Barbuda and Statia
30 January 2015
Lisa
We were very ready to leave Antigua, lovely as it was. But nothing like Barbuda. Only a twenty mile sail and we anchored inside the reef in Spanish Point. The waters of Barbuda are so clear and the beaches basically empty. Though we were anchored off resorts the whole time we were here, there were always more boats than hotel guests. Many of the hotels are very welcoming, but others basically post signs saying no yachties, thank you very much. One would think that the hotels on the beaches, or there bars would be receptive to anyone wanting to push a bit of cash towards them. It isn't flourishing here in the Caribbean so I really don't get it. I am still having a battle with uploading pictures, and we have a lot. But be patient, I just need a little better wifi...We spent three days in Spanish Point and then moved around the next point to Cocoa Point. Such original names, no? More boats, but Lily and I spent an afternoon at the beach and no one even walked past us. Marty, Andrea and Phil were snorkeling, but sometimes, Lily and I need to spend some quality time together, digging in the sand and swimming.
We have been without a working wind instrument, one that records wind speed and gusts and let's us know. The new instrument was just one of the myriad of things I brought back from the stated in October. Anyhow, mart went to the top of the mast and replaced the old one. It's only been about a year and a half since we had a working readout so we must not have missed it too much, but it's nice to look down and actually see what is happening, wind wise. We moved once more in Barbuda to a place called Low Bay. It was much the same but the resort didn't want us to visit them. So, Andrea paddle boarded and walked the beach looking for treasures. She is really good at it too, she finds amazing things! I read a lot and swam with Lily and we pretty much just relaxed and marty did other small boat jobs.
After a week, we were ready to move on to Statia. Marty was here on his solo sail from Saint Martin to grenada. Statia is one of the more historic places down here. At one point in the mid eighteenth century, an ancestor of mine was the governor. This was during the golden age of Statia when Britain was at war with France and those upstart Americans were causing trouble for Britain. Statia was owned by the Dutch during this period and while those other countries wouldn't trade with each other, everyone came to Statia to trade. The water front had many warehouses and up to 200 boats would be anchored in the deep water harbor. You could get anything here up to and including slaves. In its heyday, there were about 27,000 permanent residents. Later in the 1700's the number was down to 300.
Marty had met and talked to Gay, the president of the archeology association here, and she was kind enough to take us on a three hour walking tour of the fort, and other restored buildings, of which we have lots of pictures...The lower town has been wiped out over the many years, but a few of the original warehouses were restored and now house bars and dive shops. Everywhere you look there are pieces of history on the ground, pottery, porcelain, glass. Unless it is found nudes turned and in its context, it is meaningless to the archeologists who work year round on various excavation sites. Builders were breaking ground across the street from the warehouses for a new hotel and came upon a new ruin of a warehouse. Obviously building stopped and now the powers that be are working the site to safe what might be buried there. It is one of the. Polestar places I have ever been and I hope we will return before we leave the Caribbean for good.
I am going to work on getting the pictures up. We will be leaving in the morning for St. Croix. Should be a 24 hour sail and we all know how I love those over nights! It will be nice knowing Anastasia is out there with us.