I’m probably not being fair to Antigua. It’s not Antigua’s fault that we’re feeling a little disappointed and bored. It’s just that here there’s not as much of what we like to do when we visit a new island. Antigua is a very popular vacation destination, and with over 300 beaches, I can understand why many choose to travel here. It’s also popular with many cruisers, but we didn’t think to ask those we’ve met who have been here why they like it. It just hasn’t suited our tastes thus far, though we’re not quite done exploring yet. We’ve left the north coast and some inland places that require a car rental for when our friend, Ian arrives this weekend. Just having a friend visit will make things more interesting.
The biggest disappointment has been the lack of good snorkeling, which, along with diving, are our favorite activities. Our two snorkels on the west coast had extremely poor visibility of 1-2 feet in milky blue water, likely due to silt. We snorkeled our anchorage, and saw little, even clear water wouldn’t have made it interesting- sand, grass, a few small fish and a few upside down jellyfish. Boring. A couple of miles north in Deep Bay we hoped to snorkel the shallow wreck of the Andes. Good thing it was shallow, because we only caught a glimpse of one part of it by diving down to within 2 feet of its hull. If it had been any deeper, we wouldn’t have even seen that. We saw a drone picture of it through crystal clear water that someone took this March. Sadly, we got the milky blue water this month <sigh>. The Andes was a three-masted merchant ship hauling a load of tar to Chile in 1905. Unfortunately, said tar caught fire en route and the ship burned to the water line and sank in Deep Bay. It would have been fun to explore it more, since it’s only in 30 feet of water. Even I can dive down almost that deep and hold my breath for 30 seconds. Alas!
When we finally found clear water on the south coast, we were disappointed again. We visited 3 sections of the 2-mile long stretch of Cades and Middle Reefs only to find a lot of coral rubble (probably from past hurricanes), and any standing coral mostly dead, like 99% dead. Not surprisingly, there were very few fish. Our final snorkeling disappointment was in Nonsuch Bay on the east coast. The bay is protected by a very extensive reef. It’s a beautiful anchorage, but again, the reef, though in crystal clear water, was mostly rubble and dead, although there were some signs of recovery/regrowth here in the form of some small, healthy brain corals, a few soft corals, and a few more fish. So, it was maybe 10% recovered. We even saw a 3-4 foot black grouper and a 4 foot barracuda, but they were probably just passing through from the deeper waters beyond the reef. We also visited the mangrove-lined Ayers Creek on the SW side of Nonsuch Bay. Sadly, and perhaps it’s due to the time of year and the influx of sargassum, the water was an opaque, murky brown, and the water stunk. Yuck! So much for a dinghy safari through the mangroves.
We also had a land-based disappointment over Easter weekend. Both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are public holidays, so everything is closed, likewise on Easter Sunday, though not much is open on Sunday around here anyway. That gave us Saturday the 19th to try to do something ashore. We decided to visit the Donkey Sanctuary, run by the Antigua & Barbuda Humane Society. We did start out for the sanctuary by taking the first bus to St. John’s. Unfortunately, Google Maps had the sanctuary in the wrong place. It was much further away and required a bus from the East Bust Station across town. We went as far as to walk there and inquire about getting to the sanctuary, but after waiting 25 minutes for the necessary bus without it showing up, we decided to ditch the trip. That bus was only going to get us within 20-25 minutes walking distance anyway, and we’d just have to repeat that walk and the wait for a bus in the peak heat of the day. No thank you. Maybe we’ll stop by with Ian when we have a rental car.
Okay, I know I’m being Debbie Downer, but this is reality. Just because we’re in the Caribbean doesn’t mean we’re having fun every minute of every day. Disappointments happen anywhere. You all know that. Still, I don’t want to leave you thinking Antigua is completely horrible, because it’s not. Like the other volcanically formed islands, the coasts are impressive and beautiful! In Carlisle Bay, on the south coast, I fell asleep the other night to the sound of the frogs chirping onshore. Nonesuch Bay on the east coast offered an amazing view of the open ocean, which our bow was pointing at most of the time. If you sailed out through the reef due east, the next land you’d encounter would be Africa. That’s both awe-inspiring and humbling. Just today, we returned to Carlisle Bay from Nonsuch, only this time we snorkeled the shoreline. Yes, much of the coral is dead, but there is some living coral, both hard and soft, plus new growth sponges, and we actually saw numerous fish. Improvement.
Our friend Ian arrives Sunday, and like I mentioned earlier, we’ll rent a car for a couple of days and do some land stuff that I’m sure we’ll enjoy. We’ll also explore the north coast, hoping for better snorkeling. If not, we hear it’s beautiful up there, and the water is always good for a refreshing dip. Maybe we’ll get really lucky and have a chance to pop up to Barbuda. (It’s 35 miles away, so we’re not counting on that, but you never know.)
That’s all for now. I hope to have more positive things to tell you about Antigua soon. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.
Life on Lady 