the tide is changing

After my last blog entry i figured i better "spill the beans" about some of Adventure Antigua's plans to become more green. In Antigua like most places businesses have to keep a lid on their plans so that other parties don't jump on the band wagon. We have seen some of our business plans copied pretty closely before. In this case however, it may not be a bad thing. One of the many things we are doing to lower our ecological footprint is making plans to expand / diversify into areas where we burn way less fuel. At the moment both of our boats are powered by the most eco friendly motors available to push at the speeds we need to do the 40 mile round trip on the eco boat and the 60+ mile trip on Xtreme. We still end up using significant amounts of fuel. Not much is spoken about the negative effects of fiberglass and other resin laminated boats either. Most boats are built with some sort of composits and the process is not eco friendly at all. Fiberglass boats last forever and are built with non renewable resource materials. With our new venture we will be using sailing vessels to do eco tours in an effort to move away from a heavy reliance on fossil fuels for our tours, but they will also be wooden in an effort to use a renewable material.

As i write this there are people looking into replanting trees in the areas where the wood is being harvested for our new boat. Our new boat which at the moment is still in the planning stages will be a traditionally built wooden sloop. I first spoke with the builders about my plans when they were here during the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta two years ago. These guys have great passion for their trade and skills as boat builders. This brings us to another aspect to the whole green living idea. In our business we believe in hiring local people to work as guides and crew on the tours. Of course, nobody knows the island better than people with roots here, but there is more to it than just that. Using boats built by caribbean people in the caribbean to be used as tour boats owned and operated by caribbean people hopefully will become the norm here at a time when more and more of the tours are owned and operated in a different manner. Since i started my little adventure company i have taken on several small partners and i think I will continue to do so with our new venture. Shamel, who worked as a skipper on my boats will be coming into my business as a small partner in the sailing venture. He is as excited as i am about the changes we are slowly making. There have been many ideas given to me about what to do to be more "eco" and leave less of an "ecological footprint", and i appreciate them all. Our company is not all about making money, but we have to think about keeping afloat for the long voyage ahead. This isn't a get rich quick scheme and these changes are essential to maintain our island/sea lifestyles and the business as a whole. Anyway, i will blog more and more about the new boat as the process goes along. Alexis Andrews who has the lovely coffee table book "IMAGES" is coming out with a new one on Carriacou sloops which outlines the great history, culture and tradition involved in their construction as well as the amazing beauty of these lovely boats. His boat seen here is 40 feet long and quite wide.

Apart from being very fast and beautiful, its type was designed to carry freight between the islands and therefore can carry passengers easily without much effect on performance. I just came back from Carriacou after meeting with the same boat builder who did Alexis' "Genesis".

A deposit has been paid and the boat builder and his three sons start the process this week when they begin by cutting several trees in Grenada. Its a beautiful process, but some changes to tradition have been made by me. One of the changes was that we will be replanting trees which hasn't been done before by any of the boat builders there. The other thing i changed was that I got the first contract signed between a Carriacou boat builder and a purchaser. There had been a few problems with other projects there which is common anywhere in the world, but i convinced him a contract would protect him as well as me. Anyway, our new boat will be ready if all goes well fairly quickly and the blog will keep you up to date on the process of it all. Its gonna be a fun ride and i hope you join us.

Global, Ecological. Moral and Carbon footprints.

Seen above is the footprints of a migratory shore bird on the windward shore. How simple huh? This post today isn't simple at all, and as i sit here about to publish it i wonder if it makes any sense at all or if its just rambling madness. Anyway here goes:

Over the past few years there has been much talk about the "Carbon Footprint", and recently they have become the most widely and commonly used two word phrase on the planet which i guess is a good thing. Over the next few days i hope to explain what a person's or organization's carbon foot print actually is as well as to explain the more important but less uttered "Ecological Footprint". I will also try to show how people and organizations have been trying to control their footprints and more common on the larger scale, "offset" their footprint. It's all very interesting and worth so much more thought and action.

The media has taken on the Carbon Footprint as the main catch phrase closely followed by "Carbon Offsets", and there are probably many people out there thinking of saving the planet only in terms of reducing carbon emissions. What exactly is a carbon footprint? If you look on the web you will find several definitions varying in complexity. The best and most simple definition of a carbon footprint that i have seen is the amount of green house gasses (most significantly carbon dioxide) that a person or organization produces. Of course it gets way more technical than that, but that's a good working definition. To give you a definition of "carbon footprint" that is a little more complex i point you to a fantastic site http://www.footprintnetwork.org/ where they explain it as: "The carbon Footprint therefore measures the demand on bio capacity that results from burning fossil fuels in terms of the amount of forest area required to sequester these carbon dioxide emissions." Hmm.....

Ok so lets just say that we will keep it simple and just say that its all about how much green house gas you or your organization emit. This definition and media obsession with it, is slightly misleading when thinking about the bigger picture which ultimately is described in terms of a person's or organization's "Ecological Footprint". I am going to speak about Ecological Footprint in a moment, but first i should speak a little more about Carbon Footprint. Why do i and many others think that only caring about Carbon Footprint can be a terrible thing for the planet. Lets take the example of Jane Doe. Jane is so happy because she has just purchased a hybrid car that has the lowest emissions of any other on the market. She tells all her friends that they should do like she does and drive a hybrid. What Jane doesn't know is that there are many other ways that she could control the amount of green house gasses being emitted into the environment. There are also way more footprints to think about too. Jane lives on the North Eastern Seaboard in a old house with poor insulation, her heating bill is extremely high during the winter but the house is a historical gem. Its a nice big town only 45 minutes from the city where she works. In the summer she cranks that AC and its lovely. She is very style conscious and actually read about the hybrid she purchased while reading Cosmo. She loves those Italian shoes. Who doesn't right? She gets two new pairs of leather shoes each year. Clothes, and accessories are her weakness she says. She loves Gap fashions too, especially their jeans. I guess because of her fashion savvy she knew about sushi before all her friends and knows all the best places. Each week she eats out and sushi is her fave but she also likes a good steak now and then. Takeout is so easy in where she lives and those handy little boxes the Chinese comes in are so cute. You gotta put the leftovers in zip locks though because the boxes will leak in the fridge if you are not careful. Once in a while she will go for a good big mac too with extra tomatoes. She's not overweight though, because she goes to that nice gym every morning where she changes into her Nike shoes and outfit and works up a sweat, and again in the evening for a swim in their pool. She only drinks bottled water in the day too. She has just booked her flight to Brazil where she has an apartment. She can't wait to be in the real warmth of Copacabana. Rio's hot nights are not to bad though as her place has good AC. Skiing in Vale this year will have to wait....oh yes she has to order those knew skis and boots. Can't go snow mobiling this year though....they release too much carbon. Speaking of Carbon emissions, Jane knows she read something in last month's Cosmo about buying carbon offsets for those long airline trips to Rio. Where is that magazine?.......

Now in parts i have simplified Jane, but being very general and using an extreme case without having to pick apart her life to the ultimate smallest detail, Jane isn't not really saving the planet just because she purchased a hybrid. In fact each aspect that i have spoken about has pretty serious negative effects on the planets. According to Footprintnetwork.org, "Ecological Footprint" is a resource management tool that measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes under prevailing technology. This means that each of us needs to examine our entire lifestyle to really get an idea of our footprint. Carbon Footprint is just one aspect of the overall picture. Everything in the story above from Gap Jeans, to heated swimming pools, to Tomatoes on a burger has huge environmental impacts. Picking you life apart is important i guess if we are to truly make a difference and making changes is also important. Apart from making changes to lower your "Ecological Footprint", Carbon Offsets and "emissions trading" are alternative ways to make a difference. Some organizations and people simply can not totally become carbon neutral and must do other things to offset their carbon footprints. Another thing to think about apart from carbon emissions and the overall "Ecological Footprint" is the moral footprint. Gap recently mad a big mistake when one of their factories was found out to be using child labour. So apart from the huge Ecological footprint that growing cotton has leaves, and the huge footprint stone washing cotton jeans has, there was also this moral footprint of exploitation. The footprint we all leave is something that we all need to think about and i say WE because i know that i am in need of a good bit of self examination. My company has made many changes in 2006 to try to be more eco friendly, but we have way way more to change. I want to pledge that we are committed to this issue and over the next few years we want to leave a much smaller Ecological Impact. Even with the info that i have read i find the whole topic very complicated and complex. Carbon Offsets and Emission trading are things that i want to look at but i think that there is more that we can do as individuals and as a company. One of the things we want to do is to take more Antiguan and Barbudan children out on the boats to show them the natural environment. Its such a terrible shame that many people grow up here and become adults without ever seeing mangrove or coral reef habitats. We aim to change that in 2008. Anyway, our company's "ecological footprint" is under scrutiny by me and if you have any ideas or suggestions i would love to hear them. As i said a good site is http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/ , another is this one . This fantastic article in the New York Times is a good one to end the day with too. Read up because this issue is extremely important for our future.

antigua, barbados, union, carriacou, return

Hi there, just got back from a quick trip to Barbados where i had a yearly checkup with the skin cancer doc there. Skin damage is a reality if you have grown up living your live in the sun as i have done and still do. I have had many "pre-cancers" cut and burnt off in the past and now i am required to have yearly check ups. Anyway, nothing major to report except for the usual Basal cell carcinomas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_cell_carcinoma) but this time i have been given a 3 week Efudix treatment which sounds very nasty indeed, but it also sounds very effective. I guess i will have to start that next week. Yuk! Anyway, Dr. Blondell Durrant says i am not in any great danger at the moment, and advised me as usual to cover up as much as possible. While in Barbados i jumped on board a tiny plane to go to Union Island which is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. From there i jumped on a tiny boat and sped over to Carriacou where i met up with a boat builder to speak about the possibility of getting another boat for Adventure Antigua. It was all very exciting and i will speak more about it soon. If you remember back on this blog's birthday last month, i said we would be embarking on a new project. That is now in the works. Wish us well. The photo above was taken on Sunday afternoon while we had tea off the back of the eco boat in 5 islands harbour. The Caribbean is hard to beat sometimes even with the skin cancer threat....

Fishing report

Like I said in Friday’s blog, JD and Tony were entering the Xtreme with some friends and family and were leaving a bit later that we were. Being a much faster boat they didn’t need as much time as we did to get the chosen fishing grounds. Anyway, back on the Arawak Odyssey we didn’t even get to see the sunrise before we started getting strikes. We had our first fish and our biggest fish for the day, on board by 6 am. Usually when we get a fish on the line before sunrise it turns out to be a King Mackerel, but this time it was a pretty big wahoo. It ended up being our largest too at 50.7 pounds. I think it was Guilli who brought the fish in to the boat as the other crew quickly cleared the lines and planers. We don’t use wire lines which are typically used when fishing for wahoo and instead use planers to sink our mono filament line down about 20 feet. Anyway, Guilli is a big strong guy and man handled that wahoo to the boat. I could tell from the way that the crew worked that if given the chance we would be unbeatable. Everyone worked well and knew what they were doing, so mistakes were not going to happen. Sunrise was slow and colourful as we waited for more action. IT came quickly, but not in the form of another fish. As John leaned over the port side letting out one of the top lines a big dorsal fin broke through a wave almost in the glare of the rising sun. What had I just seen? As I tried to figure that out we saw the dolphins burst out of the crest of our wake. There were several of them playing in the waves and saying good morning to me and my crew. They were spotted I think but I couldn’t get a good look in the glare. They didn’t stay long and the wait for another strike was on again. Sometimes when you get an early fish the wait for the next one can be even worse, but we didn’t have long to wait. In fact within one hour we had a total of three wahoo on board all showing good size. By 8 am we had a fourth. The area where we were fishing has a very steep drop off where depths go from about 100 feet to 900 in a very short distance like an underwater cliff. Wahoo love to feed in areas like these and with the amount of flying fish scattering as we cruised by their schools there was no doubt why. Many frigate birds could be seen nearby as well every now and then dropping out of the sky and catching the flying fish in mid air as they were chased up by predator fish. This of course is a signal to other frigate birds as well as us that there is action to be had. Most of the surface feeding going on was being done by small tuna, but there were bound to be fish feeding on them too. Later in the afternoon when we were back at the dock cleaning fish, Big John showed us a “little tunnie” that he had taken from the belly of a big wahoo.
We were too far to hear most of the other boats over the VHF, and by lunchtime when we had 6 wahoo on board sitting in the fish box with three black fin tuna we knew that we had done well but wondered how well. Our special spot had gotten quiet and we decided to move closer to home and as we did so we could finally make out some of the VHF talk from some of the other boats. IT sounded as though Derek Biel’s Obsession was doing as good as we were and Vernon Hall’s Sky Lark had been busy too. We knew that only when all the fish had been to the scales that a winner would be known. In our last tournament a month ago, we had lost an engine after we reeled in and powered up to come on in. That tournament had been a tough one. I have had a quote from Antigua Marine Services for just over US $10,000 to fix that engine. I wanted plenty of time to get back into Jolly Harbour before the 3:30 “back in port” time, so at 1:45 just after we landed our 7th wahoo we pulled in all of our gear, turned off the engines long enough to check the engine levels, and then powered happily home. Whether we had won or not, we all agreed that it had been a great day of fishing with plenty of action. Our fish were all pretty big and we would be able to pay for our expenses as well as have fresh fish this week. What we needed to find out was whether we were going to be “Best in the West”. Last year it was my dad who won the Best in the West tournament, but I knew he hadn’t done well today after a short phone call on the way in. He had gotten three wahoo. JD texted me to say that he and Tony on Adventure Antigua’s other boat, Xtreme, had also gotten 3 wahoo and a king mackerel. We had at least beaten them.
Back at my uncle’s dock where the weigh in and party were held, there were 28 boats all lined up to weigh fish. There were boats from St. Kitts and Nevis as well as from Montserrat and overall it had been a fantastic success. Sport fishing was alive and well in Antigua. As we downed rum and cokes and relaxed a bit we saw so many wahoos come to the scales. Vernon had caught 9 of them and one of his was the biggest fish so far at 50.6 pounds. It was our turn next and there was a collective moan when our biggest beat his by just .1 of a pound.

The last boat to weigh in beat our with a 57 pound wahoo. As it got dark, Dr. Charles took the microphone to announce the awards. There were prizes for biggest fish by a woman, and second biggest fish by a woman. There were prizes for biggest fish by a youth and second biggest fish by a youth. There was a prize for biggest fish by a man, but no prize for second biggest fish by a man (much to the dismay of our crew). But the big prize was “Best in the West” which was figured by most poundage and went to Vernon Hall on Skylark. I remember my dad fishing with Vernon when I was a little kid, but for years and years Vernon hasn’t had a boat. His boat is just a year old now and the old captain got his grove back and was crowned best in the west. All of us were happy for him. We don’t know what position we came in overall, but judging from our total poundage and comparing it to Vernon’s I figure we would have been 2nd or 3rd. We did well and had fun. This is wahoo time and the 2400 lbs of fish that were caught will surely mean that when people eat fish over the next few weeks in Antigua and Barbuda it will be local instead of the imported fish from Indonesia or Thailand which seems to be so common these days. Wahoo is delicious so when you are here make sure you try some.

Wahoo Season Climaxes

Wahoo, otherwise known by the Hawaiian name "ono" are some of the fastest fish in the ocean. Much has been written about their incredible speeds with many people reporting speeds as much as 60 mph. Imagine something beneath the water getting up to 60 mph. WOW! I totally believe it too because after fishing for them since i was about 12 years old i know very well how "crazy" that can get after getting hooked. Anyone who has gone fishing and met up with them gets hooked too because they are just so awesome. Apart from their incredible speeds and fighting ability, they are a truly beautiful fish too. Streamlined like no other fish, the sleek and slender beauty of the wahoo is complimented by the dark black colour on its top which slowly fades into a thin navy section before suddenly turning silver in the mid and lower sections of the fish. When they are in a excited situation there are dark tiger stripes along their bodies too which just add to their fighting look. These guys are as high up on the evolutionary scale that a fish can get i think. The mouths and teeth are something else to behold. I always laugh when people talk about "razor sharp barracuda teeth" thinking they should check out the wahoo to see what cuda teeth become when they evolve. The row of perfectly shaped teeth seem to never end inside a wahoo's mouth and believe me, these things are actually razor sharp. Great care must be taken with wahoo and i know of several people who have been horribly damaged by active wahoo which have just been brought aboard. You even have to be careful when putting them into a fish box dead or alive as one wrong move and another of your fish will be eviscerated or worse. There is something else about their mouths too which makes it unique and special. They are one of the the only fish or animals that i know of that has a hinged upper jaw. When attacking something large their upper jaw hinges up even more so that they can really get their teeth around their prey. Wow, the ultimate ocean killing machine in my book is this one. But you know there is still more to this wonderful fish. They are simply delicious too which makes the fishing even more enjoyable. There are so many ways to cook them too and if not overcooked the taste is just hard to beat. With so many other fish across the world's oceans being wiped out of course we all should be concerned about how well the fish we eat can put up with commercial fishing. As i said in an earlier blog, Dolphin Fish (mahi mahi) can handle commercial fishing the best, but not enough is known about wahoo to come up with the same deduction. According to this site, wahoo don't face the same kind of commercial fishing pressure that tuna and other species face because they don't school in large numbers therefore making them more difficult to catch in large numbers. That site also says that not enough is known about the life cycle of wahoo either. Another site says that they are very similar to Dolphin Fish with respect to their ability to handle commercial fishing. This site, says that they grow rapidly and reproduce quickly which is very important in this day and age of mass consumption. Unlike Tuna and Sword Fish "Overall, wahoo is an excellent choice for ocean-friendly seafood." Lets hope the website is correct. The Antigua Sport Fishing Association has two tournaments a year and tomorrow is the second one. This is the first time that both of Adventure Antigua's boats will be in a tournament at the same time with some of the everyday Adventure Antigua crew on each boat. JD will captain Xtreme with Tony as his first mate and some other friends and family making up the crew. I will skipper the Eco boat "Arawak Odyssey" with Ross, Big John and a couple others, so it all should be some good fun. The tournament was started by my uncle Nick a few years ago and now is one of the biggest boating events of the year. This is the time of year for wahoo and last year while i was in Brazil, Tony and JD got the largest one of the tournament out on Xtreme. We hope to get some good photos of tomorrow's event and share them on the blog. Whatever happens you know the rivalry will be in full swing over the VHF radio tomorrow. Tony and JD don't stand a chance! hahaha Enjoy your weekend.

Back home in Antigua!

Well hello! For the past three weeks my girlfriend and I have been off island on a proper holiday together. Many people visiting Antigua and Barbuda ask us where Antiguans go on holiday and the truth is that they are just like everyone else with a huge variety of dreamy holiday retreats which can even be other sunny paradises. This time however, we decided Italy would be the main place we would explore. The direct flights to London were the same price as flights going through New York, and we decided it would be fun to spend a few nights there on the way back from Europe. This way it would be a grand tour with us having 5 days in London, then Italy for eleven and finally to New York for the last three with a few travel days making up the three weeks. IT was a fantastic trip with lovely weather in London and New York and fairly good weather in Italy. We ate, explored, and rested enough that when it was time to come home we were 100% satisfied.

One of the first things we noticed as we approached VC Bird airport was how fantastically green the island was. I knew the island had gotten some hard core rains as nell had told me about having to cancel tours several times, but the pure brilliance i saw before me was surprising. It was just soooo green! After we landed and finally were allowed to walk down the steps beside the plane and another thing caught me by surprise. The warmth engulfed us as if welcoming us back to the Caribbean. It was incredibly clear, sunny and warm. We finally got home back to Jolly Harbour and i saw another thing that had been missing for three weeks. The overall colours were just so much more vibrant. In the city the buildings are dark and the people dress to match. For three weeks we hadn't seen colour like what was radiating from around our gallery. It truly is something we take for granted here in the Caribbean, and being away for a week or even two isn't enough sometimes to notice and appreciate the difference. Wow it is colourful here. That night after doing what most tourists have to do at the end of their holiday....... laundry, the last thing that i had forgotten about started up. The gentle lullaby of tree frogs and crickets. For three weeks the sounds of cars, sirens and other city and small town noise had replaced the Caribbean night sounds. We were back now. Anyway, i will be blogging again more regularly. Lots happening here and i will keep you up to date. This photo was taken yesterday and shows Ross driving Xtreme home. Val and i were on the boat too with the last few guests. It was a nice day out.

Tony, JD, Val, Wan Lovv, Ross, Chris, Nell and my mom have done a great job keep the show running while i was away and the season is looking good.

Happy Independence Day Antigua …

Antigua and Barbuda’s 26th Independence Anniversary celebrations came to a close last week, a time of year in which numerous culturally vibrant activities take place, culminating on November 1st - Independence Day.

November 1st is a very significant Day for Antiguans and Barbudan’s because it signifies the day that 'we’ broke away from British colonial rule. On that momentous day in 1981 the people of Antigua and Barbuda made the decision to chart their destiny as an independent nation.

Over the past twenty-six years, Antiguans have come together to celebrate annually, our cultural identity, our past and ancestors, but more importantly, our freedom.

Among this years Independence offerings was a Food Fair, in which a variety of culinary customs and traditions were demonstrated, showing how to make traditional local dishes, like the chatta dumpling, or bamboola.

There was also the fourth Annual Homecoming Queen Pageant, in which twenty young ladies from Antigua and five from Barbuda were selected to compete for the coveted title, now held by Sybil Ramrattan, the new 2007 Independence Homecoming Queen.


There was a Calypso and Awards Night, held at the Royal Antiguan Hotel which saw Leston “Young Destroyer” Jacobs, take home the award for Calypso of the Year and as well as one for Best Social Commentary. Calypso has been a powerful vehicle in Antigua and the West Indies, conveying the thoughts of local storytellers for the past century.

In fact, the year 1956 saw the Mighty Sparrow burst onto the scene taking the calypso world by storm with his legendary hit Jean and Dinah. Jean and Dinah, which celebrated the departure of US troops from Trinidad, ushered in a new era of politically charged calypso.

Having done some research, by most accounts, this politicized form of calypso helped facilitate Trinidad's independence from Britain in 1962. It is safe to say that socially and politically conscious calypso has had a major influence on many of Antigua and Barbuda’s social and political movements as well.

Despite the excitement of all these activities, I have to admit that for the most part, I observered from afar. I had two days off this week and nothing was going to stop me from taking advantage of the wind, by going for a kite surf!

After months of no wind, finally it was a steady 20knots. While people celebrated their Independence parading around town, a few of us celebrated with an afternoon session at Green Island. Stoked!


Annabel Fuller

Quiet October days…

If you live in Antigua, and you are planning a trip abroad, October definitely seems to be the month to do it. I’m one of the few people in my circle of friends on island right now, and as circumstances have it, I’m filling in for Eli while he’s away.

I like to think I’m not one to sit at home and complain about the quiet times. In fact, when things get quiet here, I tend to look deeper into Antigua to find adventures that in busy times, I would not get to do.

Along with a friend, I’ve taken myself to Windward beach in English Harbour for the past two Sundays. It’s lush down there right now, inaccessible to anyone wanting a quick dip. Like many beaches in Antigua, there is a marshy mangrove swamp behind the beach, and with all the rain we’ve been getting recently, the usual route to the beach is underwater.

This didn’t matter though; it just confirmed to us that we would most likely have the beach to ourselves. Determined, we walked through a bush trail to the left of the swamp. The trail meanders initially through gnarled cassi trees but in no time, a thick wall of sea grape trees form, creating the back drop behind the southerly facing, secluded bay.

It’s something mystical; to wander through a shaded, tunnel-like sandy path, surrounded by sea grapes, and eventually burst out through a key-hole opening onto an empty beach, to see Montserrat on the horizon and the deep cobalt of the sea, contrasting the rocky hues of the left point.

Needless to say, time was of the essence, and I was overheating. We had come to snorkel this bay for the first time. I was hoping to find life under the calm water, something that these days, is hard to find in Antigua.

Instant relief!! It felt like I was downing a cold glass of water as I submerged myself into the water just off the left point. Finally I was underwater, and to my surprise, there were fish, lots of fish. There was even live reef and lots of live sponges. The water was crystal clear and the clatter of fish and sea life was really refreshing.

It is beaches like these I search for these days, at a time when our local beaches are succumbing to the pressure of our tourist industry and the negative impact of development, which is slowly but most definitely depleting our tropical beach ecosystems. It is hard to find a beach in Antigua these days, which feels untouched. Despite the state of our beaches and reefs, and the dwindling fish populations, this time, on this quiet Sunday I felt a glimmer of hope, as I snorkeled around the point.

Back to the beach, satisfied and with a few shells in hand, it was time to make a move. What could be better after a snorkel then a fresh tall latte, or two, at Sea Breeze! These days, with work, I try to squeeze as much as possible into my days off, and this Sunday was no exception.

Who knows what surprises the next quiet October Sunday will hold!

Annabel Fuller

not the best end to a fishing tournament

The black smoke we saw as i powered up to head into Nevis was not good at all. My engines don't smoke and i knew immediately that we were in for problems. Upon opening the engine hatch we saw oil in the bilge and quite a bit on the air filter. Out there in the rough sea and no cell phone communication with my mechanics, i knew that we would have to make do with the one engine. We had 90 minutes to be back in Nevis which was going to be impossible, so we pondered the choices. If we limped into Nevis on the one engine we would be disqualified from the competition for coming in too late. We would then have to limp even further back to Antigua the next day. Since the customs and immigration had cleared us in and out the night before we didn't have to return to Nevis at all. This wasn't what we wanted at all, but was probably the most sensible thing to do.

I walked back the helm and made a 90 degree turn towards my GPS point at Jolly Harbour. I didn't want to push the starboard engine in these seas and kept the RPMs at a moderate level. We were doing 7.5 knots and would be in Port in about four hours. Its funny how things can turn out sometimes. Simple things we worry about so much like the lost wahoo earlier in the day can end up being of no real consequence. The seas seemed to get rougher and we took a few over the bow sending torrents of water over the deck and out the stern. Poor Chris was not feeling well at all and as the water poured over the deck and his lifeless body, i couldn't help feel bad for him.

We finally got back into Jolly Harbour in the dark and set about cleaning the boat and getting rid of our fish. Cocos Hotel wanted the fish that had been sitting on ice since we had caught it. The total weight was over 100 lbs and we would have won the Dolphin (mahi mahi) prize and finished in the top 5 in the wahoo division.

The next morning Val, one of our newest crew members, started preparing the engine to be taken out first thing Monday morning. We had a spare engine and just needed to swap some parts over before we put it into the boat. Thanks to some very long hours put in by Tony, Val and Tom and his crew at Antigua Marine Services we were able to be back up and running on Wednesday. We had some cruise ship guests on our tours that day who wouldn't have been able to re-schedule so it all worked out very well. Tom said that the other engine looked as if it had an issue with a piston ring or something. Anyway, that one will be fixed now and ready for the next problem. There is one thing that is as sure as sunshine in Antigua and that is the reality of boat problems. Its not a matter of if a boat will have problems... its a matter of when. Having boats with more than one engine is essential and then having spare engines (which we have for both the Eco boat and the Xtreme boat) is a huge benefit.

For now, tours are running well and although i am off on holiday at the moment myself, i am already thinking of a strategy for our next fishing adventure. When i get back to Antigua we will have a week before our next tournament this time from our home port of Jolly Harbour.

nevis fishing part 2

Blackness was ended with some grey accented by tiny shreds of pink off to our right. Finally we could see how rough it actually was, but it was the end of our trip out to the fishing grounds. We slowed to put the lines into the water and the guys were happy to finally get the baits in the water instead of fouling the air. Unlike the past few Nevis tournaments the action started off slowly. We fished for over an hour without a strike and we were starting to get a little anxious when we saw some frigate birds feeding off ahead. As soon as we got close to the feeding birds, we had 3 good strikes. Two held and the boys sprang into action clearing the lines and bringing in the others. The first dolphin (mahi-mahi) came to the boat quickly while Acare's one fought extremely hard. We realised that it was a bull dolphin when it got close enough. It looked big and once on board we were all in a good mood. Surely nobody would get a dolphin larger than that one. Two fish in the box, but this was a wahoo tournament and we were still without the target fish. We found the birds again and went up on top of the shallow bank trying to see if we could catch more dolphin. Suddenly the ratchet from one of the top lines started screaming an i knew we had something good on the end. One of the boys had on the fighting belt and was locked into the fish in no time. As it got closer, Big John confirmed it was a nice wahoo which he gaffed and put in the box. We were on our way! It was a strange stike as wahoo usually hung out on the steep edge of the continental shelf. This was in about 400 feet of water way up on the bank away from the edge which made it difficult to locate the right spot. We fished and fished and didn't locate any more. We travelled for miles along the edge of the bank without any more action. IT was slow and the boys were getting sleepy. We had a few small strikes landing a few little tuna and barracuda which we released alive. No more wahoo though which sucked because this time last year we had about 8 good fish on board. There was a little sea mount 2 miles off where the water went from about 5 thousand feet deep up to a pinnacle of about 250 feet. We fished for a while there without any action and then had a tripple strike. All the crew jumped into gear, but unfortunately we only managed to save one fish. This was another nice wahoo. I marked the spot on my GPS plotter and retraced back over the exact area a few times. On our fourth pass Roddy's rod started making a hellish noise as line was stripped off at an amazing rate. Wahoos have to be the fastest animals in the world. They are the speed deamons of the deep and try to destroy your fishing gear when they make their first run. Roddy was strapped into the belt and was ready to fight this big wahoo. It slowed for just a second before changing gears for an even faster run. Line vanished from the reel and then.... it went slack.... We were all distraught as if our prize fighter had been beaten in the first round. I told the gang to get back into gear as there was another big one out there with our name on it. IT took another two hours before we had another strike. The fishing wasn't just slow for us. I was speaking with my Dad who wasn't catching much either. The other boats were having similar luck too and the VHF radio communication wasn't that active. In order to be back in port by 3:30 we had t leave the bank at about 2 pm to be safe. At 1:50 pm i told the crew we had 10 minutes left. A second later our 30 lb test rod (our weakest link) got a nice strike. Line was violently stripped and we knew we had a wahoo on the line. This was exciting as i knew the other boats didn't have much fish. This could put us in the winning circle. Big John had the gaff in his hand as the wahoo came to the back of the boat without much of a struggle. He reached out with his right hand to gaff it, his left hand holding the thin 30 lb test double line. As if the wahoo knew what was about to happen, it made a final sharp turn and darted away from the boat. The thin line in Johns hand broke before he had a chance to let it go, and we watched the happy wahoo vanish into the dark blue. This time next year it could be 40 lbs heavier as they are some of the fastest growing fish in the ocean. John was the most upset and sat alone at the back of the boat as the crew prepared the boat for the run back to Nevis for the weigh in. I powered up and took the RPMs up towards 3000 which is our typical cruise speed. I glanced back at John to give him a smile. "%^it happens". He was gonna be ok, but hold on a second.... what was that behind him? Black smoke! Something else wasn't going to be alright.

overdue weekend fishing report part 1

As you know from reading my last blogs, we left Antigua for the Nevis Fishing Tournament after the eco tour on Friday.

Customs and Immigration in Nevis were stationed at the tournament headquarters to check in all the foreign boats up until 6 pm. I had emailed them the day before to let them know that we would be a little late, and had even given my Dad our clearance docs and passports to take down a few hours before on his boat Blue Rapid.

We were running later than expected and as the sun set half way between Antigua and Nevis with our rum and cokes slipping down as was the sun, i was a little worried about how late we were.

The seas were rough but behind us though which was good and the setting sun relaxed us just a bit. Maybe it was the rum and cokes.

Using our chart plotter we flew through the barrier reef in the darkness on the North side of Nevis heading as fast as we could for the port. As we tied up I was ushered to finish clearing in. I expected sour unhappy officials, but was met with smiles and pleasant attitude bearing customs and immigration officials. An hour later we were having burgers and planning our early morning trip off-shore. It was windy and back on the boat we knew that we better get some good rest for the 24 mile trip which was going to start just after 3 am. In tournaments, we believe that we have to try our hardest. Lines were permitted to be in the water at 5 am and we wanted to be at the proper spot at that time. Going out through the reef in the darkness we could feel the waves beneath us pushing the boat up and down and from side to side. There were six of us and by the time Big John started baiting up four of the crew were green with "bad feeling". Getting sea sick is possible in the day when its rough out in the open ocean, but at night when you cant see the horizon or waves, and the boat just moves in all directions that you can't possible foresee its tough. Then when that lovely smell of ballyhoo is added to the equation with a slight exhaust fume here and there for good measure, someone is going to "goto new yourk" (a.k.a puke). Why "new yourk". Say it but with the "yourk" part elongated and a little loud and you can see why we call it going to "new yourk". Anyway, Acare and I were not feeling sick at all but the rough seas and infinite darkness were no fun. There comes a time when excitement can turn to fear and although i hadn't reached that far, the feeling would slip in now and again as we climbed a big wave heading out to the "Barbuda Bank" in the pre dawn darkness.

On our way to nevis

After, much preparation we are ready to power down to the Nevis Fishing Tournament later today. There seems to be about 4 or 5 boats from Antigua going down and our Arawak Odyssey will be the last to leave Jolly Harbour as its doing the Eco Tour today.

Just exactly as windguru.com has been saying for the last week, the winds have picked up and its gonna be a rough weekend for the Adventure Antigua fishing team.

Its only a one day tournament so after we clear in customs and immigration, we will have a good sleep before leaving port in Nevis in the dark tomorrow morning. We are looking for big wahoo fish which will mostly be taken by The Four Seasons Hotel there after the tournament. One of our crew "cousin Ross" is seen here with a decent wahoo caught earlier in the week:

Oh boy the winds outside are blowing! There are one or two of the crew who will be popping sea sick pills later today. Anyway, we could use the chum tomorrow. (just kidding) I hope they are not sick out there between Nevis and Barbuda which is where we hope to be catching the big ones. Wish us luck. I will give a report when i get back on sunday or monday. Have a good weekend.

The Antigua Island Blog turns one year old!!!!!

yup, one year ago today i posted my first blog entry while sitting in Antigua bored out of my mind. Since then plenty has gone on and plenty has changed. ITs been a fun year for me and i hope for those of you who have kept up with reading the blog from time to time.

Some of the blog entries had so much interest that i was actually shocked by the response. For those of you that missed the story of Adventure Antigua you should go back and have a read. They are not in order in this link but just goto the bottom and read your way up. I think that they were the most eagerly read of all my entries. I don't have any plans to stop writing anytime soon, but hope to have guest writers ad some content from time to time over the next year which i think will be a busy one for me with many new adventures in store. This weekend we will be setting off as i said yesterday on an adventure over to St. Kitts and Nevis for a fishing tournament. More of the same i guess, but there are plans in the works for a new and exciting project which i hope to involve you all.

A new addition to our Adventure Antigua fleet is going to be built over the next 12 months and we will keep you up to date with that as i feel that it will be extremely exciting.

ITs not going to be like the yacht seen in the moonlight above but it will be nice. For now, i'd just like to thank all the regular readers. I wish you would say hi more often in the comments section this year. Dont be shy! Stay tuned for our nevis adventure coming soon.

Our fishing team is looking for some help.

Fishing team Adventure Antigua is once again planning a trip all the way down to Nevis to take part for the third time in their annual fishing tournament. Each year our team clears customs and immigration here in Antigua and sets off for the Nevis tournament with hopes of bringing the big trophy home. The first year we finished second there and last year we placed third missing second by 2 lbs.

Usually there are about 25 to 30 boats from the nearby islands, and for the past few years it has been St. Kitts and Nevis who have kept the winning trophy in their country. Its going to come to Antigua if Team Adventure Antigua has anything to do with it, but going to the event and representing Antigua and Barbuda is an expensive endeavour.

As its only a one day tournament the expenses are not going to be too terrible, but the fuel costs of getting there and back are significant. We are currently looking for sponsorship that could help cover our costs for this tournament. In our last tournament we were called Team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate thanks to sponsorship from JHR Caribbean. We gave them a little banner ad on our blog for three months as a thank you for their support. I know that many referral hits went from our blog to their site, and trust that helping us worked well for them. We are looking for help once again, so if you are reading this and have any ideas of websites that could use a little extra traffic please put us in touch. On average we get 200 hits per day with all sorts of google searches reaching our blog pages. Remember we have one year of pages each with its own tags and content. A blog is unlike a typical website because each entry is a page of content that search engines can use. I check my stat counter info and see all the searches people google to get to us. Its not just on things related to Antigua either. Do a search for the famous hat company tilly by googling "tilly hats on boats" or maybe "Hurricanes and Jolly Harbour" or even "shark attacks in antigua". The list of key words that eventually bring people to our blog is growing and growing every time i write, and there is plenty opportunity of referral business for some of the traffic to be refereed your way. Anyway, if you are reading this and not interested in all this blatant business talk then come back tomorrow and something more like my other blogs will be back up, but if you are interested in getting some extra traffic to your site, please email me at elifuller (at) hotmail (dot) com . Thanks, eli.

Autumn fishing trips

Some people often ask how i can be a supporter of sport fishing on one hand and a proponent of environmental and fisheries protection on the other. It's a good question and many people ponder this one. If you look on my flickr photos, you will see pics of me cleaning up the shore and trying to stop uncontrolled fishing on the reefs and then a pic of my boat with a dead tuna on it.

Why am i killing fish one day and wanting fish protected another. I agree this seems a bit strange but if you understand the specifics of the fishery as well as follow carefully what i am saying then you will see that i am not against fishing. What i am, is against uncontrolled fishing here in Antigua and Barbuda. Each year we learn more and more about the species which are targeted in our waters and many decisions and practices of informed fishermen change as the information comes in. Of course there are many fishermen who don't care at all about threatened species and keep targeting them. I have done almost every type of fishing there is during some time in my life as crew and on my own. I have spear fished, netted, long line fished, fish trapped, cast from shore, bottom fished, trolled, fly fished, used lobster snares, collected conch, cockles. You name it and i have done it, but in addition to all of that i have been very interested in learning about and keeping track of how these methods of fishing affect the fishery and environment as a whole. Some of the methods above target species with very specific catches and without much by catch. Other types as in the case of net or fish traps, there are a huge range of fish including many useless species (by catch) are caught. Learning about the different methods used here and others not yet adopted here, as well as the learning about the species caught has given me my own point of view. There are many species which have been over fished in my lifetime without hope of returning in any great numbers, and there are other species in the fishery which are being caught at higher rates than they can reproduce. I personally love eating fish, and think that catching and eating fish is part of my Caribbean culture. This doesn't mean that i go out there and catch whatever i see first. Targeting species that are not threatened and that can handle the type of fishing methods we use is something that i think makes a difference. Sustainable fishing is something that the Ministry of Fisheries has no clue about and because of extreme Japanese influence here, this probably wont change anytime soon. When i go deep sea fishing with my crew, we target mahi mahi (the species most able to withstand commercial fishing), wahoo, and some types of tuna. Most other fish that we catch are released including all bill fish. We kept one large marlin in a tournament once in my life, but have released all others. Tournaments have stringent rules about what fish are allowed to be kept and each year they seem to become more eco friendly and progressive with their rules and regulations. Conservation issues are usually brought up by people within the sport fishing circle and many if not all "rules" are self imposed. This isn't something unique to Antigua either as the recreational hunting and fishing sectors all over the world have pioneered conservation fights. Not only are these conservation issues brought up and discussed by sport fishing associations, but in many cases, it is these associations that bring conservation issues before the authorities eventually getting things changed. This past weekend we went to a one day fishing tournament over in our friendly neighbor island Montserrat. We used the Arawak Odyssey boat (seen here on another fishing trip).

Like smugglers, we left Jolly Harbour at 3:00 am under the cover of darkness heading for Havers Shoal 38 miles away. We arrived just before lines were permitted to go over the side and there was glimmer of light showing in the East. Unfortunately, the winds were stronger than forecast and it was quite choppy. Our team consisted of yours truly, Tony, Ross (my cousin who is now working with Adventure Antigua), Big John, and Toby (who both fish with us regularly). This sea mount way out in the ocean usually produces some good catches and other boats started to appear before long. By the end of the day there were 5 boats who had five allowable fish each. This included our boat and we arrived in Little Bay, Montserrat to clear customs and immigration and then go to the weigh in. As it turned out, we didn't win overall, but enjoyed the hospitality. The poor island still has a massive volcano constantly erupting and keeping people all on one side of it. Anyway, nothing much happens there and the fishing tournament there was a big event. Goat Water which is their national dish was being given out to the crew and lots of alcohol was being consumed. It was quite a party, but we knew the rough seas out there would not permit us to relax properly until we got back to home port. As soon as we had our meals, we said our goodbyes and thank yous and set off together with "Nicole", my uncle's boat, towards Antigua. The seas were right on the nose and we let uncle Nick go ahead of us as the sun set over Redonda in the West. The waves were big and the spray was cold. We had 28 miles to go. I thought about doing the passage the opposite way back in 1984 on my windsurf board. Wow, feeling the spray against my face and the rough waves penetrating all the way up into my bad knee, i couldn't help feeling a million years older than i was back on that windsurf board at twelve.

Nevis fishing tournament is on October 13th.

the mangrove eco system under threat too

An integral part of our Eco Tour is showing people the mangrove plants within the North Sound and how they sustain life there within that diverse and delicate ecosystem. There are several types of mangrove plant living in Antigua and Barbuda and as a life form they ares so unique and important that i think i will try to cover a tiny description here on this blog. I am not a marine biologist so this description is based on my life experience and info i have taken from the net.

To me, the most interesting of the mangrove plants is the red mangrove with its long thin roots that reach into the water as if they were long fingers. This website has a pretty simple but good description of what they look like and how they live.

What i tell people on my boat is that the red mangrove habitat serves several key purposes with its roll as a massive nursery being most important. A massive range of aquatic organisms are sustained within the marine side of the mangrove ecosystem from microscopic fish larvae at the bottom to large predator fish at the top of the food chain. Most of the inshore fishery around our island is sustained at entry level by the mangrove habitat. Many people wouldn't realize that fish that are not typically found in mangrove systems rely on other fish that wouldn't exist if it were not for mangroves. It is one massive symbiotic system with relationships spanning far and wide with the marine ecosystem as well as far outside the marine side of things. Areas which have lost all of their mangrove systems have had other systems and their wildlife seemingly unrelated fall apart. Another good site which shows the basic relationships and importance of the mangrove system can be found here.

Sometimes the water is so clear in a mangrove habitat that you can see the little fish hiding in and around the roots. These little fish are staying safe and feeding in the protection of the roots only to leave the area once they have matured and gotten big enough to look after themselves. Just this past Carnival weekend my girlfriend and i kayaked along a long section of mangrove as the sun set in Barbuda. We saw spotted eagle rays, snappers, barracuda, southern stingrays, pilchards, conch, sea cucumbers, anemones, oysters, grunts, surgeon fish and many others. This was without going below the surface. It was lovely and made me feel so lucky to just behold the workings and secrets of the mangrove system. Many of these fish were just waiting to change habitat and move to the reefs just outside the lagoon mouth. I am so glad that some parts of our government have decided to start playing an active roll in protecting the mangroves. Its taken some time and there is still so much more work to be done in other areas, but for now there seems to be a general push towards protection and better understanding.

If you are interested in seeing how it all comes together then i suggest going to a bit of the coastline that has mangrove or taking an eco tour. Its not all great news though and the fight to protect the mangrove eco system will continue. I hope that the fisheries department will be convinced by the DCA and Environment division that the use of gill nets in and around the mangrove system killing the wildlife that is supported there is almost as bad as cutting them down. These photos were taken today:

Another importance of the mangrove system is that of a massive filtration system. Sedimentary run off is a hazard which has caused and is causing corals to die all over the world. Corals need sunlight in order to stay alive when sedimentation covers them they die. Mangroves naturally filter sedimentation after rains preventing corals from being killed. When mangroves are removed from a drainage area like at Dark Wood beach, corals get damaged off shore. ITs that simple. Another reason to fight for mangrove protection is that the plants hold together fragile shorelines during storms and can even grow over "flats" or shallow seabeds eventually creating more land as if a buffer.

The flats alongside these mangroves below have slowly been getting mangroves covering it since the big hurricanes of the 90s.

The habitat in many cases can grow if allowed. It isn't aways easy though as Mr. Alan Stanford discovered at Maiden Island. His development company cleared much of the mangroves there when they first started their project as you will see if you read this article. Afterwards he hired people to replant the mangroves as you will see in this article. Since the report above was written, all of these plants died showing that it isn't always easy to replicate mother nature.