Barbuda 17:33.2N,61:46.1W

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Mon 7 Mar 2016 13:36
Barbuda is about 30 miles north of Antigua, and low lying (its highest point is 125ft), and with only 2000 inhabitants.  It is surrounded by coral reefs, which make navigation a bit tricky in places, but also mean it has the most stunning white and pink sand beaches.

Our first stop was at Cocoa Point, in the south of the island.  We anchored at 1430 after an early start from Antigua and a fast and at times wet passage.  Luckily the weather calmed down for our final approach past the shoals and between patches of coral.

We were faced with a calm anchorage where the sea was clear and turquoise and the miles of beach were palm fringed, white and almost empty - there was just the Cocoa Point resort at one end of the beach and a few people walking.  Amazingly there were only two other boats anchored here, contrasted to the 150 Phil counted at St Annes on Martinique, which was nowhere near as lovely.

We stopped here overnight, and had a walk on the beach in the morning, before moving north to Low Bay, which is closer to the ‘capital’ of Codrington.  The beach here really is pink tinged from the coral, and once again was endless and empty.  Here there were six boats in the anchorage.

On Sunday we went to Codrington.  This involved taking the dinghy to the beach, carrying it across the sand bar and then putting it back in the water in the lagoon.  We got swamped in the waves landing - strong words resulting due to lack of clean clothes.  There are water taxis available across the lagoon, but the price according to our guidebook was a bit steep. 

We managed to hire bikes for the day - we could hear the sounds of the church service so weren't sure if everyone would be in church, but the owner came out when we called and in 20 minutes we had two excellent mountain bikes for £12.50 each.  We took Route 1 out of Codrington, north as far as Two Feet Bay: a stunning area of Limestone rock formations ashore, lush vegetation and multi-coloured sea inside the breakers at the edge of the reefs.  Apparently this is the best snorkelling area of the island.  After lunch in the shade of the trees, we rode back through Codrington and south to the coast just east of Palmetto Point, where we found the Pink Sand Beach Bar and had a cold beer and an interesting chat with the owner.  Everywhere you go on Barbuda there are donkeys and horses roaming free, which are the descendants of the animals previously used as burden beasts.  Now some of the horses get used for racing, and on our way back we found the Sunday race meeting and stayed to watch the first race.  It was great fun, although we weren't able to tell exactly where the race started.  In this race at least the jockeys were young lads who rode without saddles.

Last night a swell worked its way into the anchorage, as a precursor to some stronger winds on the way from tomorrow, so we are now making our way back to Antigua to sit out the weather in the comfort of Jolly Harbour.

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