17:32.95N  61:46.08W

 

Distance Run  30 nm

 

Thursday 8 to Tuesday 13 May 2014

 

Although we are no longer going as far north and west as the BVI’s we thought we would sail 30 nautical miles north to Antigua’s sister island, Barbuda which comes highly recommended.  The island is very low, 125 ft at it’s highest, and the population of about 2000 people live mainly in the village of Codrington which is separated from the west coast by a large lagoon.  Most of the navigation charts are based on surveys which were made in the 1800’s but some recent reef surveys and the introduction of GPS have improved things.  Nevertheless the pilot book advises arriving when the sun is high so that the reefs on the south and west coasts, where the anchorages are, will be visible.  There are also some shallow shoals 4 or 5 miles away and these lie on a line between Antigua and Barbuda so a direct route is not possible.

 

It was sunny on Thursday morning when we left Deep Bay at 7 am and we enjoyed a very good sail with the wind on the beam for most of the way.  The sky clouded over badly and the last few miles required some reef dodging so we put the sails away and motored around them towards the long beach near Cocoa Point.  Thankfully the weather cooperated as we neared the reefs and the sun came out in time for us to see what we were doing.

 

The only hotel on the beach had closed for the season so there were very few people about except for the half dozen or so anchored boats.

 

 

The view out to Cocoa Point:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice beach with the closed hotel:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of Pelicans dive bombing the sea around the boat.  This one is just tidying up his last catch:-

 

 

 

 

 

And then the clouds started to arrive:-

 

 

 

It was cloudy, rainy then stormy overnight and throughout Friday.  The wind was too strong to launch the dinghy from the foredeck and even if we had it was far too wet to enjoy time ashore, so we hunkered down below in the saloon with the fans on to move some of the hot, humid air around.  We were treated to thunder and lightening in the afternoon which is always entertaining given that our metal mast is a wonderful lightening conductor stretching 60 ft or more towards the heavens.  At least we caught up with some of the admin!

 

It had been several days since we had seen a weather forecast and we were feeling a little vulnerable in the deteriorating conditions so on Saturday afternoon we sailed around to the next bay.  This is about 10 miles to the north where there is another hotel which we hoped might still be open and have internet.  Again the sky brightened a little to let us see the reefs as we approached and anchored.  The wind was still too strong to launch the dinghy and that night the boat pitched and rolled so violently in the swell it was difficult to move around without holding on to something at all times!  A glass of water beside the bed slid around and launched itself at the person beside it.  I was not amused.

 

On Sunday the sea calmed down and the two neighbouring boats upped anchor and did a runner.  The wind and rain persisted throughout the day and I did a couple of jobs around the boat including identifying and fixing the clonking noise made when the steering wheel is turned - and we read a lot!

 

Monday morning was still overcast and rainy but we had not been ashore since we reached Barbuda 5 days ago.  The wind abated enough in late morning for us to launch the dinghy and we motored across to the Lighthouse Bay Resort hotel, about a mile and a half away.  They were open.  And later on in the day they might have the internet working!  We stayed for lunch and succeeded in using the internet in the afternoon.  The rain looks likely to clear tomorrow and the winds should die down enough to sail again on Wednesday.

 

Tuesday morning was bright and sunny and we could start to see why people enthuse about Barbuda.  The beach was stunning and we again went to the Lighthouse Bay to use the internet and see if the promised weather improvement had stabilised.  The internet is ‘free’ provided you eat there so we enjoyed another lunch.

 

 

 

Our dinghy dragged up the beach beside the hotel.  Part of the long beach:-

 

 

 

 

 

Another view from the hotel:-

 

 

 

 

 

The sea and beach were stunning and Lin saw this mirror and took the opportunity to get a little bit ‘arty’. 

 

 

 

 

 

But it was still rather windy:-

 

 

 

 

A view along part of ‘Eleven Mile Beach’.  This is so named because the beach is about 6 miles long!  We don’t know how they came up with 11:-

 

 

 

It had been very nice to get ashore for a couple of days.  It was disappointing that we had not seen the island at it’s best for most of the six days we had been here but we are still very glad we came.