Yet another place we skipped altogether on our fast track south to avoid hurricane season. We were excited to check it out, and even got to spend most of that time with friends from Susie Jane and Helix, a big plus.
Jolly Harbour, Antigua
Our first and last stop were at Jolly Harbour on the west coast of Antigua. Checking in to customs was a lot like our experience in Carriacou, Grenada. The most unfriendly people seem to be employed by the government in these places to welcome you to their islands. Perhaps that was the goal here, since there are tons of rich people who come to A&B, and one look at me lets them know I’m not that.
The water here is the bluest we’ve seen in a while, and the low, shrubby hills were quite a change from the massive peaks of the volcanic islands south of here.
We were able to pop over to nearby Hermitage Bay for about a day with our buddy boats and had a great beach BBQ and slightly more remote surroundings. We were then going to head to a small anchorage on the southwest corner, but it turned out to be far too rolly, so we returned to Jolly Harbour, which was fine because we wanted more groceries and a hike :)
The hike was a bit tricky, not because it was difficult, or long or anything, but because to get to the trailhead we had to walk through a private gated community each way. I asked the lady at the guard shack if we could pass through to get to the trailhead and she said, “My shift is just about over, so I don’t care.” Then she told us if any security guards ask us where we are going to just make up an address and tell them we are visiting friends. Government of Antigua and Barbuda, this is the woman you need to have welcoming people to your shores.
Pretty views of the anchorage waited for us at the top.
The grocery store in Jolly Harbour was pretty nice with loads of gluten free stuff for us, which is part of why we returned as our last port-of-call in the country. There were tons of flies in the anchorages on the west coast though, which was exhausting our cats and annoying Grete to no end.
Deep Bay, Antigua
We moved further up the coast to Deep Bay, just south of the capital city of St. Johns. We only stayed a day, but honestly that was just right. The anchorage was pretty and had a short trail to a 360 viewpoint that we hiked with our friends from Susie Jane. The cool difference in water color between the actual bay and the salt pond was pretty neat and reminded me of the Glass Bridge in Eleuthera, but obviously not nearly as impressive.
We also snorkeled on the shipwreck in the anchorage and spotted a stingray. The picture I tried taking of it didn’t come out though since the water clarity here is so bad. It was still fun and we got to do it with friends, which is always a huge win.
Barbuda
We had pretty much written off Barbuda based on our timeline and the distance, etc. The night before leaving Deep Bay to go around to the east coast of Antigua, our friends on Susie Jane convinced us to go to Barbuda instead for a few days. We are so very glad they did.
Princess Diana Beach is the prettiest beach we have seen since we left Pensacola, with soft white sand (that is still stuck to everything) and some cool little beach bars. We had a few cocktails with friends at Uncle Roddy’s, whose claim to fame is that Princess Di ate there many moons ago.
We also did a guided tour of the island one day since although the beaches were great and did keep us plenty busy for nearly a week, we wanted to see other sights. The thing I most wanted to see was the Frigate Bird Sanctuary. It was amazing. Tens of thousands of these birds nest here and it was mating season so we got to see the males puffing out their red throat pouches to entice the females.
Of course, some of the romance goes away when you realize that when the babies are about three months old, the females stay there to raise the young while the males fly to Galapagos to start a new family. The males migrate from northern to southern hemisphere and start a new family with each migration. The females never leave.
There were also several dead birds around. When we asked, we learned that apparently Frigate birds do not have oil glands so if they end up in the water they are no longer able to fly and they die. Really crazy that they spend their entire lives feeding on and flying over the ocean but if they get wet in it, they die. Talk about living on the edge.
In addition, we visited “The Highlands” on the east coast of Barbuda. These hills tower over the surrounding terrain at a sky-scraping height of about 120 feet.
This island is flat as a pancake, so much so that the highlands actually did seem somewhat impressive. The views of the wilder, windward side beaches from atop the rocks was pretty cool too.
We decided to do a beach bar lobster dinner while we were there as well. Shack-a-Kai has nightly lobster BBQs for about $30 per person and the lobsters are pulled out of the water fresh and cleaned just minutes before hitting the grill. The guy Enoch who runs the place can clean a lobster in about 5 seconds, and it was kind of cool to watch.
The wind was good for us to go south back to Antigua, so we jumped on the weather window and had a strange sail south. The wind was some of the best we’ve ever had, but the waves were very confused so the ride was really kind of nasty. Nobody threw up though, so I guess we’re mostly getting used to this life.
Green Island/Nonsuch Bay
On the east coast of Antigua are tons of coral reefs. Like all reefs in the Caribbean, they don’t seem to be healthy, but they are intact and work to break the seas coming in which is kind of neat. Seldom do we anchor on the windward side of places and change can be good.
At sunset, we met up with some people we met a few days earlier at the lobster BBQ in Barbuda.
The next day we took a dinghy ride over to Devil’s Bridge National Park to view the rocky shore from the sea. WOW! The view was decent, but the ‘wow’ is because the waves were about my height, a bit confused due to the surrounding rocks and coral, and quite close together. It was a bit scary and Grete and the kids were not fans. So, we managed to scope out a way to drive back that was inside the reef and it was much, much better. Poor Dublin got soaked out in the chop though, but we all managed to stay aboard the Sea Pug and nothing bad actually happened.
Falmouth Harbour
Oh my gawd. We thought there was too much money in the other parts of this island but Falmouth Harbour is insane. There are countless mega-yachts, sailboats, etc. that are really impressive and cost I have no clue how much. They are interesting during the day and look pretty with their rigging all lit up at night.
We also took the short trail from Falmouth over to English Harbour. Stunning views of the anchorage.
It was a really beautiful day so the views were extraordinary and such a huge change from our hikes on the young, volcanic islands south of here.
The views along the rugged south shore were noteworthy as well, and since the wind has calmed down the coastline seemed very calm relative to our sail in.
Being a British place, the trails were well maintained and marked, and the flora was more desert-like too, which aligns with the fact that it has hardly rained at all during our nearly two weeks in this country.
The harbor had gluten free pizza and decent Mexican food, so we ate out a couple of times in order to scratch the itch for missing food choices back in the US.