Mad Fish: Antigua 17th February to 15th March 2013

ANTIGUA – 17^th February to 15th March

I have been really looking forward to our visit to Antigua as Russell and I visited here before without children for a week around 3 years ago. The colour of the water took our breath away then and this time was no exception, even the boys noticed the blinding light of the turquoise water. We left Guadeloupe heading to Jolly Harbour arriving a little after 3pm. We had a brilliant sail until we came into the shelter of Antigua. The shallow depths which extend quite a way offshore are a new experience compared to the steep cliffs of the other islands. We anchored in 3.5 meters of water outside Jolly Harbour Marina. Some friends on Chewsy were here and we swam over to say hello. We enjoyed a rum punch and got the low down on the local area as they had been there a few days. We were also treated to them babysitting for us the next night so we could return to the hotel we had stayed in and enjoy a meal just the two of us. This was the first time since the beginning of October, so a real treat. The meal was stunning and a little on the expensive side but worth it. We babysat for our friends on Morning Haze so they could experience it too. The restaurant is called Sheer Rocks and definitely worth a visit if you appreciate good food and lovely views.

We arrived on Sunday and left on Friday. We had expected to leave on Wednesday but our friends on Morning Haze arrived and having not seen them since Greneda and unlikely to cross paths again we decided to stay a little longer. It was nice for the boys to have other children to play with even if at 2 and 6 they are younger than the boys. They are also German, but Lysander their 6 years old speaks good English and will begrudgingly watch films in English. We enjoyed a meal out with them followed by some local rum back on board their boat. A little over 50 feet it is somewhat bigger than us. We said goodbye to each other on Friday and headed round to English Harbour and they set off to Barbuda.

English Harbour is a famous dockyard which is called Nelson Dockyard because Lord Nelson was stationed there for some years. It was not his favourite place, but he did meet his wife here. The buildings have been restored and now house restaurants, shops and a rather interesting museum which is free, but donations are welcomed. We spent an hour going around the museum learning a little more about Nelson and what it would have been like to be in the navy in the late 1700 and early 1800’s. The boys obviously liked the cannons and weapons section best. We also learned that Nelsons body was preserved in a barrel of brandy to return it home. Rum was also a daily ration and it was decided to water it down as the quantity was making the men drunk. The English also got the nickname limys because lime was added to the water to stop it going bad.

Outside the museum was an Atlantic rowing boat. We decided that sailing across was hard enough and that rowing was definitely too much like handwork.

English and Falmouth harbour are separated by a small headland but joined by a road and a 10 minute walk between the 2. Both are frequented by the rich and excessively large and aptly named superyachts.

English Harbour is famous in sailing circles for hosting Antigua week and the Sunday parties at Shirley Heights Fort. We had just missed the Caribbean 600 event that had brought many of the racing yachts to the area. We did see some sail past us whilst anchored in Jolly Harbour. Our friends on Morning Haze watched the start which they said was impressive and were surprised to see someone loose their mast. It was not that breezy so not sure why it went down but it was back to the dock for one crew.

We walked up to Shirley Heights one morning and took breakfast with us to enjoy at the top. It was a good 45 minute walk across some cliffs and a steep walk up a big hill. The fort was used by the Navy and a lookout post sent messages across to St John’s (the capital of Antigua) to warn of impending attacks. The buildings have now been turned into a restaurant / bar that seems to be open most days. They do not serve coffee, which would have accompanied the bacon and egg sandwiches I had taken nicely. The bar was open at 9am so we could have had rum. We settled for water having used a full 1.5 litre of water on the journey up.

Despite being there on Sunday we opted to go to the new cruisers bbq on the beach rather than go to Shirley Heights. Russell and I had been before and it is very touristy and busy so maybe not too easy to keep track of the boys and being perched on a cliff edge not good for the nerves. The cruisers BBQ was interesting and around 8 boats went. We collected firewood and took our bbq grill. We had bought some burgers from the small shop in English Harbour that were not much cop, but mopped up the beer. Everyone was asked to bring a salad or something to share and amazingly everyone had taken something different and we were able to fill up on pasta, rice, couscous and my own noodle salads. To add to the excitement when putting a large log on the fire we were treated to a scorpion who had made it its home. It was pretty small and a pale beige colour rather than the expected black. Oli said that on a TV programme he had watched it was the scorpions with small claws that were the most dangerous, so we proceeded with caution and put him back in the woods, complete with his log. We didn’t have a camera to take a picture, so you will just have to believe us.

Once back on the boat we could clearly hear the music from Shirley Heights, so didn’t feel we were missing out at all. The next day we left for Indian creek / Mamora Bay.

Eric Claptons mansion is clearly visible from the entrance to Indian Creek. The creek is small and we were unable to get the anchor to hook and a look over the side showed the water to be a muddy brown from the muddy mangrove water. We therefore headed out and went a mile further up the coast to Mamora bay. This is home to the St James Club hotel which has a dock for visiting yachts. You can pay US$1.25 per foot and this gets you use of all the hotel facilities including watersports and 6 swimming pools. We anchored for 2 night and paid for one night alongside the dock. The electric supply was 110 and we could only run the battery charger. They wanted to charge us $10 US per day but we explained we would use ablaut 50 cents at a push and they waived the charge. We filled up with water at $0.25 per gallon. We couldn’t work out how we had been charged for more gallons than our tanks held. We later worked out it was US gallons rather than UK gallons and as they are smaller, we needed more. We should have waited until we were back in Jolly Harbour where you can fill up on the fuel dock for EC$ 0.25 per UK gallon which makes it about a quarter of the price. Anyway we had our monies worth out of the watersports where the kids went off in the Hobbie cats as much as allowed and we took 3 books from the bookswap putting in only one.

We were out of fresh food and the shop was a taxi ride away so we headed back to Jolly Harbour. We would have liked to go to Green Island but there was nothing in the book about food shops so we decided that we would save it for another time.

We had fully intended to stock up at Jolly harbour and leave. We then found that Intrepid Bear would likely not be in the BVI’s if we raced up for the first week of April and therefore we were no longer in a rush. We had planned not to go to Barbuda and now decided we should. No need to check out as Antigua and Barbuda are linked.

We had a brilliant spinnaker sail there and anchored off Codlington. We managed to swim ashore as the breaking waves meant it was unsafe to land the dinghy. Once back on the boat the wind died and we started to roll as we lay beam onto the swell. It was a really uncomfortable night and the next morning we upped the anchor and headed back to Antigua. This was now a 30 mile beat so we motor sailed. It was really disappointing

We went back to Deep Bay which has a sunken ship that you can snorkel on. The bay was really nice with just a beach and hotel. The boys spent 2 days windsurfing and really seemed to get the hang of it. We tried to snorkel on the wreck but the water was quite murky and it was a bit spooky too. No one had died as they were all ashore when the boat carrying pitch started to smoke and then caught fire, but still it felt like a dead body would appear at any moment. Perhaps we have been watching too much Pirates of the Caribbean.

We took the dinghy round to St Johns as our previous visit on the bus from Jolly Harbour had found a watersports shop. We needed to replace the kids inflatable towing toy that had burst the seam between 2 chambers and now resembled a ball shape rather than a disc. It was difficult to stay on before and now it was near impossible. The manufacture was no help saying the warranty lasted 30 days and it broke after 33! They also do not do spare parts so it was a write off. They boys have so much fun and with much of the trip left we decided to buy a replacement made by a different manufacturer.

The bus journey was interesting and cheap at EC$13 eachway for all of us. That is a little over £3 eachway for the family. It takes about 20 minutes. All the busses are small mini bus type vehicles. They overtake at any opportunity and have to avoid the odd stray dog or chicken. People just hail them down anywhere on route and as they get on they say good morning to everyone. Very different to England where if you speak to someone they think you are insane.

St Johns on the first visit was pretty empty. There was no cruise ship in and you could browse around the duty free jewellery shops in peace. I tried to get the Pandora turtle bead for mother’s day but they didn’t have it. The $46,000 emerald ring was a little over budget and quite frankly ghastly so we said thanks but no thanks and went on our way. We could afford the Australian Ice Cream which was still as yummy as when we tried it nearly 3 years ago. Oli was not so impressed as other ice creams we had tried.

We set back off for Jolly Harbour and a big stock up before deciding to head round to Green Island. This was because the weather was still not looking good to go from Antigua to Montserrat and then up to Nevis. Large 3.5m swells were forecast for Sunday and this would not be good for the exposed anchorage of Nevis. We had planned to spend them in Jolly Harbour, but checking on Windguru again showed that we could still expect swells on the Wed being the end of the weekly forecast. Currently the weather was really calm with low swell and no wind so we decided to hot foot it over to Montserrat and then return to Antigua. You would normally not do this as the wind is on the nose on the way back but given for a bizarre reason there was no wind it was ok. Knowing that Montserrat anchorages are very exposed since the active volcano took out the only sheltered port of Plymouth in 1997 and remains an excluded zone it would be a 24 hour stop to do a tour and that was it.

SEE Montserrat Blogg for more on our quick trip.

We were back in Jolly Harbour 24 hours later and now had more food than we left with after catching a little Tunny and a massive Tuna. The little tunny was caught first and although small (the little bit is part of the name and not the size which can be big) we had only caught barracuda and Cero recently which you can’t eat. It would make a nice starter. If we had known we would have caught an 8lb tuna later we would have put it back. This was a real beauty and will feed us for the next couple of days. This is annoying as I still have fresh meat that needs eating. This resulted in us having burgers for breakfast this morning which the boys thought was brilliant. I reckon it is not much different to sausage and makes a change to cereal.

With the swells set to 3.5m from Sunday to next Wednesday (today is Friday) we are now off to Green Island which according to Chris Doyles guide says that we can ride out a hurricane here. It should be a 9 mile beat from English Harbour according to the book but as there is precisely nil knots of wind the seas are eerily flat and calm. The engine is on and we are enjoying a calm trip. On sorting out a locker I had found some bumper activity books and the kids have now decided they are a welcome break from school and can be done on passage. They are sat colouring and doing anagrams whilst I am blogging. This is just unheard of!

We enjoyed a few days in Green Island. We picked up a buoy which was free. Our friends Chewsy were there and later on Fabiola arrived and Open Blue. We had last seen them in Greneda. Fabiloa have 2 boys the same age as our so it was nice for the boys to play with Cameron and Samuel again. An impromptu sundowners on the beach had been suggested by another cruiser so whilst the boys played in the sea we enjoyed a cold beer. It was dark when we left and it was not therefore unsurprising that we lost another pair of goggles.

Green Island is a huge bay protected by a reef which gives an unintereupted view into the Atlantic. It is very strange as with the low swells you couldn’t even see the waves break. There were a few Superyachts up for the weekend. Bystander the tender to Velsheda was anchored just across from us. We had to rescue the sailing yacht from the very posh yacht club that doesn’t welcome visitors from the reef we were next to. He obviously thought he could cut the corner and failed. He was stuck hard and I watched with amusement as the well do do lady and gentleman aboard were looking concerned at having to get out and push along with the instructor who had taken them out. It took a lot of pull from Russell in the dinghy to pull them free. The wife managed to stay dry but the husband had to get off to reduce weight and free the keel. Russell commented that he hoped the keel was ok. He was thanked very much for getting them off, and they sailed off giving the reef a wide berth.

We decided to head round to Falmouth harbour and had one of those frustrating anchoring situations. It just didn’t seem to want to bite, or by the time we had got it to we were too close to others. Finally it bit and we were able to go ashore and stretch our legs.

We met up with Rafiki another ARC family boat and heard a bit about what they had been up to since Grenada. We spent the afternoon on the beach with them the next day and imparted our knowledge of all that is good on Antigua.

We left the next day for Jolly Harbour and the promise of a meal out at the Fish and Chip shop that is a converted London Bus. We enjoyed fish and coconut shrimp combo, washed down with a carib bear. We sat on the top deck. It was very strange and quirky and the food was good. It was worth the short walk along the main road.

We have come into the marina as the swell in the anchorage is not good and it gives an opportunity to stock up at the epicurean supermarket before we head to Nevis and St Kitts tomorrow. Russell is just returning with sliced bread for a treat of toast as we are plugged into electric and can use the toaster. It is the small things that have become a real treat.

Major disappointment ....the shorepower doesn't seem to have high enough voltage to make the toaster work, or it is broken. So no toast, just luke warm bread.

More Antigua Photos....

The boys doing the washing up.

This yacht is called "A". The owner must have run out of money when it came to buying the name, so kept it short. Check out the spec. http://www.superyachts.com/motor-yacht-2061/a.htm

Ethan thinks that the hull is upside down, and he has a point. I think it resembles Gill out of finding Nemo.

This is an unlikely berthing partner. The smaller yacht is similar in size to our boat.

At night the marina in Falmouth is lit up spectaculary by all the aircraft warning lights on the top of the masts. They also like to light the masts just to make sure we don't forget they are there when the sun goes down.