Jolly Harbour to Deep Bay, Antigua
16 March 2010
We left the lake like waters of Jolly Harbour and moved north a short distance to Five Islands Harbour. This area is a huge anchorage and has several beautiful and desolate beaches. We anchored just in front of the only hotel we saw, The Hermitage. This is a picturesque hotel with individual bungalows set in the side of the hill. Several larger boats came and went but there was so much room here we wern't close to any of them. We spent several days here and then moved another short distance north up the shore to Deep Bay. This bay is surrounded by cliff faces and a beautiful beach. The remains of Fort Barrington are on the north side of the anchorage and offered beautiful views of St. Johns, the salt pond just on the other side of the beach and the south shore. The Royal Antigual Hotel is located on the beach and is a sprawling resort complete with tennis courts, that appear to not have not been used in some time. We saw more than a dozen mongoose ( mongi, mongooses???) all over the resort. We hiked up to the top of Fort Barrington. At the top of the hill and past the fort ruins there was a patch of yellow flowers and there must have been 20 hummingbirds were fighting for or defending the perfect flower. We heard a crashing noise as they bounced off of each other. We are not sure what part of their bodies they were hitting but we sure heard the sound. We spent some time just wathcing and taking pictures. Right in the center of the entrance to the bay there is a wreck named the Andes that sticks up out of the water. It was a wooden boat that caught fire, burned and sank. We spent some time snorkeling here. Later that evening we hoisted the dinghy and realized we had a leak in the lower prop seals. We decided to head back to the calm waters of Jolly Harbour to tear apart the engine. We took the public bus back to St Johns, got the parts and got the engine back in working order all in one day! Wow, that doesn't happen very often. We will get a few projects done tomorrow and then probably head to the south end of the island.