Position 17:33.27N 61:46.26W
Date 1600 – 28 March 2011
Mindful of the advice that you should approach Barbuda at midday, in
order to have the best light for detecting coral outcrops we were off at 0800
for the 30nm sail to Barbuda. Having cleared
the reefs to the north of Antigua our course
was a great reach in winds of 20kts which with a single reef for comfort gave
us a steady speed of 7.5 – 8kts. The speed may have been comfortable but
with a beam sea the motion was not, for some of the crew – no name, no
pack drill!
Barbuda is very low lying
and you do not see it until 6 miles off. The main town, Coddrington, is in the
middle of the island on the east of a large lagoon, the western side of which,
facing the open sea, is a narrow strand of sand.
Our first anchorage was off the Coddrington Lagoon which was fine but
the beach was being swept by rollers which would have made an assault beach
landing a very wet experience. We lunched and then moved round to the south
east to anchor in Cocoa
Bay, off Cocoa Point.
Miles of pristine white and pink sand, nobody in sight – wonderful.
Getting reasonably close in shore involved spotting from the bow to
avoid coral outcrops and we came up to a secure spot with nothing solid within
our swinging arc.
Motoring round to Cocoa
Bay from Coddrington we
had an engine alarm due to overheating. Lowering the revs allowed the engine
to cool but meant the trip into the wind took longer than it might. I checked
the impellor which was undamaged. Andrew and Celia on ARC boat Alice having arrived back in Antigua and being old Antigua
hands were telephoned and they were able to organise a mechanic to visit on our
return from Barbuda. We were very grateful
for the assistance as sailing with a semi-functioning engine in these waters is
something to be avoided.