Antigua makes time fly

Pillars of Hercules - welcome to English Harbor

Unusual to see so many TALL ship lights

Antiqua – 3 weeks flew

After our short stop in Montserrat – the anchorage in Little Bay rolls at the best of times, we headed east to Antigua. Easterly headings are usually directly into the prevailing winds and although we were fortunate to have only 3 to 4 foot seas, it was enough to slow our progress and make for a lumpy ride.  On the bright side, the day was relatively short and we were tied to a mooring in Falmouth Bay in early afternoon with time for Steve to visit the customs and immigration folks in the historic Nelson Dockyards. 

Entrance to Dockyards Customs Office

The two harbors – English Harbour and Falmouth Bay are separated by a narrow strip of land and together they provide some of the best protected anchorage in the Caribbean. As a result, they are popular and crowded with boaters from its earliest discovery by Europeans. All manner of services is available for boaters so it is a good place to hang out and fix whatever needs fixing. Or, just hang out and enjoy the scene. In addition, Antigua has historic British connections so English is the main language. The direct flights from London and regular cruise ship visits bring lots of tourists to enjoy the beaches and historic sites.  One of these is the restored and vibrant Nelson Dockyard complex. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and uniquely combines the feel of the 18^th century fortress with a living marina, hotel, and shopping destination. We treated ourselves to lunch at the Pillars Restaurant to enjoy this combination of old and new for a relaxing afternoon on their shaded patio.

Old Bakery and Ovens

 We also hiked the Middle Ground Path or better known as the “goat path” – mind where you step! It connects the two bays via an up and down route through several old lookout and gunnery placements which offer spectacular views of the island and surrounding seas.

Sunday afternoon we opted to taxi up to the restaurant at Shirley Heights on the south side of English Harbour to enjoy their BBQ and listen to the steel drum band. This is another complex of old fortifications restored but also re-purposed for modern use. As one boater told us, just about everyone on the island shows up for the weekly event – some dressed up in fancy, fancy outfits and others very beach casual plus a lot in between!

Frequent local buses run from the English Harbour area to the capitol city of St John about 10 miles away.  Steve needed to have another x-ray taken of the wrist he injured back in late December so we flagged a bus heading to the clinic on the outskirts of St John. While we had read about the typical bus services in the islands, this was our first experience. First, they are very reasonably priced – our round trip for both of us was about 6 dollars US. The comfort and panache vary widely. We rode on almost new larger vehicles as well as rough, rugged, and falling apart contraptions.  All of them got us to our destinations!  However, the system for picking up passengers is somewhat different.  The bus heading into town picks up passengers until he is full only stopping to pick up again if someone gets off.  On the other hand, from town, most buses don’t leave until they are full.  The passengers must wait until all the seats are occupied.  Since the buses run fairly often the wait is usually not long on popular routes – it can be much longer if the route is not a popular one, however. While there are designated bus stops with good signage and even a few with shelters, riders can flag buses almost anywhere. It might seem obvious, but this is a good trick on the narrow roads.  Other traffic either goes around – hoping to avoid any oncoming cars or they wait for riders to get on and off. Stopping the bus is another trick – there were no buzzers or buttons to push – but the rider simply says “bus stop”. If it is not loud enough, (all the buses included music to the taste of the driver) the other passengers relay and the bus echoes with “BUS STOP”…..

Have also to mention the driving habits on Antigua. The roads are narrow and vehicles drive FAST! Plus they are all driving on the wrong side of the road! Buses especially are in a hurry since time is money.  They zoom past slower cars weaving in and out of parked vehicles and on coming traffic.  It can be an adventure to travel by road in Antigua! After all, our boat rarely gets above 7 mph.

museum entrance in old court house

While waiting for the Classic Boat Regatta – Easter Weekend, we took a few side trips.  First, we anchored off Jolly Harbour.  This is another popular stop for boaters and home to a large charter fleet of catamarans. There are several man-made canals around the main harbor with a variety of condos and homes. The marina area has several restaurants, a Budget Marine store and an Epicurean Grocery. This is a sister store to the main mega grocery in St John’s which we visited by bus. Although much smaller than the mother store, it seemed to have the same vast variety of food options from fresh through frozen and canned.  There is nothing that can’t be found here. Wandering these aisles, one could be in any Publix or Harris Teeter or in some cases even better since these stores stock British cheeses, condiments, and crackers. 

no lack of interesting food choices

While visiting the dentist – don’t ask – we discovered a lady who sells baked goodies from her trunk and her regular schedule includes Jolly Harbour so we were also able to replenish the bread and treats before moving on.

Just about the only down side to this anchorage is the long and slow (5mph) no wake trek into the docks.

Our second stop was around on the east side of the island behind Great Bird Island.  This is a protected area to preserve the marine life here and includes a few free moorings.  It is also sheltered from the prevailing east winds by the reef so it provided a nice stop to relax and explore the reefs and work on our kayak skills. Although it was too windy and rough for the kayakers, there was some snorkeling and harvesting to be had.  We also met fellow boaters Lynn & Mike on Time 2 and Fiona & Mark on Avatar, plus Xavier a single handing sailor. We managed to enjoy lobster pizza in this scenic and secluded anchorage.

With a stop at Jolly to resupply, we moved back to Falmouth Harbour to observe the classic boats of all sizes that raced in the regatta. Races were held over four days – usually the boats began parading by on their way out of the harbor about 9 in the morning and returned late afternoon.  The boats circled at the end of the harbor just before the inlet to hoist their sails. The weather cooperated for all the races with brisk winds so lots of big sails were seen.  We could see some of the racing from our boat, but the best views were from the look out at Fort Berkley in English Harbour…..that is unless one was brave enough to take the dink out into the open water to get close like our friends Lynn and Mike did.  Their pics are spectacular! We did walk the docks several evenings to drool over the beautiful boats from the tiny ones to the massive 200 footers. Our favorite was the Columbia – probably mostly because we share her home port of Panama City, Florida. (We did hear she is for sale, so that might change.) Just as the racing events and festivities came to a close the weather settled and we are headed out for our next country.  Thanks to our new friends we are armed with lots of info on where to go and the best places to have fun as we head on south.

boat pics:

not "classic" but unique

Not all the boats in the harbor were classic or beautiful