IMAGE: Barbuda – splendid isolation.
We arrived in the southern port of Falmouth Harbour in Antigua after a great day sail from Guadeloupe on Sunday 13th April. The harbour was very crowded due the Classic Regatta beginning at the end of the week - thankfully we found a good anchoring spot in shallow water away from the throng. This is the calmest anchorage we have been in for awhile – so a very quite and good nights sleep and not having to think about moving on again for over a week, as we planned to stay here to watch the regatta. Early on Monday morning we took the dingy into the marina and then just a short 5minute walk past a few lovely looking art and craft shops over to the nearby Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour to do our customs and immigration check-in. This Dockyard, fortified in the 18th century by the British was a lovely old renovated area, named for the English caption Lord Horatio Nelson, who spent the early days of his career here. The cobblestoned roads are similar to St Katherines Dock and the Dickens Inn area in London. We had a wander of the picturesque dockyard buildings and surrounding marina -all finely renovated and now again a working dockyard. On the return walk I check-out some of the art galleries, before heading back to explore the marina and Yacht Club areas in Falmouth Harbour – it all feels and looks good for our stay here. We recognised many of the superyachts that we had seen earlier in the month in St Barths – these boats get to go to all the regattas and parties! The day was a little muggy and overcast with a few showers. We did some food shopping and then just as it was afternoon drinks time in our cockpit we watched the entertainment (too many chiefs and not enough Indians scenario) of a small wooden classic boat – Holly Mae - going aground whilst sailing around just in front of us – they were finally towed off by the local large rescue boat. Tourist day on Tuesday 15th to explore the capital- St Johns today. The maxi-taxi ride into town took about 45 mins as we drove through a few villages with some very basic and run-down housing. Everyone seems to have their own little dwelling – some wooden and some cement. Most of the wooden ones have not seen a coat of paint for many, many years and their storm shutters are on their last hinges. Their corrugated iron roofs are very rusty - the best description is maybe shabby with loads of character! The little cement houses look in much better nick – and mostly brightly painted. The main bus stop was right beside the main fruit & veg, fish and meat markets – but this area was disappointing with very little activity, only a few stall holders and poor looking produce, with only 1 stall in the meat market - all poor in contrast to Guadeloupe and Dominica. We wandered to the main dock – there were 2 Cruise ships in – but again this area did not have a lively atmosphere – just expensive or tourist trap shops, bars and restaurants in the Heritage and Redcliffe Quay complexes. The shop buildings in the surrounding streets were run down and not well maintained. We found the main Post Office to get a postcard off to Mum – well it looked like and relic from Nelsons days – stone floors and old wooden benches and counters and nobody around – customers or staff! We came across some old guys sitting in the street playing the traditional game ’worry’ and had a chat about the slave history of the game and about cricket. We enjoyed an excellent local lunch in the old wooden house at Roti King – very tasty Pork Roti, salt fish balls, fried potato cake and a fresh fruit punch. The place was busy with all the locals eating in and taking away. All the locals we came across were friendly, well dressed and happy - no-one approached us for money or to buy from their shop. We did see a ‘soup kitchen’ lunch service for the few Rustas that were hanging about. Basically we were disappointed with St Johns – it did not meet our expectations of an expensive and exclusive Caribbean country – more 3rd world actually. Away from the exclusive resorts, Antigua retains its traditional West Indian character. 90% of the 72,000 residents are of African descent, with a strong British stamp on their character. Our bus driver totally packed the maxi-taxi on the way back – but everyone was polite. We walked through Nelsons dockyard again before heading back to the boat in the hot afternoon sun. There is a drought here on this island, and everything is very dry and no sign of green grass – so different from the 2 southern islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica which are so lush. The next few days through to Easter Monday we spent in and around The Antigua Yacht Club attending the social events and watching the Classic Racing. This years event was very much a dedication to Kenny Coombs one of the regattas founding members and Chairman until his untimely and sudden death shortly after last years event. After the final race on Monday 17th we upped anchor and headed around to the west coast to Jolly Harbour. We had a great sail with the wind behind us and the current with us – so made good time into Hermitage Bay, amongst the coves and beaches dotted with numerous resorts – just past Jolly Harbour. The only reason to come into Hermitage Bay is for access to the resorts internet which is booming out into the anchorage. I was able to make a Skype call to Mum from the boat and James could get his podcasts. We set off early on Tuesday 22nd to get all our jobs done in Jolly Harbour, and picked up a buoy right inside the harbour for a few hours. The large marina and condo development is huge and well sheltered, with every service provided. We needed to check-out with customs and immigration – all too easy and the officials gave us permission to go to Barbuda. We did a weekly food shop in the big supermarket in the Jolly Harbour complex – bought and posted postcards, and cards, filled with dingy fuel and then headed back around to Hermitage Bay for the rest of the day AND internet. This bay is lovely, quite and calm water –we were anchored in glorious 3.5 m sand, with about 6 other yachts in the anchorage by sunset. The lovely evening music floating over the water out to the anchorage from the resort – very chilled and laid back. We set off at first light on Wednesday 23rd for the 35 mile sail north to BARBUDA. We spinnaker sailed the whole way, and had a great run. By lunchtime we were anchored off the beach in 4 m of sand – a only a few other yachts around. The entrance in through the coral and breaking water was not nearly as scary as the pilot book looked – James could watch the plotter and eyeball us in - no problems. Barbuda is a low island, where the birds greatly outnumber the people. In the mid 1600’s the british gentleman Sir Christopher Codrington arrived on Antigua and established the first sugar plantation. To feed the numerous slaves working the very successful plantations Codrington leased the island of Barbuda from the British Crown and planted it with food crops to feed the slaves. We tried hooking up with a tour guide and /or some other boats to do the tours to the town and only Frigate Bird colony in the Eastern Caribbean– but no luck, but have made an arrangement for tomorrow morning. We took a late afternoon walk on the beach to the Lighthouse Beach Hotel – the only establishment on the beachfront. The sand was SO fine, soft and deep. The thin narrow strip of beach has a large, brackish estuary running along the inside on this whole east coast - and the town of Condington on its shoreside. It was a hot and muggy day and night, and the anchorage is a bit rolly. The Hotel was aptly named – as it was truly a beacon in the night with the only lights around for miles against a dark night sky. James rowed our dingy into the beach on Thursday 24th morning and we met our tour guide –Goldilocks on the beach beside the Oasis beach bar – a rather extravagant title for a rusty old former cargo container with a few beach chairs outside in the sand. We set off with our guide in his little shallow draft hard-bottom boat, with a big engine, up to the top of the lagoon to the bird sanctuary- about 15-20mins ride. Once he pointed out the birds in the clumpy mangroves – yes there they were in their 100’s just perched in the bushes. He explained that it was the end of the mating season so we would not see any of the males birds displaying their bright red pouches for the females – we say a few of the male birds close enough through the binoculars to see their under neck pouch – only one was inflated and was a dull crimson colour. We saw 100’s of year old young birds, little chicks and females sitting on this years nests. These birds are migratory and over 5000 come to Barbuda from Polynesia and the Galapagos for their mating season from September to April. The female lays a single egg that both birds incubate it in turns. It takes about seven weeks for the chick to hatch, and nearly 6 months for it to learn to flay and finally leave the nest. He also explained some interesting facts about these large migratory birds – they are masters of the air. At 2 to 3 pounds, they have the greatest wing area in proportion to their weight of any bird. Due to their size and weight they are unable to take off if they become submerged- and they avoid landing in the sea. They scoop their food from the surface of the sea, after chasing and harassing other birds to take their catch. After the 20min ‘tour’ we were taken in his boat at speed back over the lagoon to the main and only village town of Condrington to the official office to pay our $2 each nature reserve entry fee. We then had a quick walk of the one street – there are only 1800 residents in the whole of the island of Barbuda – so it was very quite. This middle-aged man was full of chat on our boat trip back to the beachside shore - $70US was paid and he was off to look at the anchorage and find some other yachties looking for his services. We were back on the boat by midday, and set-off in light south-easterly winds with the spinnaker up in the general direction north to return to St Maarten.