We arrived at Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, on January 11 from Deshaies, Guadeloupe.
The forecast of the “finest day of trade wind sailing” turned out to be accurate only for the morning hours. We lost all wind in the afternoon & had to use our “iron genny” to push us onto Antigua, arriving just before dark.
Antigua is much dryer than the more mountainous southern islands we have visited. It is covered with a dry forest of small trees, century plants, cacti & acacias.
Our friends from Cedar Key, Florida, were aboard until January 17 & we shared beach time together
The four of us enjoyed visiting Nelson's Dockyard, completed in 1745, restored 1950s. In colonial times this was Britain's main naval station in the Lesser Antilles. Admiral Horatio Nelson was stationed here from 1784.
It is now a National Park, but still operating as a functional dockyard. Inside is a wonderful bakery & numerous overpriced bars & restaurants located in the renovated historic buildings. There is ample opportunity for the white-legged tourists from cruise ships to purchase t-shirts & tacky “handicrafts”.
By pleasant accident our cruising friends aboard S/V “Tiger Lilly” were also at anchor in Falmouth Harbour.
We were happy to join them for meals aboard our respective boats.
Catherine joined Tom & Lilly for Sunday service at Baxter Memorial Methodist Church, where, because it was her birthday, she was celebrated during the service by the congregation singing “May the Good Lord Bless You” to the tune of “Happy Birthday”. She walked around the rest of the day with an obvious halo.
The birthday celebrations continued at the Calabash Restaurant on Galleon Beach in English Harbour, just east of Falmouth Harbour. She glowed further after numerous rum punches.
We enjoyed the hike to Shirley Heights & the Sunday BBQ there with steel pan music.
There are also delightful hikes to Fort Berkeley & to Pigeon Beach.
There is no shortage of bars & restaurants, with attractive “happy hour” prices, but meals are overpriced for our modest budget.
There is a magnificent armada of Mega Yachts, both motor & sail, in Falmouth/English Harbours. To us the sailing vessels are the most eye pleasing. But, Oh!, the work on that varnish!
The orientation of the marinas in Falmouth/English Harbour is Mega Yachts, with decidedly less interest in transient mom & pop cruisers with limited budgets like us. The dingy pool at the Antigua Yacht Club Marina is signed, “for registered dinghies only”. The public dock is available for peripatetic dinghies, but not for long unless the National Park Authority renovates it soon. The fuel dock at AYC marina is very busy with Mega Yachts & large charter sailboats. The day we went for fuel they were occupied with a 70,000 litre fueling & not interested in our need for 60 litres (“make an appointment for tomorrow, & we'll see what we can do.”). So we dinghied our jerry jugs to the Catamaran Marina, but their (high speed) fuel nozzle doesn't insert into jerry jugs. Then we were told, “This is a private marina for boats docking here. Remove your dinghy & don't come back”. We ended up jugging fuel from a nearby petrol station. Neither of these marinas will get further business from us.
Fortunately, we do not consume much diesel fuel (160 litres since November) or gasoline (70 litres) & rarely need to bring the "Charlotte D" to a dock.
Not surprisingly, attitudes of marina proprietors in Falmouth/English Harbours are reflected in attitudes of their clients. We did not “fit in” with that attitude.
For us, the most attractive parts of Antigua are the north & east sides, where there are no “facilities” for yachts, just abundant natural beauty. So, we spent most of our time there.
Check out Nonsuch Bay on Google Earth at 17-04.6N 061-40.3W.
In Nonsuch Bay, we found our friends cruising aboard S/V “Sanctuary” & had fun together.
Catherine & I enjoyed a Valentine's Day Lunch at the luxurious Harmony Hall. A delicious budget-buster
The North Sound is reef protected but open to the trade winds (lots of battery charging from our wind generator). There is a beautiful beach at the Jumby Bay anchorage.
We meet a cruising couple aboard S/V “Zero to Cruising”, hailing from Kingston, Ontario. Small world. There was a pleasant potluck dinner aboard the “Charlotte D” attended by crew from “Zero to Cruising” and “Tiger Lilly”
Parham, in the North Sound, is “a village that time forgot”, with more chickens on the streets than people. There are no restaurants. There are several markets, more than adequate for our simple provisioning needs. The residents of Parham are delightful; warm, courteous & generous. Their town is quiet, neat & clean.
We were invited to join a street party & pressed with plates of home cooked food. Delicious Delina operates a roadside BBQ on Saturdays. Recommended highly. Go visit Parham.
The remote anchorage at Great Bird Island is quiet until the day trippers arrive from St. John's. They don't stay long. It is a pleasant short walk to the top of the hill to reach the Blow Hole.
The beach on Great Bird Island offered a shady spot in company with local inhabitants.
The night sky is spectacular here because it is remote from shore lights.
Finally, we sailed the 35 nm from Antigua to Barbuda,which will be the topic of our next blog.
Peter and Catherine aboard S/V “Charlotte D”
“No snivelling! Go Sailing!”.
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