Another day in Barbuda. Moved up the coast and anchored off an eleven mile long pink beach. Caroline snorkelled to shore to recce and was about to return when she noticed hundreds of fish moving away from me as a stingray flicked its tail out of the water. Some big predators were feeding off the beach so she waited for the water movement to subside before finning back.

 

Nothing here seems to be afraid of humans; our position in the food chain may be less than certain.

 

 

Wind was gusting over 30 knots so we waited for a bit ledd wind before taking the tender to the beach, carrying it over a narrow spit of land and a fence and relaunching to cross the lagoon inside. On the way a 5' ray jumped a foot out of the water. Arrived at Codrington to be told by the park authority that tenders are no longer allowed in the lagoon, you have to use a water taxi (which has a 50HP motor instead of our 5HP). They accepted we couldn't know this (its in the guide books) as there are no signs. Went to the tourist office to find where to go for customs etc. They are the Port Authority and directed us to Immigration with a slip of paper. Immigration told us to take it to Customs, passing several churches to the other side of the village. The Customs House was a house with a handwritten sign next to two donkeys and a rusty bed on the steps up. Afer knocking and waiting for a while a man answered the door, shut the door, came back with a hat on and took the Port Authority paper. Shut the door again, then came back with an envelope and told us to go back to Immigration. He then got on an impossibly squeaky bicycle and rode just in front of us. By now we were trying desperately not to giggle uncontrollably. At Immigration we finally got to fill in the papers to obtain clearance - hurray!