Barbuda and Back
Eowyn
Mon 27 Mar 2006 16:27
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After replenishing our fresh food supplies at
the excellent Epicurian supermarket at Jolly Harbour, we anchored in Deep Bay to
give us an easy sail and good wind angle to Barbuda.
Sailing conditions were perfect and we
eventually chose to anchor in Low Bay and arrange for a visit to the frigate
bird colony with guide, George Jeffrey. We shared the cost of the trip with Mike
and Pippa Brooke from yacht "Never Look Back" who were anchored alongside.
Barbuda is the main - and perhaps only - nesting colony of
the frigate or "Man o'War" bird in the Eastern Caribbean. At the
reserve there were birds at all stages of development, from newly hatched chicks
to breeding males displaying their conspicuous red pouches in an endeavour to
attract the female of the species.
   Frigate
Birds
George
Jeffrey
Rush hour in Codrington
The capital of Barbuda is Codrington, which must
be the slowest town in the Caribbean. Perhaps the cheapest too, if you stick to
locally caught produce. At the grandiose sounding "Palm Tree" restaurant (a
shed!!!!), a lobster lunch worked out at £8 per person including
drinks!
Maintenance has been suffering a bit as I am
still in "holiday" rather than "cruising" mode so I have resolved to complete
one task per day from now on. Well that's 365 a year isn't it! So far Eowyn has
performed faultlessly, but I do need to clean the watermaker membrane and hope
to buy the chemicals in Falmouth, Antigua.
 English
Harbour from Fort Berkeley
The next morning, the winds were
kind again and we close reached back to Antigua. Intending to anchor in the bay
outside Jolly Harbour, we were frustrated by depths some 60cm less than
predicted so we went stern-to in the marina for a night before sailing to
Falmouth Harbour to introduce Val and Mike to the delights of the real Antigua
yachting world. We explored English Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard yet again. The
plan is to remain here until 29th March when we will sail to Nonsuch Bay. For
those seeking to make contact, we will be in Point-a-Pitre Guadeloupe on
2nd April.
On Sunday, we went to Shirley Heights
for the weekly Steel Pan/Reggae barbeque. Antigua's best known resident, Eric
Clapton was also there enjoying the music.
  Barbeque and Sunset at
Shirley Heights |