On to Barbuda
Kaimin
John & Pam Clarke
Mon 26 Jan 2015 19:03
Even though we only spend a couple of nights in Jolly Harbour we decide it’s a great safe place to leave the boat when we return to the U.K. so we book a berth for a couple of months February and March and pay a deposit. That done we can relax and enjoy the rest of January cruising and chilling out. We decided to go to Barbuda, we’ve been told that its a small island that doesn’t have cruise liners visiting and not many yachts go because of the difficulty in navigating through the surrounding reef, and some 200 shipwrecks. I get enough provisions to last us a couple of weeks and were ready to go.
We left Jolly Harbour Thursday 15th January at 9am with force 4 to 5 ESE winds, we had the head sail, reefed main and mizzen out and had a fantastic sail. The guys were giving whoops of delight at how well the sails performed and reckoned it gave us an extra 2 knots. Six miles to go we still couldn’t see Barbuda but as it is only 125ft above sea level we weren’t suprised.At about 4 miles away we could see a very low lying mass of land. As we neared the island we put the engine on to give us easier steering around the reefs, we followed the advised bearing of 15 degrees magnetic and kept a good look out. All went well and we sailed between the reefs without a problem and dropped anchor in 5 metres of water at 3pm. We had a swim around the boat and chilled. All we could see was the beautiful turquoise sea, white sandy beach a few shrubs and one small hotel in the distance, all waiting for us to explore tomorrow.
The following morning we dinghy ashore with the intention of dragging the dinghy over a 20 metre strip of beach that separates the sea from the lagoon, and motoring across the lagoon to Codrington town, the lagoon is 2 miles by 6 miles. However the water in the lagoon is rougher than the sea and it wasn’t safe to launch the dinghy. We’d been told that water taxis monitored VHF channel 16 but they hadn’t got their ears on that day, so we walked up to the small hotel to have a look around. We had a drink in the bar and they offered to call us a Water Taxi to take us to Codrington.
Solomon, our water taxi driver takes us across the lagoon at high speed in his power boat, a very hard bumpy ride. The town is small and sleepy, with single storey houses, a few small streets, one or two shops that are dark and don’t have much in them and one or two restaurants that are just shacks. People are just wandering around, or standing on the street side chatting or eating from the pavement grills and everywhere you look dogs are lying in shade or wandering freely, the bitches all obviously having had pups. We see school children smartly dressed in uniforms and very well behaved and everyone is friendly asking if we need help. After about an hour we head back to get the taxi to take us back and organise for Solomon to pick us up at 9am the following morning to take us to the Frigate Bird Colony.
The following morning we’re on the pier at 9am waiting for Solomon. He arrives and we set off across the lagoon to the far side. Once over the other side he tells me to get my camera ready and as we round a corner; wow! wow! and wow! There’s frigate birds for ever, it’s the mating season, and the males have ballooned up their red throat pouches and are sitting in the bushes. There are that many red throats that the bushes look as if they’ve been decorated with red baubles. The females fly overhead looking down on the males deciding which one they like best. Once they’ve decided which male they like best they swoop and a complicated mating ritual takes place. Solomon has a wealth of knowledge about the birds and tells us that this colony is the largest in the world, having over twenty thousand birds, their wing span is six feet, and each mating couple has only one chick a year. He takes us very close to where they are roosting so I can get some good photos. Absolutely amazing. On our way back we tell Solomon we are running short of fuel for the dinghy he offers to take us ashore to get some and whilst we’re chatting away he also offers to get us some lobsters, what a lovely guy, and guess what our evening meal was, mmmmm lobster fantastic.
Not sure how long we’ll stay here just swimming around the boat, snorkelling off the reef, walking along the white soft sand beach, the guys going ashore for target practice with their bow and arrows, drinking sundowners, it’s such a hard life.