Yes, the plastic top on the dipstick in the transmission broke as Jim was putting it back in.  There are a number of marine services in Bequia but none carrying Yanmar parts.  We asked around and were referred to Kerry Machine Services where Kerry informed us that he was well aware of the problem as he has fixed this very thing on a number of boats before.  "They're made of plastic, they always break."  Jim took him our broken dipstick this morning and Kerry says he will make a stainless top for it.  Hopefully, all will be fixed by tomorrow and we can be on our way Thursday morning.

Here's hoping for fair winds!