The sailing guides rave about Antigua. While we had fun, it was quite a change from the natural beauty of Guadeloupe. For us, the great memories of Antigua are fun nights in Falmouth harbour and having our friends Andrew and Claire (and their gorgeous baby Estella) onboard.
We had a rough start. We arrrived in from Guadeloupe in the very early (and still dark) hours of the morning. English Harbour looked the most protected on the map, so we cruised in and tried to find space to anchor in the little bay. Unfortunately, the way the winds raced around in the bay meant that we nearly bumped into a few other boats and had to re-anchor, not once but twice. :0 After we had enough of irritating our neighbours, I gave up and moved around to the bigger (but less protected) Falmouth Harbour to try get atleast a few hours of rocky sleep.
While we started on on the wrong foot in English Harbour, we did come to love the little town. There was a real english sailor vibe with lots of nice bars which gave it a bit of a feel like home. The live music scene was surprisingly big. One night, the local marina bar had a very cool funk band called Sound Citizens play which drew several hundred hipsters, emerging from somewhere on the island to party the night away. We had some fun, and paid for it with hangovers the next day 🙂 Tip for beginners – avoid the Trump Punch. The tag ‘If Trump doesnt f@#$ you up, this will’ should have been enough of a warning.
After Falmouth, we started to sail around the island. While normally in the Caribbean, the Atlantic side of the islands is not too protected/enjoyable. However, Antigua has a lot of reef on its Atlantic side. We sailed through the Boon channel to reach the reef around Long and Bird islands. We anchored one night just off Bird island. It was nice to feel a little remote…but the constant trade winds made it a bit rough for both sleeping and snorkeling. This was to be a bit of theme for our time in Antigua – nice wind for sailing … but a bit rough for anchoring and snorkeling.
The real highlight for us of Antigua was the company. My old undergrad friend Andy and his partner Claire came on-board for a few nights. They brought with them their 9 month old baby, Estella. While at first we were a little worried about how it would all work out with Estella on the boat, she ended up being no trouble at all. In fact, Estella was more comfortable sailing (read did not get sea sick) than either Andy or Claire! With some perseverance, we managed to sail upwind around into Nonsuch Bay and anchor just off Green Island with reef all around us.
Andy is always a lucky bastard, and this trip was no exception. I promised Andy the fishing was easy in the Caribbean, and while on the sail up to Green island, we fished for hours without success. However, litterally just as we were winding in the last line, a nice big eye trevally took the lure and after a good fight from Andy we had lunch at the boat. Sabina prepared a very nice sashimi and sushi lunch, which with the lubrication of a fair few rums, went well in to the afternoon. We ate the whole fish in one sitting, which we didn’t expect to at the outset! For me, the lunch – and the banter that ensued – was the highlight of the 3 days of having them on-board.
After a week in Antigua, it was time for us to drop the guys back on land and for us to make a move for St Martin.
The British vibe of the island was also reinforced when we pulled in to Jolly Harbour. This big marina and canal complex is the other main yachting centre in Antigua. We actually ended up stopping here twice.
