To the reefs
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 13 Dec 2009 11:38
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It is now 10th December and after almost a week of
repairs and maintenance and celebrating our safe and successful Atlantic
crossing we departed Falmouth Harbour with Marlene and Brent Delcourt, Trish's
niece and husband aboard and headed round the east coast of Antigua to
Nonsuch bay. After a very lumpy coastal passage into the wind we arrived at
17:04.177N 061:40.25W in a small bay called Rickett Bay on Green Island
just inside Nonsuch bay. In abour 6m of water we anchored up with the bay and
its two beaches all to ourselves. This is really what we have come for. Dinner
from the barbeque under the stars in the cockpit and endless reefs to
explore in the morning. The next day the 11th we set off with the rib to
anchor up in the middle of the reefs to snorkel. These are reefs which ring the
bay to the east and when you anchor inside them it is like anchoring in the
open ocean as just outside the reefs a hundred metres or so away lies the open
atlantic all the way to Africa! The snorkelling was good but not spectacular. We
spent a second night in our bay swimming and snorkeling and fishing and having
sundowners on the beach but although we still had the beach to
ourselves the bay now had two other yachts anchored up. The next morning, the
12th we planned to go to Barbuda about a 40 mile sail from where we were.
Barbuda is a very low lying island (the highest point is 125ft above sea level,
which they call the "Highlands") part of the country of Antigua
and Barbuda but visited by very few people. It is well known for having a
very large and spectacular frigate bird colony which we have previously visited,
and endless beaches. One single beach is 11 miles long and is part of a 23 mile
stretch of beach!
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