From January to March 2008

Lowena
Michael & Amanda Dyer
Fri 14 Mar 2008 00:57
We spent an enjoyable Christmas and New Year in English and Falmouth
Harbours at anchor with Adam and Fraser. We berthed in Nelson's
Dockyard on New Year's Eve (between a Swan 65 and a classic Fyfe 80),
which was very special as many large classic yachts came to see in the
New Year.
Early in January Fraser then Adam departed for the UK. We met David and
Nancy, (from US),on 'Vamoose',a steel cutter in English Harbour and hope
to see them again sometime.
Michael and I then sailed around the windward side of Antigua to Green
Island, a reef protected bay and anchored there for the night. It was a
very secluded and peaceful spot.
The following day we did our first bit of reef navigating, making our
way north through the Spithead Channel. With the sun overhead we
manouvered our way through the narrow channel of deep blue water between
brown water reefs, some with breaking water only a few feet away. We
had a fantastic sail, full main and jib in 15knots of wind to Barbuda.
Barbuda is very low lying and has many reefs on it's SE shore. We
couldn't really see much of the island until we were within a few miles
of the coastline.
We crept round Palmetto Point at around 1700 and anchored off 11 mile
beach. That beach is a beach like no other! The sand is soft, deep and
has a pink hue with a band of pink coral along the high tide mark.
Eleven miles of pure, unspoilt coastline with only a handful of yachts
anchored off.
Next day we met Clifford who lives in a hut on the narrow piece of land
which divides the sea from Codrington Lagoon. He took us by boat across
the 3 mile wide lagoon to Codrington. Later we had barbequed Lobster on
the beach. The following day, Clifford took us to the Frigate bird
colony in the mangrove swamps at the northern end of the lagoon. The
male bird is all black with a red throat that he inflates like a balloon
to attract the female bird. She is black with a white head. He
incubates one egg and she delivers the food.
Clifford, encouraged by our compliments of fresh lobster, went out into
the lagoon and brought back four live lobsters for us! This was a nice
gesture and we spent the rest of the day cooking, peeling and eating.
Boy, they were good!
After three days at anchor we sailed back to Antigua. We only
experienced one squall and had a pleasant sail with 17knots of wind. We
decided to go back to Jolly Harbour Marina for a few days to replenish
supplies.
We were there for two weeks as front after front of strong squalls and
rain came through. We experienced a terrific thunderstorm overhead with
torrential rain all day. We learned that a superyacht in Falmouth Bay
had been hit by lightening and sunk. (no-one aboard, fortunately).