June 30,2020
We are free to sail to different bays and islands which has been excellent. We have basically done the full tour of of the main island a couple of times by boat and land. We added some small islands and some underwater sightings. We are visiting a different version of Antigua. Normally at this time of the year Antigua starts to get quiet after receiving hundreds of boats for the many regatas that run from February all the way to April. Although, there should still be a lot of tourist from UK or US coming by plane and staying in the many huge resorts and accomodations. But 2020 has been completely different. Like everywhere else the island got affected by cases of COVID-19 and closed its borders in March, so there were no mega yachts this year, no regatas and no cruise ships. Apparently it was very common to have days with up to 5 cruise ships on the docks in St Johns.
The main activity here is tourism and although the island is officially open, it is still operating at its minimum capacity. It was very strange to hear an airplane, its been such a long time without them. Now everyday there are a few mainly coming from the United States.
Ports like Falmouth or Jolly Harbour are desolated. The sailing season is over at the end of May, but this year there was no sailing during the season and the docks are empty. We heard from people that has been here before that they have never seen those places so desolated.
Jolly Harbour
For us, the scenery is very nice and peaceful. We have nothing to compare it to as this is our first time here. We took advantage and went to one of the restaurants with “Happy Nights” (our dinghy) and we had plenty space to tied it up. When we came in the restaurant some tourist at one of the tables asked, “Where are you coming from?”, “from our boat” we replied , “wow that is so cool ” they told us. It was really funny to heard a comment like that, but it is true that, these days, there aren’t many coming by boat, so we were definitely the exception.
Deep Bay
It is a really nice bay between St John’s and Jolly Harbour and it was one of our favourite places. The bay is very protected which makes it a really nice place, very quiet and without any swell coming in. The bottom is a good holding sand and it is really easy to get to the beach swimming because we could anchor very close to it.
The contrast is quite impressive, on one half there is a huge resort, with some houses on stills, each one with its private swimming pool a sun deck and rooms with glass to roof glass windows, all design to get as much views from the bay and the hill. All the resort was empty, there was only a couple of guards doing the surveillance. Of course one came to tell me I could not climb in the live-guard’s tower, I explained I just wanted to take a picture! I realised then that lifeguards are only for tourist. The other half of the bay has some ruins of one of the old forts and a some small wooden houses probably to sell drinks or crafts when there are tourists. That side of the bay was a lot more local with people around early morning or later in the afternoon, bigger family groups with full picnic and loud music during the weekends.
In the middle of the bay there is a Wreck, perfect place for snorkeling or diving when the jelly fish are not out. With the warm rainy season starting, the jelly fish comes in thousands. They are probably the good kind, as we swam for some time and saw plenty withoutgetting any sting.
Shirley Heights
This is a very popular place in normal times. Anyone who has been here will recommend the Sunday afternoon huge BBQ with a display of music with 2 local bands. Everybody enjoys the party as the sun goes down. For us the experience was quite different. We arrived hiking from Falmouth beach on a very hot afternoon through a dry path. Antigua is under extreme drought this year. The hike is fairly easy but by the time we arrive we were exhausted with the heat and had forgotten the water. In any case, the visit to this site is spectacular. The view is simply magnificent.
It was so nice that we went another time driving… still no BBQ but never disappointed by the view and colors of nature from here. On the second time we visited we could see a lot less boats, everybody keeps leaving south.
Prickly Pearl Island
This is a tiny island in the north and no one lives there. There is only a small place which looked like a restaurant bar. It probably opens for day tourist delivered by small boats from the many resorts. We arrived swimming. The weather was blowing in the right direction and strenght to allow us to anchored close by. A short snorkel later and we arrived to the island.
There was a big group of birds flying around us, not really sure what type. We kept walking in the surroundings and started climb a small hill to see the other side of the island. It was a bit strange because as higher as we went the birds kept circling us and not really getting much away. They were definitely getting louder and louder. We kept going slowly along a clear marked path, it was only when we got to the top that we realised there were a couple of nests with the baby birds on the side of the path, right there on the floor. Why were the nests on the floor? that will remind a question mark. We decided to quickly go back down, no to disturb them. Have a look at the video.
Donkey Sanctuary
On our tour by land we discovered this place. We went there more for curiosity and without much expectations but it turned out to be a really nice. It is an animal welfare organization making a difference for all animals in Antigua and Barbuda through the prevention of cruelty and the protection of animals. It is a non profit organisation.
They take care of cats and dogs as well, but the main goal are 153 donkeys. They are very well look after as every visitor is allowed to pat them, you get a brush and can walk around them. They are so spoiled some of them actually come to ask you for a brush. They all have a collar with their name and they respond to it.
Diving,
We now have 2 brand new dive tanks on board, no compressor so we will still have to run around to get them refill. But so far we have done 4 dives. It is very tricky to dive from the sailing boat because for diving normally you dive a reef, a wall or a wreck but all those places are spots to stay away from with the sailing boat. The option is to anchor the boat in a nice quiet bay and the go with the dinghy. Our’s is a 3.5hp which is perfect size for all our needs but more challenging to go further away or on big swells.
Antigua offers quite a number of places so with a bit of planning and good weather conditions, we were able to go and discover some of the underwater. It is always a pleasure to dive in the Caribbean with the water around 27deg and great visibility when the sun is shining. We can do 2 dives on one bottle, each dive for 40min and maximum 20m deep and enough air for safety stop.
We dove in Red Rock close to Falmouth Harbour, a wreck in Deep Bay, The monk’s head in Cades reef. We saw all kinds of Caribbean Reef fish, couple of turtles, a stingray, spotted Morays, lobsters, shrimps, lots of different corals but plenty of small Flamingo Tounge Snail, they are small but I’m getting so much better at spotting them.
We did try to go to the Sandy Islands, not far from St Johns or Deep Bay, but we didn’t have much luck the swell was to high and although we could anchor it didn’t look safe to go and we cancelled. But we had some turtles touring around the boat.
Apparently, because the island was in lockdown for 3 months and there is still not a lot of people it is more common to see a lot more of marine life close by. We could testify that was the case. We had turtles almost on every anchorage one of them came out to breath and I was in the paddle-board probably a meter away, I think she got as surprise as I did and left quite quickly on oposite direction. Who said turtles are slow?? They are fast!
Stingray City
Althought we had seen some stingrays diving and snorkeling we wanted to go and swim with them. There is place called Stingray City and we tried to get closer with the boat when we went to Bird Island but we couldn’t get close enough and we couldn’t find it. So we did it the normal way get there by car.
The place is fully set up to welcome 200 guests at once, the mayor source of visitor’s come from the big cruise ships. So this time instead of 200 guest they had 2. I was kind of surprise they actually took us. But then I understood that they had to go anyway to feed the ray.
The stingrays are free they don’t live in the “swimming pools” where we swam with them but they keep coming back as they get breakfast, lunch and dinner provided by the team from Stingray City, so I think that is why they keep coming back…
At the beginning it is a bit scary, we came at breakfast time… so they all come at the same time, the come so close they touch you and their skin is so soft and slightly slimmy. A tough a more rough on the top.
It was great to be able to come to Antigua and enjoy the island with desolated beaches, empty resorts, espectacular turquoise seas, unhabited island and nature that seems to be taken over in places that there is normally people but after 3 month s of quarantine they came back to it.
For us as many others it is time to go south.
Happy Days 