While waiting for our guests to arrive, we were joined at Green Island by Alberio (Steve & Lynne) and Rum Runner (Phil & Judie). Of course with friends around we spent many evenings aboard Blue Sky playing a favorite dice game among cruisers called Farkel. Lots of fun and laughter.
Before Rum Runner arrived to Green Island Judie messaged me on Facebook and asked if I needed anything from the grocery store. She kindly brought me a few items of fresh produce which allowed us to stay at Green Island until our guests arrived.
February 4th, all of us took our dinghies up to Harmony Hall to meet Maureen and George, neighbors of ours from White Rock. They were pleasantly surprised to see not only us to greet them, but a whole group of us to greet them.
We knew Maureen and George would be exhausted from travel so didn’t plan too much for the night of their arrival and stayed put for their first full day on the water so they could get their sea legs established. Here we also had everyone over to Blue Sky for a cruisers happy hour which includes appetizers of all sorts that everyone brings followed by introducing our guests to the game of Farkel.
We left Green Island on the 6th of Feb and began our tour of Antigua and Barbuda with Maureen and George (read to the end of the post for Maureen’s accounts of the week). The highlight of the week had to be the Frigate Bird tour. These birds are so plentiful in the lagoon on Barbuda. They have a huge rookery. The tour boat picked us up at the pier near the house/restaurant on the west side of the island. He took us right up to within feet of these birds. Mating season lasts until late March so we were there in the middle of it. Lucky for us, we saw birds in all stages of mating from the males puffing out their red gular pouches, to birds sitting on their eggs, to birds feeding their young, some young ones with only stubs for wings at this stage.
We were worried about taking Charlie along, but these birds were so calm that he didn’t seem bothered by them at all. It was fascinating.
The end of the tour took us to Coderington just in time for school to get out. With Charlie being a rather special dog around the islands, he was immediately surrounded by children of all sizes wanting to give him a pet. He is such a good sport with children. We eventually broke away and finished our brief walking tour of the town.
That evening a northern swell came in. There was no way to go ashore again to stroll the beach for shells which I normally like to do.
We made our way back to Deep Bay in the hope of snorkeling the wreck, but the swell caused the sand to be stirred up so much that Maureen said she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.
The following is an email received from Maureen for the blog that sums up the entire visit nicely.
Once in awhile, if a person is lucky, a golden opportunity presents itself to do something that he or she never ever thinks might happen. Well, that kind of opportunity happened this February to George and me.
Thanks Paul and Gwyn and Charlie, for a week of your incredible hospitality and most capable sailing on sv Blue Sky around the island of Antigua and to Barbuda. We began at Harmony Hall, drinks in hand, meeting some of your Salty Dawg friends in a warm, tropical garden atmosphere. (This, after an overnight airport sleep and flights from cold, rainy Vancouver.)
We then spent a delightful day and two nights at Green Island, swimming with the giant turtles and colourful fish, exploring the island, and celebrating the good life with more friends. What was the name of that crazy dice game again? Sailed on to Falmouth Harbour to explore beautifully restored Nelson’s Dockyard with Captain Charlie leading the way.
Jolly Harbour and Deep Bay were next, each adding some insight into Antiguan life before setting off for the most magnificent sail to Barbuda.
To heck with windburn and hot sun, standing on the deck watching the scene unfold before us, I had the incredible luck to see a manta ray breach ahead of us. It looked like it was trying to fly, its magnificent fins flapping down a runway of whitecaps and waves.
Barbuda, with its up close and personal small boat tour of a frigate bird colony consisting of thousands of birds in all life’s stages and a walkabout in the small village of Codrington were absolute highlights. So were the size of the waves crashing on the beach that night and being woken by the bang of the waves breaking on Blue Sky’s hull. Timing was everything getting on and off the beach in the zodiac but we were a team!
Deserted beaches, fine, soft sand and sunny days. This was the stuff of one’s imagination. The last night was spent in Jolly Harbour before saying our goodbyes.
Thanks again to our great hosts for making a dream come true. The 360 degree view and the comfort of Blue Sky added to it all. May you have many happy and safe seasons of sailing in your paradise.