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| Port Zante, St. Kitts, West Indies Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved |
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| Port Zante; St. Kitts, West Indies Copyright Andy Richards 2014 |
THE FIRST one was our routine cruise which - for several years now - has included our friends, Mike, Elaine, Terry and Deb. This one was our more typical 12 - day cruise in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. Following the customary 2 at sea days it requires to sail from Ft. Lauderdale to the Caribbean, our first port of call was Basseterre, St. Kitts. This was our 6th time in this now very familiar port (we would stop yet another time later in April), and we felt like we had kind of "been there, done that." I always love the yellow port entrance, even if it is "touristy" and is the gateway to one of the most touristy cruise ports we have visited over the years. It is familiar, and it hasn't changed much since our first visit in 2014. We have had some fun times here, and I have some fun photographs from the past. But one of the things I had always wanted to do was to visit the sister Island of Nevis (the nation is technically "St. Kitt's and Nevis." It had always kind of intrigued me, since our second visit there back in 2013. Somewhere along the line, I learned that Alexander Hamilton was born and spent part of his early childhood there. Being a student of history, I thought it would be cool to say I had been there someday. But up until this cruise, it has still - for whatever reasons - eluded me.
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| Clifton Estate Nevis Spiced Rum Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
THIS TRIP, we finally decided to venture over there. We found a small rum facility on TripAdvisor (Clifton Estate), and I reached out to the proprietor, Mark Theron, and made an appointment for a tasting. Since we got home, I have ordered 4 5ths of his signature rum (pictured above). There is a U.S. distribution point here in Florida and you can order online. If you buy 4, shipping is free. I really enjoy it (it has some orange and spices flavor with just enough - but not too much - sweetness). I highly recommend it!
"it all started with a drunken night in a bar."MARK HAS an interesting story. Learning he was from Cape Town, South Africa, I asked how he ended up in Nevis. His answer was humorous: "Like so many stories," he said, "it all started with a drunken night in a bar." Sometime prior to 2010, he crewed on sailboat racing boats. Following a regatta win, Mark was celebrating with the owner and crew somewhere in Cape Town, and the owner asked him if he was interesting in being crew to sail the racing boat across the Atlantic. He might not have said yes in a more sober moment. 😅 Something like 50 + days in the sun without a bimini; these boats are not made for ocean cruising. But they made it intact to the Caribbean, and eventually, he made his way to his now home in Nevis. Nice guy. Fun tasting. It was just him and the 2 of us as the other couple he had booked had a weather-related change in plans.
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| Special Reserve Edition - Clifton Estate - Blended for celebration/installation of Alexander Hamilton Statue - Unfortunately, we couldn't buy a bottle of this one Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
GETTING TO Nevis, it turned out, was a bit of an adventure. Mark had suggested an (better) alternative to the Ferry at Port Zante. The large, ferry terminal there is a block or two from the cruise port and an easy walk. But over the years, I had been told by locals that it was undependable with its schedule, and often involved a rough ride. Most online sources note that it is a 45 minute ride (12.5 miles), and is fairly dependable, though it looks like only 4-5 trips a day, so scheduling around docking and all-aboard times will be important. Mark's alternative involved taking a taxi down to the southeastern part of the island to Reggae Beach, and taking a water taxi for the 2.5 miles over to Nevis. This was a short ride (5-10 minutes) and relatively calm waters. You can see to the other side. The taxi ride took 20 - 30 minutes, but you do get to see some of the island of St. Kitts (on our second trip in April, our tour of St. Kitts re-traced some of that). We used the "official" taxi stand in the yellow building and got a round trip from the port to Reggae Beach. Once at the water taxi, we again got a round trip ticket. One thing that was a new thing for us: there is a customs terminal at the water taxi port over in Nevis, and we had to pay a (I think it was $5 each) "fee" to go back to St. Kitts. Interesting.
Getting to Nevis was a bit of an [fun] adventure
ONCE WE were ashore in Nevis, there was a guy who was coordinating transportation who called us a taxi. Another round trip fare. Did I say it was a bit of an adventure - but kind of fun. Not sure whether we will do this again in 2026, or just take the main ferry from the cruise port area. Clifton Estate turned out to be a very small "shack" for a tasting room, with a small, but very modern and heavily built warehouse and distilling area behind it. As far as we have been able to learn, there is no real presence of distilleries in St. Kitts and only Mark's very small footprint in Nevis. There are several blending operations though, and a desire to rejuvinate the distilling industry. Mark's rums (and we learned, other liquors - primarily gin) are blended from base liquor he imports (the rum mainly from Antigua). He then uses his still operation to infuse them. His main product is Clifton Estate Spiced Rum. It is really yummy. Not like some of the sickly-sweet spiced rums we are accustomed to in the States. It is a sipping rum (and I can attest, it goes really well paired with a hand-rolled cigar). The best part is that it is readily available here in the U.S. and can even be gotten from Amazon in other parts of the world (not in the U.S.). The U.S. distributor is Clifton Estates, and if you buy 4 or more bottles, shipping is free. We bought 4 bottles as soon as we got home. We are down to 2. If you don't want to take my word for it, there is a good review here. Aside from the Nevis Spiced rum, Mark makes his "bread and butter" blending and bottling private label rums for several of the Nevis hotels and restaurants.
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| We bottled our own "pint" bottle, complete with the hot - dipping experience Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
WE TASTED several of his rums and his Nevis Gin (which is very interesting, with what I would describe as a licorice or anis touch to it). For a reasonable amount, we tasted and then we got to bottle our own pint, including the hot-dipping of the seal. Fun. We retraced our route. Taxi driver showed up as promised and all was well. After paying our fee, we reboarded the water taxi for the short ride back to Reggae Beach.
St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014
WE HAD one final interesting experience. Reggae Bay was not one of the gorgeous Caribbean Beaches we have seen over the years. Kind of dumpy, actually. There were a couple beat up shacks from which you could rent an umbrella and chairs for the day. Speaking with a couple young people who had been there for the day, they said the water was nice. We had about 45 minutes to wait before our taxi driver returned for us. It was very hot and we were tired. I walked into one of the shacks and asked if we could sit if I bought a beer. The lady was older and had - by appearances - had a hard life. But oh, was she nice! She said you don't have to buy anything. Come on in and go ahead and sit down. I did by a beer and my wife bought some kind of fruity concoction. While we sat there a group of what looked like college age kids came in from the beach to turn in their chairs. When she saw one of them on his phone, she asked him what he was doing and when he said calling a taxi, in a motherly, but stern way, she told him to hang up and she already had them covered. Then she came over to us and started quizzing us about our taxi. At first I thought she had some kind of deal going with her own drivers, but she explained that unlicensed taxis have become a problem there and the taxi drivers will hijack you for a "ransom" payment before taking you back to the cruise port. Our guy was licensed and had even insisted that I take a photo of him when he dropped us off. She actually knew him. But I was heartened to know that they looked after their customers. Our guy showed up right on time and got us back to the Ascent with plenty of time. Good Day!
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