17:33.2N 61:46.1W

Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat – 15^th, 16^th, 17^th & 18^th Jan

We made an early start but not as early as Ruffian and Il Sogno who were both already on their way heading north to Barbuda in a wonderful 20 knot breeze from the east making the trip a spanking fine reach, pretty much all the way.  As we approached Cocoa Point we let Ruffian close up behind us so that they could follow us as we used our forward-looking-sonar to thread our way through the coral heads into the calm and stunning turquoise blue waters of the bay lined by endless pure white sandy beaches (although they are reputed to be pink, we don’t quite see it!), fringed with palm trees.  If Dominica seemed like the Garden of Eden, then Barbuda is pretty much everyone’s dream of the perfect Caribbean getaway.

We all three anchored in the clear waters of the bay and settled back to savour the beauty of the place. The sea at the back of Serafina has been colonised by hundreds of small fish and they are not at all fazed by our presence in the water for a swim or washing etc.   Sarah had assumed that these little darlings might be like the ones in Antigua which had nibbled at her feet – but it turned out that they had other interests and it has discouraged her from bathing topless again here!

On Thursday time just slipped by, but we all went for a snorkel on the nearest coral heads and in the afternoon we had a long walk along the long, empty and beautiful soft white beach.  There is an exclusive ‘resort’ at one end of the beach which is served by a small private airstrip, but this does not impact at all on the beauty of the location as their low buildings and handful of wealthy guests are screened by the trees and keep themselves to themselves!

There was some drama in the late afternoon when someone spotted a yacht had struck the big reef off Cocoa Point and were clearly aground with all their sails up and in great difficulty, with only an hour of daylight left.  But before we could react ourselves, the resort had sent out a powerful launch which made its way at speed right around the treacherous coral outcrops and was able to help the yacht off the reef and escorted it into the anchorage. They were Spanish and another yacht with Spanish crew on board went to see if all was well.  We opted to give them space and assumed that they would call if they need any assistance.

On Friday morning Iain kindly went up our mast to inspect our anchor light and tricolour light.  Late morning the six of us pottered round in two dinghies to the other side of Cocoa Point to have a picnic anchored in the lee of one of the multitude of coral reefs, west of  Spanish Point.  As we set off  we were a little concerned to see a lot of water being pumped out of the stern of the Spanish yacht, but they seemed unconcerned themselves and so we had to again assume all was OK as they were making no effort to head back to Antigua for repairs.  So  we swam and snorkelled seeing an extraordinary array of sea life including a couple of big rays. The coral was probably the best we have seen anywhere in the Caribbean although the BVIs are hard to beat for the variety of aquatic life forms.

On Saturday morning Il Sogno made an early departure back down to Antigua where Craig had a big NFL ‘football’ match to watch on TV!  The big Russian yacht that had anchored behind us on Friday left mid-morning so there was just us, Ruffian and the waterlogged Spaniards left in the bay along with a huge turtle that kept swimming past us and several big rays that we spotted leaping high into the sky in their unique and spectacular way.

In the afternoon, along with Iain and Fiona, we went ashore (an adventure in itself taking their lighter dinghy ‘Thug’ through the surf) and had a long walk up to Spanish Point.  This took us on an interesting route across a partially dried out lagoon bed and then along a very rough road until we finally came to a sandy beach with some lobster fisherman who were sorting through the big catch they had made in a huge steel cage. We chatted to them as they stuffed dozens of big lobsters into four sacks to try to get them to the island ferry before it left for Antigua.

We turned down a lift from them back to where we had left Thug and had a nice walk back just in time to repair to Serafina for drinks and dinner at sundown. This was our last night in the company of Ruffian as they are now heading north west to St Barts and the US Virgins etc, whilst we have opted to stay in Antigua for a while longer. The evening ended with a game of Mexican Train and  grown-up farewells (Larry was wearing a bow tie in honour of the occasion).