Christopher Columbus visited  Saint Kitts on his second voyage in 1493 and found it inhabited by Carib people – also known as the Kalina or mainland Caribs, and the Kalinago or Island Caribs. He named it Saint Christopher (San Cristobal), but the name was shortened to Saint Kitts by English settlers under Sir Thomas Warner who, in 1623, established the first successful English colony in the West Indies. The French also arrived on the island in 1625 and established a colony of their own. The island was divided during the 17th century between warring French and English colonists, Saint Kitts was given to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Views of Saint Kitts as we arrived.

On St. Kitts 19,780 slaves were freed with the abolishment of the slave trade and emancipation in 1834.

The sugar cane industry was introduced in 1643, and throughout the Caribbean it made people immensely wealthy. It can be compared to the oil industry today. By the end of the 1700s, Saint Kitts became the richest British Crown Colony per capita in the Caribbean as result of its slave-based sugar industry. The introduction of the sugar beet and international market competition drove prices steadily downward, and by 2005 the plantations were closed and falling in to decay. Today, tourism is the main industry – mostly cruise ships, but also tourists arriving by air.

We took a train ride on a very touristy train that rode on the old narrow gauge lines that were used between 1912 and 1926 to transport sugar canes from the island’s sugar plantations to the sugar factory in the capital city of Basseterre. It was an extremely bumpy and rolling ride but we passed through villages; rode along the craggy western coastline with its black stone and sand beaches; went around the highest mountain on the island – Mount Liamuiga (formerly Mount Misery), with a lake in its forested crater (3,792 feet); saw the remains of sugar plantations with the remnants of the windmill which was used for powering the machinery that crushed the cane, and the chimney from the furnace.

We saw the Dutch islands of Oranjestad and Saba in the dear distance.

Following centuries of British and French colonial, Saint Kitts and Nevis, gained independence in 1983.

Nevis and Nevis Peak (3232ft) in the background.

The evolution of our sunset as we got ready to leave Saint Kitts.

Throughout this cruise we have seen patches of Sargassum in the ocean. I looked it up and found this article interesting.

What is Sargassum?

Sargassum is a genus of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.

The brown algae Sargassum is abundant in the ocean. Upon close inspection, it is easy to see the many leafy appendages, branches, and round, berry-like structures that make up the plant. These “berries” are actually gas-filled structures, called pneumatocysts, which are filled mostly with oxygen. Pneumatocysts add buoyancy to the plant structure and allow it to float on the surface.

Floating clumps, patches, large rafts, and weedlines of Sargassum can be found in the upper parts of the water column. Sometimes these rafts can stretch for miles across the ocean. This floating habitat can provide food, refuge, and breeding grounds for an array of animals such as fishes, sea turtles, marine birds, crabs, shrimp, and more. Some animals, like the sargassum fish (in the frogfish family), live their whole lives only in this habitat. Sargassum serves as a primary nursery area for a variety of commercially important fishes such as mahi mahi, jacks, and amberjacks. (From https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/sargassum.html)