Low Bay, Barbuda

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 6 Feb 2012 19:32

17:38.66N 61:51.31W

Fri & Sat – 2nd & 3rd Feb

Got up early to sharpen the fish gutting knives and reassemble the Hydrovane before setting off for Barbuda around 0700hrs.   We were following quite a few other boats from this anchorage all on the same track and crossing the path of three huge cruise ships entering St Johns in time for breakfast.   The route is almost due north once you have avoided the coral reefs at the north end of Antigua and Rob quickly got the Hydrovane working.   The very slight adjustment he made to the set-up has proved a revelation and Henry (the Hydrovane) was well in control of Serafina, 60⁰ off the wind with speeds of occasionally 8+ knots.   So we had a glorious sail with a reducing sea as we sailed into the lee of Barbuda Island.

We decided not to fish again as the sea is only, at its deepest, 30 metres for the whole 30 miles between Antigua and Barbuda and this puts any fish caught potentially in the category of reef feeding fish with the possibility of carrying ciguatera disease.

The pilot makes the whole approach of Barbuda very intimidating but we found plenty of depth along 11 Mile Beach and anchored up towards the small hotel in Low Bay so that we can be picked up by George Jefferys tomorrow for a visit to the Frigate bird colony.   He will come over from the town, Codrington which is the other side of the lagoon which backs on to the beach.

Sarah, having as ever anchored a little too far out, decided to swim to the beach to check we were in the right place to meet George, which was hard work up wind and rather a surreal experience as it was a totally sandy bottom but the suspension of sand in the water means you can’t see the bottom and it is like swimming in the sky as it is so blue.  The outcome of this trip ashore was that we decided to move Serafina closer to the beach and once we had done this, we found it a good deal more comfortable.  The beach is of very fine, slightly pinky sand and quite out of this world.   Over a well-deserved coffee on her return she spotted a huge (4’ ) ray leap several feet into the air and remembered that this used to happen at Anegada in the BVIs at dusk.

On Saturday morning we got up for another struggle with the SSB radio to try and get a weather forecast.   Our SSB seems unable to receive at the moment although we know we are able to transmit, which suggests it’s an aerial problem.   Rob cleaned the deck connector but needs Sarah to go up the backstay and do something technical, so we are saving this one up!

Rob then inflated and launched our old dinghy as we have to carry it well up the steep beach to leave it untethered while we visit the bird sanctuary;  With our small outboard on it is a whole lot lighter to manoeuvre than the bigger rib with its aluminium hull.   So should the very worst happen, not such a disaster if it goes walkabout!   So we set off at 1000 to meet a very punctual George Jeffreys for our trip.   He is well promoted in the Doyles guide book and was an absolutely charming and interesting guide.   He charged US$50 for the boat (plus the tax we had to pay in Codrington) and he pointed out that this is the fixed charge set by the authorities although there is an off-islander around, touting for water taxi business and making life difficult by over-charging.

George told us much about Barbuda’s history and geography of which he is justly proud.  Most of the 1,250 islanders share half a dozen surnames and are direct descendants of a small group of slaves brought here by the two Codrington brothers.   They leased the land from the British Crown for “one fattened sheep” per year for nearly two centuries and grew food for Antiguan sugarcane workers, also using the island as their personal hunting ground.  Consequently the Barbudans who were not closely supervised developed a tough independent spirit.   The Codringtons also “bred slaves” as the Barbudans have a reputation for being big, strong people.   Today all the land is owned communally and cannot be sold to outsiders.  Antiguan government development plans have been fiercely resisted:  one hotel project had the population march en masse and shove the building offices over the cliff!   On the island are goats, sheep, feral donkeys, horses (which are raced), wild boar and white tailed deer – the latter two are legally hunted.   They apparently also have a taste locally for the Red-Footed Tortoise.

George showed us a huge Canadian buoy (see photos at www.rhbell.com) which is thought to have broken free, washed by currents to Europe and then back again across the Atlantic to Barbuda.   Codrington also used these currents to his advantage, having an active wrecking team to plunder the many ships that foundered on this low island.   George has a large collection of messages swept here in bottles, so now we know where they all went!

George took us through the saltwater lagoon passing a fisherman pulling in his nets who obligingly threw the smaller fish into the air for the circling juvenile Frigate birds to catch in mid-air.   It was quite a spectacle with the huge birds competing so closely but not crashing into each other.   When we reached the colony, George started to pole his Dory through the mangroves and it was a quite an unbelievable sight.   The sky was full of whirling, soaring birds and all the trees were stuffed full of every stage of Frigate bird development from this year’s white fluffy chicks, through last year’s immature birds with white heads, to the adult birds.   And the best bit of all was that it is mating season so we were lucky enough to see the males with their red neck pouches inflated and hear the strange beak-clacking noise they make.   The birds are not at all bothered by us and George was able to take us very close to the mangroves.   Frigates have the greatest wing span for their size of all birds, but are not waterproof – so should they land on the sea they could become waterlogged and therefore they often harass other birds for their catch, hence their other name “man o’ war” birds.

He also showed us the strange upside-down jellyfish which have brown or purple plants (zooanthellae) growing on their undersides, so they turn upside down to offer these plants maximum sunlight.

After this George dropped us back to the beach.   We can’t recommend this trip highly enough:  see the Resources section at http://www.rhbell.com  for George’s contact details!

Rob then took some photos of the beach, Serafina and the amazing sea colours despite two couples walking from opposite ends of the 11 Mile beach to congregate just in front of his shots!   Otherwise the rest of the day was taken rather gently (well, it was for Sarah, but Rob put away the dinghy, mended a hatch catches and did some work….).