Antigua and Barbuda
After the natural beauty and general chilled out vibe of Dominica the crew of Rafiki we were ready for a bit of a tear up and Antigua promised not to disappoint.
Any marina in the Caribbean has a buzz about it but Falmouth Harbour during the RORC 600 was something else, more people, more race boats, more fun. The RORC 600 is a yacht race for various classes from small cursing yachts up to super fast multi hulls, the race starts and finishes in Antigua and comprises of a 600 mile course around the surrounding islands but more importantly draws in amateur and professional race teams, cruisers, spectators and super yachts from around the caribbean.
We arrived in Falmouth harbour early one morning after another tough but fast sail from Dominica and tied up to a mooring boy owed by and old English gent that collects the fees daily. After cleaning the boat we all headed into the marina to check in with customs and grab some lunch.
Falmouth harbour and it's very close neighbour English harbour are steeped in naval history for over a hundred years. English harbour was the British base of operations in the Caribbean and as such the docks are named after the one time resident captain of HMS Boreas, Lord Horatio Nelson. The old docks associated sail lofts, shipwrights and barrack buildings have been renovated to now be a marina, hotel and restaurant complex that still exudes an authentic historical atmosphere.
It is now some what of a tradition that after a long sail the first day turns into a bit of a session and Antigua was no exception after checking in with customs at Nelsons Dockyard we headed back to Falmouth harbour for a serious session on the balcony of Cloggies - a restaurant over looking the race boats and super yachts in the harbour. Bottle after bottle of white wine was sunk as we watched the hustle and bustle of the race teams preparing for the start of the RORC600. The tone was set for a great couple of weeks in Antigua.
The chronology of this blog is some what dubious in part due to the number and frequency of top nights that were had and in that it has taken me a couple of months to sit down to write it so what follows is my best recollection of what was for me at least a highlight of the Caribbean season.
Adam and I decided to explore the island and so took it upon ourselves to go ashore and secure an appropriate vehicle. It took ten minutes to decide and in our mind the Jeep Wrangler was the perfect machine, Pete was not so convinced, his list of complaints included but were not limited to, it had no roof, plastic windows and no AC, all of these were dismissed by us as it had a V8. We set off heading for the north east of the island with Pete and Clo shoe-horned into the back seats looking for the Devils Bridge, a rock bridge on the atlantic coast formed by the constant pounding swell. On the drive up there Pete's argument was helped with the discovery of a broken radiator support that knocked and rattled every time your foot was removed from the gas (easily solved) and that the bonnet was only being held on by one half perished rubber clip, no matter it was rapid in a straight line, a point proved time and again by "Couchie lead foot". After a couple of hours drive due to some spurious map reading from yours truly we reached the rugged but beautiful atlantic coast and Devils Bridge. Well worth the trip the bridge is about 10ft wide and 30ft long covered in sea spray and breaking waves, supposed only the brave and clearly stupid have proved both attributes by running across it. Unfortunately no amount of goading would tempt Adam to join the club. The rest of that day was spent having lunch at a pretty italian restaurant over looking a beach where we enjoyed a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon sun on some of the softest sand i have ever felt, bliss.
The next day, Adams Birthday, we headed up to St Johns to continue our tour of the island and add further complaints to Pete's list of dislikes of the Wrangler. St Johns is a typical Caribbean island capital It has a smattering of old colonial buildings however in the most part is a bit run down but bursting with character. These Capitals are on most islands the ports of call for the cruse ships that disgorge thousands of passengers a day onto the islands, I read in Barbuda a few days later that on one day four cruse ships disembarked twelve thousand passengers on to Antigua. Most of the passengers are taken off to various sights and attractions around the island and then delivered back to the port for 4pm when they get back on to their air conditioned floating hotel and head to the next island. Others choose to stay in town and shop at the purpose made duty free shopping centres that are constructed at every port entrance to squeeze every dollar out of them, the only difference between these malls island to island is the T shirts you buy, either "I Love Antigua", "I Love St Lucia" or "I love St Kitts". Only a short walk up the street from the americana of the shops is the real caribbean, having visited many caribbean islands we have developed a yard stick that we use to measure how caribbean a place is. The hitherto unnamed "Roti Review" St Johns is home to the Roti King a bold statement that was not without back up for me it was one of the best roti's in the caribbean. We left St Johns and headed south to Jolly Harbour and the beach on the way we drove through black pineapple plantations, black pineapples are only grown in Antigua and are smaller and sweeter than the common counterpart we stopped at a road side stall set up on a locals drive where we were sold a bag of pineapple and a bag of chopped mango for only 20 EC dollars. We drove along the costal road enjoying the beautiful scenery provided by the reefs and beaches in the afternoon sun before getting to Jolly harbour for a well earned dip.
Being Adams birthday the day was not over, a quick shower back at the boat and we were ready to sink a few beers and float some dodgy chat up lines. First stop "skulduggery" for espresso martinis and as ever Adam insists he's not a big drinker and not keen on birthdays so "we'll just have a quiet one". Needless to say what i can remember of the evening is sketchy, there was booze, super yacht crew, laughs and dancing, Im pretty sure at one point Adam was working as a barman in "Mongoose".
Barbuda lies about 25 miles north of Antigua and is a 50 mile sail from Falmouth Harbour so with a couple of days to spare before the next six nations game we took the opportunity to visit. The island is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the caribbean and only had a population of 1500, there is no marina and the town of Codrington sits in the centre of the Island separated from the caribbean side by a lagoon. The easiest place to anchor is the beach that stretches for the length of the caribbean coast, the sand on the beach has a pink tint to it due to the crushed mollusk shells that help to make it up. The town of Codrington itself is not much to write home about. It has the feel of a town thats been left behind by the rest of the caribean and lacks the charm and warmth of other small caribbean towns. During a trip across the lagoon to get to the town we spoke to an older local man who said that the current political party on the island had been responsible for the lack of development and intended to keep away development, his view was that this lead to all of the young people leaving the island to seek work else where. His view was that the islander should let developers develop on the miles of beach as the locals rarely visited or used them. In fact the only use the beach had was for its sand which is exported all over the caribbean to be used in the large mega expensive resorts such as Sugar Reef in St Lucia where the native sand is volcanic and black and doesn't suit the picture post card image of the caribbean.
We left Barbuda in time to watch the England Ireland six nations match back at Cloggies in Falmouth Harbour with a 50% Irish and 50% English crew it promised to be a big Day, as it turns out a combination of cheating irish players and a ref with an agenda against England spoilt the game for the English fans. The day however turned out to be one of those epic days starting at 10am and finishing at 5am. In Cloggies we met up with Daisy and Hetty part of the crew froxm Christopher a 50m super yacht, they joined us for the day and night putting up with our bad behavior and attempts at banter.
We were all sorry to leave Antigua and should time, money and our health have been no concern Im sure we would have stayed longer. Next stop St Martin for a haul out and to meet up with Nacho!
