Barbuda

NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Wed 4 Mar 2009 15:51
Visit to the island of Barbuda
 
 
 
17:39N  61:52W
Low Bay Barbuda
2nd March 2009
 
 
Barbuda is a low sandy island lying approximately thirty miles north of Antigua and is part of the country of Antigua.  Although over half the size of its parent island only 1600 people live there.  125 feet at its highest in an area known as 'the highlands', it is really just a huge sand dune.  For the nature lover there are miles and miles of undeveloped beaches that team with littoral life.  Inland the huge lagoon and its mangroves provides a sanctuary for many birds.  Terns, boobies, pelicans abound but it is most famously known for its frigate bird colony.  This has been a magnet for me for many years.  Previously in 2001 we had made it to the island but were unable to get ashore due to the huge swells that got up overnight.  The history of this island is not all sweet.  The original Barbudan people were  imported as slaves by the Codrington family who leased the island from England for one sheep per year beginning in 1685.  The Codringtons then set up a slave breeding colony and sold to Antigua their slaves and the root crops and livestock that they grew.  Sugar never featured and the home slaves were allowed a lot of unsupervised existence.  This has resulted in a very independent, from outsiders, but dependent upon each other life style.  Land is owned communally and as there is an excess of it there is little arguing over boundaries.  Antiguans are not over popular.
 
Nordlys and Oriole, a Rival Bowman 40 owned by our friends Chris and John Lytle, enjoyed a lovely gentle sail from Falmouth Harbour to Lower Bay on the west side of Barbuda.  To call it a bay is really a misnomer. a slight curve in the shoreline which is known here as eleven mile beach.  The approach is bounded by reefs and our arrival in the early afternoon was perfectly timed with the sun high in the sky and behind us.  This showed that there were no 'bommies' or coral heads and we came to anchor in 5 metres on a sandy bottom.  We lay about 200m off the endless beach.
 
Nordlys and Oriole at anchor off 11 mile beach Barbuda.
The colouring is not artificially enhanced!
 
Getting ashore was not difficult as the swell though pronounced was not high however we took all precautions.  We used Oriole's dinghy which is much lighter than ours and has a small outboard.  Cameras etc were in waterproof cases and John timed the surf perfectly so with one motion we landed, jumped out and carried the light load up the beach.
 
View down the beach looking south.  Lagoon can just be seen on the left and the sea on the right.
 
We were lucky enough to have  the services of George Jeffrey as our guide.  George is a local fisherman who has lived all his life which I would guess is about 60 years, on Barbuda.  The Americans run a scheme whereby for a month at a time a doctor comes from Virginia to the island.  He or she run a surgery every morning and for the rest of the time get to know the island and its peoples.  George has befriended many of these medics and taken them hunting and fishing.  There are wild boar on the island as well as numerous ponies which the locals catch, train and regularly race.  This interest has resulted in George being invited often to the States.  There is little he does not know about the island and its wildlife.  He also happens to be one of life's gentle contented souls.  A few hours in his company is a tonic.
 
George Jeffrey.  Next day he was not available to help us around the rest of the island
as his thumb had turned nasty.  Here we are crossing the lagoon to
Codrington.  Nordlys and Oriole are at anchor the other side of the sand spit.
 
After paying our visitor's tax of $2 per head in the town of Codrington we headed off up to the northern end of the lagoon.  The first stop was to see an old navigation buoy that had washed up on the eastern side of the island and had been towed into the lagoon by the locals to salvage any worthwhile parts.  One visitor went home and did research on the internet to find the amazing fact that this buoy had come from the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada.
 
This buoy had circled the Atlantic in the currents before ending up on Barbuda.
The dents on its side showed that several ships had hit it during this time.  One can only hope that
they were large ships and that it was not responsible for the loss of any yachts.
 
Moving on up the lagoon  our next stop was at a bit of regenerating mangrove, after a hurricane, that is now the home of a colony of Pelicans.  These photogenic creatures never cease to amuse.
 
Two adult breeding brown pelicans.  My bird book tells me this as it is the only time
the birds have the pronounced brown feathers.  Since there was a chick hiding in the leaves
I can only guess that the bird book is correct.
 
A little bit further on the real reason for the trip hove into sight and I must be honest also made itself known to our olfactory nerves.
The sky was black with the birds and the mangroves were covered with them.  Adults, both female and male and many young.  We were told that this was the end of the breeding season but there were still some males in their magnificent 'show off' state hoping for a conquest.  Most of the males were however showing signs of near exhaustion with their red sacks either partially of fully deflated.
 
The odd red sack can be seen showing out strongly even at this range.
 
Young chick, resting mothers, a fairly tired male and one who is still hopeful.
 
While in the breeding state the males have to fly with this extra windage.  They make a fine
sight.
 
As with most creatures the chicks are very photogenic.
 
 
There are many stories about these magnificent birds.  Here are some of the facts that we are fairly sure of and some which we are not that confident about.
 
These birds can neither swim not walk.  They are diurnal, returning to roost in trees or mangroves at night.  They have a greater wing area to weight than any other bird.  They either catch their own fish by flying while scooping up the target with their large beaks or by attacking other predators who have just caught a meal and then by catching the resulting dropped fish or regurgitated meal while on the wing. They are magnificent flyers and to watch them in action is always a pleasure. The above is undoubtedly true.  The next few facts are often stated but have not been proved.  There is a surprisingly large amount of ignorance over the habits of this bird.
 
George told us he has seen two adults go immediately to the rescue of another adult who had landed by mistake in the sea.  They pulled its wings with their beaks until the sufferer was clear of the water and could fly.  We have been told two reasons why they cannot get airborne if they land by error in water.  One is that their feathers are not oily and soon become waterlogged.  The other is that their legs are so weak that they cannot flap and swim themselves airborne.  If any reader knows the answer please let us know.
 
After three nights anchored off this island of sand and birds and we set sail back to Antigua.  The hope was to round the south western end of Barbuda and clear the eastern, windward end of Antigua.  This was not to be.  The trades were back with a vengeance and the south easterly course would have been only just, if at all possible, close hauled.  With large unsettled seas and twenty to twenty five knots of true wind blowing we bore away a few degrees and with one reef and some rolls in the genoa we set off at a steady eight knots towards the western end of Antigua.  We should have had two reefs.  It was a wet bumpy ride with salt water everywhere including some down below as our supposedly water tight solar vent allowed gallons of water in when it was completely submerged.  Some thing it has not been until now.  As I write this Annette is doing battle with canvas, thread and the sewing machine in order to construct a cap for it.
 
We let the anchor drop in four metres in Deep Bay on the north western end of Antigua.  This bay and its 'Royal Antiguan' hotel had been my temporary home for many visits as the crews of British Airways used to stay here.  I walked up to the resort yesterday to find it well decorated and if anything in a finer state than when I used to stay there.  What was missing were people.  There was no bustle, the coffee shop was shut and the receptionist told me that BA had not used the place for at least five years, her time there.  I would also guess that not many others are using it either.  The world seems to be very full of underutilised resorts.  Perhaps they should change their price structure.
 
We will spend today here, take a walk to the fort on the hill, snorkel the wreck in the bay and then tomorrow go round to Jolly harbour and get ready for the arrival of our next visitors, my sister Ann and her husband Richard.  Unless I can manage to get a wifi connection here I will send this from Jolly Harbour as so many photos even in web form build up the kilobytes well beyond iridium sending.
 
Happy times
David and Annette