Aleria Update 15

Update #15 from Aleria – the ‘Unexpected’ ParadiseWhat a pleasant surprise Antigua and Barbuda turned out to be!  @ 17°39’N 61°51’W We knew nothing about Barbuda when we headed for these parts. And for some reason, our preconceived perception of Antigua was of an overbuilt island overrun by tourists of the worst sort and home to the “trailer park of live-aboard cruisers.â€�  We both had the same notions, so the only reason we decided to go to Antigua was to experience Classics Week. That’s when all the really pretty boats go on parade in Falmouth Harbour (this takes place the week before Antigua Race Week, which is a really big event).  We also started hearing recommendations from people we trusted, and so here we are. We could not have had worse misconceptions. We think perhaps this two-island nation needs a serious PR campaign. Or perhaps it might be better to say nothing and maintain the secret. It is stunning. We checked in and received a month long cruising permit for both islands so we had to explore.  Antigua has many pleasant harbours, history galore, great events, lovely boats, beautiful empty beaches, civilization when you want it and seclusion when you don’t.  We will be writing more about Antigua in our next note. Barbuda has mainly two anchorages nestled inside reefs, beaches and more beaches – some with white sand and some with pink, one town which is its capital governing 1200 residents, and a massive central mangrove marsh lagoon that is home to thousands of migratory birds.  It is a completely unspoiled environment. The two islands are very different yet linked by a natural beauty that is hard to describe.   In fact, much of the coastline of both islands is completely surrounded by reefs. Navigation is a bit tricky for deeper draft vessels, like Aleria. There are places where you have to weave your way between coral heads to get into a harbour. But once inside you are in a safe haven, completely protected from the elements outside their perimeter.  These islands have some of the best snorkeling and diving we have experienced yet. Nature abounds in its full glory here. Barbuda in particular is an artist’s paradise. The range and intensity of colours are at times overwhelming. We’ve never seen so many different hues of blues and greens, pinks and whites, clouds so intricately formed in greys and shades of white setting off deep blue skies, with lighting so dramatic it takes your breath away. We are smitten.  This is where aquamarine, cerulean, and turquoise were named, as were rose and coral and tangerine and chartreuse. The colours are impossibly rich, and when the sun shines between clouds and lights sections up like a stage, all life stands at attention and watches.  You cannot help stopping to take it all in. Our first evening on Barbuda, Will and Tamsin, our friends on Elmarleen who we first met on Tenerife, anchored just ahead of us. Then Festina Lente, with Philip and Lynda, who we first met in La Gomera on the Canary Islands and who brought our package from Gran Canaria across the Atlantic for us, dropped anchor nearby. Will won the OSTAR single-handed transatlantic race last year, then sailed back to England to pick up Tamsin so they could sail the Caribbean for the season on her redundancy package. When they return this spring, he will have crossed the Atlantic four times in a year.  Philip is Will’s GP back in England and has just retired from medicine to sail. We met them on a bus in La Gomera after having been told about them by Will several islands prior. It’s a small community out here and people keep meeting up. In fact, after a while, it becomes difficult to find a harbour where you don’t know anyone and can take a break from the festivities (aka: picnics, drinks or dinner). So we all got together and arranged a tour of the bird sanctuary in Codrington Lagoon for the next day, drinks that evening... Our guide to the frigate bird colony was a very special man, King Goldilocks. He acquired his name as a young man when his dreadlocks were bleached blond by the sun and sea. He doesn’t wear dreadlocks anymore, but he is a well spoken and knowledgeable guide to all things Barbudan. He is an exceptional ambassador for his village/island and he stayed with us guiding us around for hours. The magnificent frigate bird sanctuary is the largest outside of the Galapagos (and they say it may be even larger than that). All frigate birds in the western hemisphere return here in the fall to mate and roost. It was just past mating season so there were few male frigates puffed up red with mating displays. But there were many juveniles of all ages covering every branch of every mangrove as far as the eye could see.  The young birds take eight months to mature to the stage where they can fly, so the parents have a long-term commitment to feeding their young in preparation for an eternity. They have a huge wingspan relative to their small body and no oils on their feathers so they cannot fish like other birds. They can only scoop to the surface to scoop up a morsel or steal from other birds. So you often see them attacking terns and gulls, intimidating them into dropping their catch which they retrieve in mid air. It is amazing to watch.  The sanctuary also is home to many other species including brown footed boobies, pelicans, and egrets. It is rumoured that flamingos come through here but there was no sign of them during our visit.  The pelicans are amazing fishermen (we call them “Mulliganâ€�). They soar high above, then plummet hundreds of feet diagonally or straight down through the air smacking into the water at high speed with their huge beaks open to devour the fish they spotted from high above. This experience alone was well worth the trip. We stopped in Codrington to reprovision with some fresh bread and sundries. It’s a small town with several streets where people live peacefully. They have simple needs and love their island desperately. In fact, the feeling here was much like on Dominica; except whereas Dominica has its bounty on the interior of the island, Barbuda has it mainly along its shores.  There are very few hotels on the island. The one on the beach where we anchored, Lighthouse Bay, is very exclusive. Wealthy people come here to escape the paparazzi. As there are very few ways to reach the island (ferry or helicopter from Antigua), fewer places to stay when you get here and now way to get from A to B by yourself, the ‘rich and famous’ are in fact quite safe. So being anchored here on our own boat was quite the luxury.  Just imagine - they have nine guest rooms each costing about $2200 per day so their guests can hide on the 11-mile long pink sand beach without disturbance. We got to enjoy all this for a lot less (=$0).  Our best day cruising so far was a perfect day walking half the length of the 11-mile Palm Beach. We packed a picnic lunch, landed the dinghy on the middle, and walked to the far end, collecting shells, swimming in the aqua waters, talking about important things, and taking artistic photographs.  When we got to the end, we picked a spot, took a lazy swim, ate our lunch, grabbed a snooze, and then continued back.  That entire time, we never saw another human. Daria almost stepped on a stingray resting in the sand along the water’s edge before he woke up and swam away.  Mr. Mulligan the pelican and his kin kept us amused with their crash landings. The mental snapshots of that day will stay with us forever. It’s not hard to imagine why Princess Diana vacationed here with her two sons. She stayed at the K Club (Krizia) which is now closed but was much like the Lighthouse Bay resort. She apparently said it was the only place she could find peace, and we can understand why. The natives here have no interest in fame or fortune. The paparazzi can’t get here very easily. So anonymity and the freedom it brings is possible. Apparently, the far side of the island is a haven for ecotourists who come to camp on the beaches. They have no interest in the rich and famous either. And the locals love the cruisers. They have voted not to allow any more hotels on the beach but to support the cruising community full tilt. The hotels, you see, are all inclusive; the money never leaves the hotel. The cruisers spend their money in town with the locals. Barbuda is an amazing place now ranking in the top three island destinations in the Caribbean in our minds.  One interesting development which we noticed first on Grenada, then St Lucia, Dominica and now Barbuda... The Japanese are busy building fisheries complexes and resources throughout the islands. In return for building this infrastructure, they are buying the votes in favour of whaling (and probably tuna fishing as well). In fact, just two weeks ago, they managed to pass a major resolution on expansion of whaling, probably as a result of all the votes they have bought from countries that have no interest in whaling but great interest in developing their fisheries. We wonder who is watching and what can be done. We saw humpback whales breaching en route to Barbuda and hate to think about their fate.  It wasn’t all peaceful  in Barbuda as our ‘social life’ turned out to be hectic. One night the Elmarleens and Festina Lentes (everyone goes by their boat names out here) were invited aboard Aleria for cocktails. We stayed up laughing till all hours of the night. The next night Phil and Lynda (Festina Lente)  invited the Alerians over for dinner, so we had great company again. The third night, they had all moved on but we stayed one more day to snorkel the reef. We took the morning to do boat chores – painting and varnishing – in time for Classics Week. Then the weather turned rainy and blustery and Alex cut his finger, but the snorkeling trip wouldn’t wait. As soon as the skies cleared, off we went. There never seems to be any time to simply relax... A half mile out from where we were anchored by dinghy, we found a reef with an abundance of life.  The main coral heads were sadly bleached and dead, either from hurricanes or ‘global warming’ or a combination of the two. This place did, however, have an amazing collection of fan corals, swaying in the tides. There were schools of fish, large and small, neon coloured, striped and spotted.  Very shortly after jumping in, Daria spotted a 4.5 foot shark swimming after a school of fish. There was a small turtle swimming very fast to get away, a grouper playing shy, and a transparent white fish following a ray and cleaning up his dregs.  There were also giant starfish in every colour you can imagine, including yellow, orange, brown, blue, and purple. It was amazing. And after two days of very murky water, suddenly today it was “gin clearâ€� as promised in the tourist guides.  And now we will have dinner alone, just the two of us with Onyx of course, who rested while we worked and frolicked. She’ll be on anchor watch tonight. Hopefully the weather will clear enough for us to transit back to Antigua tomorrow. We would have liked to have stopped in the southern reaches of the island for more snorkeling in “gin clear watersâ€� but the wind was howling out of the East for three days and it would not have been comfortable there. So it’s back to Antigua for Classics Week and Antigua Regatta. You’ll hear all about Antigua in the next installment. Cheers from dramatic Barbuda, to be continued from historic Antigua... Daria & Alex & Onyx