Antigua and Barbuda – Life is a Beach

As we left Guadeloupe we finally had a bite. On the line was a Barracuda, in the Caribbean Ciguatera poisoning is a problem and so large Barracuda are not edible as they have large concentrations of the poison in their meat, luckily this chap was absolutely perfect. Breakfast was fresh fried Barracuda.

We sailed into English Harbour at about 16h00.

After the lush tropical islands we have visited so far, Antigua is a veritable desert, rainforest, waterfall and mountain wise. What Antigua is rich in, is history.

In early days ports that were easily defensible with easy access to trade winds and yet protected enough to hide ships in in a hurricane were hard to find; the potential of Falmouth and English Harbours, which sit side by side, almost touching at their closest point, was recognised as early as 1723. In this year the work began on English Harbour Dockyard and was finished in about 1745.  It was Britain’s main naval station in the Lesser Antilles. Nelson was stationed here in 1784 under Sir Richard Hughes, who had recently blinded himself in one eye while chasing a cockroach with a fork! Don’t ask; I cannot imagine what he was doing.

Nelson eventually took over as naval commander but he did not enjoy Antigua and did not get along with the Governor, General Shirley. He was resented by most for the way he insisted on enforcing the navigation act which meant he kept the port closed for all but British ships. The dockyard in nonetheless now known as Nelsons Dockyard in honour of Britain’s favourite hero.

When Commander Vernon Nicholson sailed into English Harbour in 1947, the dockyard was in ruin. The arrival of Nicholson’s Charter Company and restoration of the ruins to a beautiful yet functional monument encouraged the development of the yachting industry. Today both harbours are part of the National park and are not only the yachting capital of Antigua but a major Caribbean yachting centre.

The ancient remains of the original Nelsons Dockyard now house shops, restaurants and other yacht or tourist related businesses.

While we were there we visited the museum, we particularly enjoyed the explanation of the traditional figure or maidenhead that was found on the old boats. This is an excerpt:

Figureheads are wooden decorations found at the prow of ships. Although earlier ships had some form of decoration, the general practice was introduced with the Galleons of the 16th century.

The traditional view for centuries was that women had no place at sea. The only woman accepted on board by most sailors was the ships figurehead. 

18th Century Figurehead

From the 1770's human figures were more frequently used, particularly women. 

Despite being viewed as  unlucky aboard ships, women were perversely viewed as the best navigators and the eyes of the female figurehead were thought to be able to find a way through the seas when lost.

Many female figureheads were bare breasted as it was thought the bare breasts would shame a stormy sea into calm. The Roman philosopher and naval commander, Pliny the elder, first recorded this belief in the power of female nudity over the sea about 2000 years ago. 

It was also popular for a shipowner to commission a figurehead in the likeness of his wife or daughter and name the vessel in her honour. 

Included among the old buildings is the Customs and Immigration office, we cleared in without incident and wandered around the village exploring. Dinner was a pizza at authentic Italian restaurant and was delicious.

The next couple of days we wandered around English and Falmouth Harbour finding out what was where. We discovered there was a Geocache at Harman Point at Fort Berkley and added it to our found list. 

We then lifted anchor and set off to Carlisle Bay about an hour west. Although the beach and sea are public all over Antigua and most of the Caribbean, the land just beyond it is often private, as it was for Carlisle. I snorkelled and checked the anchor and had a quiet night aboard.

The next morning we set off for Jolly Harbour. En route we passed by Cadez Reef, it runs parallel to the southwest coast of Antigua and quarter of a mile off shore. It is shaped like a horse shoe and we motored around the one point and into the middle of the U. The wind was blowing hard and we were not comfortable to leave the boat alone, so we took turns snorkelling.

 I had the most awesome experience. I saw a huge Eagle Ray swimming slowly below me. His “wingspan” was easily between 5’5 and 6’.  I drew a breath and dived down to swim beside him. I didn’t get too close as I could see the barb at the end of the tail and the boat was some way off. I had visions of a Steve Irwin incident so kept my distance but also examining him as closely as I could. They are incredibly beautiful and graceful. The Eagle Ray has a shovel-shaped snout and a duckbilled mouth; I wanted to see it better so I swam a little faster to be able to see him from the front. As I drew past him I saw his eye swivel as he caught sight of me. He changed direction slightly angling towards me, I didn’t want to get in this space and I was keeping my eye on that tail. As I moved off keeping the angle between us he turned more towards me. I again moved off, by now I was swimming sideways. Then he made a clear turn and was now swimming straight at me, by now I was swimming backwards ate speed and blowing bubbles giggling and screeching at the same time. Once my head broke the surface he stayed swimming towards me for a short while then turned and swam off. I was relieved and delighted and furious with myself for not having the courage to just have stopped swimming underwater and allowed him to interact with me as he obviously wanted to do. I beat a hasty retreat to the boat to babble my excitement and disappointment in myself to Andre. J

From there it was on to Jolly Harbour for the night and to stock up on groceries. Jolly Harbour is a large new marina and has a huge supermarket within a short walk from the dinghy dock; very convenient.  Well our plan was to leave the next morning but Rat Catcher had other plans. The batteries were not charging so we had to go back for a repair job. One more night in Jolly Harbour then Deep Bay was on the itinerary.

Deep Bay is a misnomer; it is in fact quite shallow. The deepest area in the bay is probably 10 meters.  Right at the entrance is a shipwreck which we easily reached snorkelling. Entering the bay we spotted two other yachts flying the SA flag. Jeremy and Yvonne on Jervon, and Rod and Mary on Sheer Tenacity.

 Some of the best beaches are just south of it including the only nudist beach in Antigua. Hawksbill beach was about a half hours walk. There are three beaches that run into each other. The first is clothed the next topless and the last for the more daring. The sand is clean and the water turquoise and crystal clear. Reefs along the shores form small tidal pools.

Sign to nudist beach

The next morning we took the mother ship around to anchor off of Saint Johns, the capital of Antigua. Most of its old buildings have been restored and are in use, it is known for duty free shopping and most cruise liners stop here. The town was over flowing with cruiser ship passengers. Not a nice anchorage for the night so we motored back around to Deep Bay.

Barbuda was calling and we left early the next morning to be able to get there in the middle of the day when the sun is high to make navigating between the reefs easier. About two miles off of Barbuda and about two hundred meters ahead of us we spotted a huge pod of Humpback Whales frolicking in the water. They were jumping and diving making huge splashes, we watched as they slowly moved their game off of our track before disappearing. Then about a mile offshore a large lone Dolphin came to greet us. He swam up to the boat from ahead, surfed our bow wave briefly then turned back out to sea. As if we had not been blessed by nature enough for the day a mother and her calf caught up to us, keeping herself between us and her calf they swam alongside for a while watching us watching them before they dived down and moved off.

BARBUDA

They say if life is a beach on Antigua, Barbuda is THE beach. The two islands couldn’t be more different. The improbably shaped splotch of land ringed with beach that is Antigua, teeming with people contrasts with the low smooth sandy bump in the ocean of reef filled waters that make up Barbuda. Here the frigate birds outnumber the people. The highest point is only 125 feet above the sea and although flat is it huge; almost half the size of Antigua. We anchored off of Coco Point and went ashore.

Along the shore are two resorts one at each end of the long bay. The one is closed down and despite supposedly being high season the other appeared almost empty. Jervon and Sheer Tenacity had also set off that morning and they arrived not long after us. The anchorage is spacious enough that although you have neighbours you each have your own private part of paradise.

We took the dinghy ashore the next morning, turned her up-side-down cleaned her and added some rings for when we have to secure her on the davits. In between we lay on the beach soaking up the sun and swimming in the warm clear water. Heaven!

On a walk along to the other end of the beach the following day we discovered in among the buildings of the deserted resort and lining the beach wee coconut trees drooping with coconuts. We found a dead branch long enough to reach them and coconut gathering was on. We picked a huge pile then walked back to where we had beached the dinghy, fetched a huge net bag we have on the boat and then off to retrieve the nuts. There was quite a shore breaker, so we anchored beyond it and swam ashore. There we filled the bag with nuts and used it as a float back to the dinghy. Too heavy to lift; Andre passed the nuts up to me and I filled the floor with them. We then set off like Father Christmas delivering coconuts to the other South African boats. Rod and Mary from Sheer Tenacity joined us for sun downers of Rum and fresh coconut water. J

 

The next morning we moved around Palmetto Point to 11 mile beach. This is a wild beach with one small resort which appeared to have one set of guests that we never saw move from a table on the veranda J
From a distance the beach appears white but when we got to shore we found the pinkie hue that gets darker where the waves lap over the sand. Patches of dried sand higher up the dune had huge pink patches made darker by chips of pink shell and coral.  I had to collect some and now have a beautiful glass candle holder weighted with pink sand J

As Yvonne had hurt her ankle and unable to get off their boat they couldn’t join us for our last sun downers; so sun downers at 11 mile beach was with them on Jervon (Jeremy and Yvonne) and Rod and Mary from Sheer Tenacity. We are convinced the South Africans are slowly taking over the world J

The next day was a shell collecting, swim and sun day. You will have to watch this blog spot for the results of my creations. There is just so much to do and yeah; yeah excuses; excuses! J

Tucked into the middle of Barbuda is a lagoon. From our side we carried our kayak over the dunes and into the lagoon. The wind was giving us some competition but we managed. We were looking for birds among other things. My Mum and brother would be in heaven here being avid birders. I get frustrated when they don’t sit perfectly still for me to approach and read the sticker on them telling me what they are. This catching a glimpse of colour and a call does nothing for me. Half the time I can’t work out the colour,  they pass so quickly;  so the common ones I know by now but the others I can’t identify easily drive me to drink J 

The Islands main animal species are wild donkey and we spotted them watching us from the bushes. When we stopped and went ashore they timidly moved a little closer before calling to others nearby to join them and move off. Barbuda is definitely one of my favourites, just like we like it natural and almost deserted. We didn’t bother to go into Codrington the capital; we didn’t need anything and preferred to enjoy the deserted beaches.

The Barbudan people were originally imported as slaves to the Codrington family who leased the island from England starting in 1685 for one fat sheep. Unlike other Caribbean island Barbuda was never used for sugar plantations but for livestock and root crops. As a result the Barbudan slaves were not closely supervised and retained a tough independent spirit. They came to terms with island life, existing by fishing, hunting and subsistence farming. When they were emancipated most of them stayed on the island living in a cooperative way. The land was communal and as there was so much there were no fights over it.  This has also been the key to the Barbudans keeping their island. As there is no individual land ownership none of it can be sold to outsiders. There have been several ambitious projects to develop the island and bring it into the 21^st century, all of them vetoed by the locals. They see no benefit to changing their traditional life style for one of being dressed up and waiting on tourists in exchange for the dubious benefits of better roads, more cars and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

We loved Barbuda but there were more places to go and things to see, so we set off back to Antigua the next morning in a very crisp breeze and choppy seas. What else would we expect in the Caribbean!

We had planned to sail around to Green Island but the seas were not on the same page as us, we were being pushed further and further off course, so we changed direction and headed into Deep Bay for the night. The next day, instead of sailing on the sea side of the reefs to Green Island, we sailed between them and the island making our way up to Jumby Bay.

Jumby Island is privately owned with a fancy resort. In the Caribbean, as with elsewhere in the world the beach and sea are open to anyone up until the high water mark. At Jumby Bay we went ashore pulled the dinghy up on the beach and tied a line to one of their jetty posts. We had a lovely walk on the beach collecting shells, on our return to the dinghy we were told we had trespassed by “touching their jetty”. The moment we tied our line to their jetty we were trespassing. However the security chap was polite and accepted my humble apologies for being ignorant and asked us not to do it again. Such is traveling the world we meet all types. J

We left there early the next morning, made a quick stop at Crabs Marina to see if we could use it for a haul out for the season and then sailed around to Bird Island. Bird Island is now a misnomer, the nesting bird population apparently used to be immense but we didn’t see any at all. Perhaps there are some later in the year but they say the main threat is from rats attracted to the island by scraps left by visitors. Don’t ask how they got there in the first place, probably in a local vendors bag.

The whole area is a maze of reefs and entering the anchorage is challenging. The visibility was great and we took to the water for a snorkel as soon as possible. The sea grass was crawling with Conch and we decided we were going to have conch dinner harvested ourselves. We collected about 8 big ones and Andre cleaned them when we got back to the boat but by then we were not keen to start cooking so the conch were put on ice.

The next morning we moved towards Green Island and anchored in shallow water of about 2 meters in Nonsuch Bay. On the way I had cooked the conch. We were the only boat in that section of the bay and enjoyed a snorkel on the reef before a dinner of “Intoxicated Conch” cooked in the pressure cooker in red wine. Delicious!

We had found out that Conch are one of the main carriers of Ciguatera Poisoning so when we had some symptoms in the night I was a little concerned, but all was well, I think we just should have eaten it sooner after catching and cooking.

Yacht on reef at Green Island

There had been warning of weather approaching and we could see it out over the sea, so the next morning we lifted anchor and moved to the lee of Green Island. There was one other boat anchored there, “Sol Surfin” from USA. On the way back to the boat after a beach walk we were waved over to Sol Surfin, there we met Gary and Celeste and were invited for sun downers aboard. We had a wonderful evening, they have cruised extensively in the areas we plan to go to and shared a wealth of information on great places to visit and where to avoid. In fact the evening with them changed our whole cruising plan. It had been to head up to Chesapeake Bay and explore the inland waterways next season, but on their advice it seems we will be exploring USA and that area by car hired in Florida. When? We are not sure there are fantastic cruising grounds between here and there so it may take a season or two. But cruising plans are not cast in stone so who knows.

We spent a relaxed lazy day aboard, snorkelling from the boat, reading and catching up on chores.

 The Antigua Classic Yacht week was the reason we stayed in the area so long and we headed back to Falmouth Harbour the next day. We had heard Southern Blue with Tallies and Jeanne aboard were there and we wanted to see them before they headed up island. Tallies daughter and her two friends were visiting from USA and we joined them for dinner. They are such special people and we love spending time with them.

The celebrations and preparations for Classic week were well underway. We strolled the jetty’s trying not to drool too obviously on the beautiful boats and then danced the night away at the welcome function for the sailors.

ANTIGUA CLASSIC YACHT REGATTA

This was the 25^th classic regatta. It started in 1988 with seven yachts participating. These days between 55 and 60 yachts take part. The yachts are beautifully restored or perfect reproductions of old classics. There are 6 main classes of boat.

• ·         Traditional: are fishing or cargo vessels built or converted to sail. The beautiful Carriacou sloops fall in this category.
• ·         Vintage: are yachts with a full keel in original condition, designed and launched before World War II.
• ·         Classic: are the full keeled designed and launched after WW2.
• ·         Classic GRP: are fibreglass boats with long keels and descendants of the wooden boat designs.
• ·         Spirit of Tradition: these are yachts built recently using modern methods and design, but retaining the original grace and style of old classics.
• ·         Tall Ships: Sail training and passenger vessels.

The yachts range from 24 foot to 183 feet of splendour. It was an amazing experience watching them raise their sails and glide across the water. The racing is serious but conducted on a friendly basis. Protesting was allowed but no encouraged at all and there was only one incident we knew of and boats damaged when they collided so quite legit. One wouldn’t imagine the hardships some of  these beautiful boats have endured before being restored to their current condition.

One of the boats “Eilean” was made famous in the pop video “Rio” by Duran Duran. She was rescued by Mr. Panerai CEO Angelo Bonati, the famous Italian watchmaker from a mouldering fate in a mangrove creek in the West Indies, where she had lain since an accident befell her after starring in the ‘Rio’ video.

This is an experience we will never forget, well worth the extra time spent in the area.