More on the Stanford saga here in Antigua and around the Caribbean.

First i would just like anyone interested in the Stanford saga to read something which many of us have been saying for some time. In fact much of the article seems like it was pulled from my blog :) but the rest of it is just stuff we have been saying here on the island for some time. It's a New York Times piece.

A more more enlightening and interesting article reprinted in the Trinidad Express from the Jamaica Observer is as follows. Ron Saunders used to be our island's representative in the UK.
This article came out long before the Stanford Meltdown here in Antigua, and while today the Levin - Coleman - Obama Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act is being emailed all around the Caribbean it does make the title of the article a bit more poignant. If you would like to see a copy of the act i can email it to you. IT is a clear attack on one of the last things that is holding the weak economies of the Caribbean afloat. Bananas, sugar, off shore gaming, and now banking have all come under attack from foreign policy. This is all very scary for the future of the Eastern Caribbean. (just a side note Allen Stanford never permitted any Internet gaming money to enter his banks and he was very strict about this).

Is the Caribbean financial services sector asleep?

Ronald sanders

Tuesday, February 10th 2009

THE threat to the financial services sector of the Caribbean is growing every day and is becoming more evident in reports by media who have swallowed hook, line and sinker that so-called "tax havens" are helping US, European and Japanese nationals, both persons and companies, to evade taxation in their home countries.There is no hard evidence to support this allegation about Caribbean jurisdictions. Yet it persists from governments of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
A recent BBC report claims that the British government "is broke-a record £44b in the red-and yet one estimate is that the taxman loses £18.5b a year thanks to tax haven abuse''.
The reports specifically identify British protectorates which are described in derogatory terms.
Dramatically, the report also states that "one man has targeted tax haven abuse in the Caymans-and his name is Barack Obama. So change for the world's tax havens seems on the way-whether the leaders of the micro-states like it or not''.
When the OECD first raised its so-called "Harmful Tax Competition Initiative'' aimed at closing down the financial services sector of 41 small jurisdictions around the world which were giving serious competition to the financial institutions of the OECD countries, Caribbean countries were slow to move on the issue.
It was not until it was raised by Antigua and Barbuda at the 21st meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at Canouan in St Vincent and the Grenadines, in July 2000, that Caricom countries began to take the issue seriously.
A committee was established headed by then Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur and present Barbados Chief Justice, Sir David Simmons, and of which I was a part, to engage the OECD in a serious dialogue on this issue. Eventually, the OECD dropped a blacklist of countries that they had produced but only after coercing almost all of the jurisdictions to adopt many of the rules that the OECD had set unilaterally. A so-called "Global Tax Forum'' was also established to set rules for a level playing field for all jurisdictions. But, a report two years ago showed that the main culprits ignoring these rules are the big players in the OECD countries themselves. Poor regulation and supervision in the US and UK, which contributed to the present financial crisis in both countries, is ample evidence of that fact.
President Obama, when he was the senator from Illinois, joined two other senators in introducing the "Stop Tax Havens Abuse Act'' in the US Congress. Fortunately, the Act never became law. But it names 34 jurisdictions as "secrecy'' jurisdictions and among them are all the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, all the members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, The Bahamas and Barbados.
The fact that the Bill did not become law does not mean it has been dropped from the Obama administration's agenda. Every indication is that the legislation will be enacted this year, and while the blacklist will be removed, it will be replaced by broad empowerment of the US Treasury Secretary to impose sanctions. The belief persists that "the total loss to the US Treasury from offshore tax evasion alone approaches US$100 billion per year, including US$40 to US$70 billion from individuals and another US$30 billion from corporations engaging in offshore tax evasion''.
Caribbean jurisdictions are regularly examined by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and the International Monetary Fund to ensure that they are compliant with the requirements set by the OECD. Many, if not all of them, have Tax Information Exchange Agreements with the US. Banks are required by law, and on pain of the toughest penalties, to make suspicious activity reports and to follow "know your customer'' procedures. Persons trying either to open a second account with a bank they have dealt with for years or transfer money anywhere are well aware of the scrutiny to which they are subjected, the paper they have to sign and the identification they have to provide.
Now, some of the OECD jurisdictions are luring customers away from Caribbean countries on the basis that they will give them better tax breaks and, of course, they are "safe'' jurisdictions. One of the latest companies to shift is the giant engineering and construction company Foster Wheeler Ltd, which is moving its place of incorporation to Switzerland from Bermuda for "tax and other reasons''.
So far there has been no public indication that Caribbean governments are ready to jointly engage the OECD and the US government in particular on these new threats to their financial services sector. Yet they are all at risk, including Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago-all of whom have passed legislation to offer international financial services.
Similarly, the Caribbean private sector which provides financial services and are in the best position to marshal the arguments and evidence to refute the charges of OECD governments are saying nothing.
When the crunch comes, therefore, those in the private sector, who seem to be sleeping instead of lobbying their governments for joint action should wake up and start pressing the issue fast. The wolf is already at the door.
Sir Ronald Sanders is a business consultant and former Caribbean diplomat.
- Courtesy Jamaica Observer

R. Allen Stanford in Antigua...hindsight is 20 20

I run the eco tour in Antigua. I started doing the tour on a little open boat back in late 1999 when the North Sound of Antigua seen above had a different look. Click here for a large view. Our tour was a eco-historical tour of the area where we spoke about the interesting ecology and history (both ancient and modern). Every day i would mention Mr. Stanford in my talks, and over the years i found it hard not to speak too much. He was changing the way i felt about Antigua and especially about the North Sound, and in the end I hard a hard time accepting the changes. Alan Stanford who had purchased the little Antiguan bank (Bank of Antigua) nearly twenty years earlier was just starting to make big money with his off shore business on the island back in 99, but hadn't made huge expansions in the area at that time. Within five years much changed with huge amounts of construction around the airport and even into the almost virgin North Sound with it's 22 little islands and rocks. By 2003 he was well on his way to having a huge health club for the elite of Antigua and his special clients, he had two airlines as well as a fleet of private jets. He owned most of the land around the airport including the main parking lot and a huge restaurant called the Sticky Wicket. That restaurant was part of the Stanford Cricket Grounds which was probably the most expensive cricket ground in the world. Here you can see happy fans at the final match of the first Stanford 20 20:

He owned the largest newspaper on the island http://www.antiguasun.com/ which essentially was his own little PR machine. He owned a large private jet hanger and landing facility which helped him bring in his new mega clients. He owned a massive private yacht, and he was on his way to building marina for his yacht. This marina, "Barnacle Point", would also serve the purpose of getting people to and from his private island which he just purchased. Maiden Island which sits directly in front of the airport was one that I had been using since i started my tour as a shelling and bird watching spot. More to come on that in a while. He had also purchased one of the largest and most beautiful houses on the exclusive Jumby Bay (then tore it down). He purchased another there for one of his executives. He had a printing company which did all sorts of stuff including printing Adventure Antigua brochures! He had a development company which constructed everything he built at the time and had a huge plant nursery. He was by far the largest employer on the island next to the Government. Plans for hotels mega yacht marinas, golf courses marine research centers and all sorts of stuff were in the pipelines. There were many other businesses that i am forgetting but for many of us it all seemed to be too much too soon. When he arrived in Antigua he flew commercial like the rest of us and in no time he had a fleet of jets and started calling himself a billionaire. Ads in Spanish promoting his off shore bank appeared in US magazines and his banking empire grew to several different areas in South America including Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. He gave massive loans to the Government to fund projects like the new hospital for example. IT was alleged that he helped individual local politicians too. Apart from helping the local guys, Mr. Stanford entertained many US congressmen (from both parties) in Antigua at hotels like Curtain Bluff and Jumby Bay and even on mega yachts which spend most winters here on island. By 2005 he stepped up his US lobby campaign by purchasing a lobby research branch of Charles Schwab called the Washington Research Group to help protect his off shore business. "In 2008 he spent US$2.8 million through the lobbying firm Ben Barnes Group, according to records accessed through the Centre for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions and lobbying." That quote was from this site. His empire was massive and world wide with little Antigua being his main base of operations. He was knighted here and became Sir Allen......!

I didn't bank with Stanford and encouraged my immediate family not to either, so the banking situation was never a worry for me directly. What was always a worry was that this day when the US government finally (for whatever reason) decided to clamp down on his operation would come. As i am sure you have seen, Stanford and a few of his partners have been charged by the SEC with a massive 8 billion dollar fraud based on the allegation that he sold high yielding CD's that provide unsubstantiated returns. Whatever that all means i am not sure, but there has since been a run on his local bank and his off shore banks here, in the US, in Panama, in Colombia, and in Venezuela. For long I worried that the massive empire he grew here in Antigua would come crumbling down, and they have never been as shaky as they are today. Thankfully many of the local Stanford businesses mentioned above have closed down over the past few years and the ripple effect of what is happening now may not be as drastic had he been in control of it all now. What would have been worse would have been if he had been half way through tearing up the North Sound as were his plans. The Antigua general election is gonna be on March 12th and the opposition had been banking on Allen Stanford's money for their campaign as well as his massive $700+ million dollar development of the North Sound at Guiana Island. The ALP website is still talking about bringing the much anticipated Stanford projects online stimulating jobs and growth. Stanford's "I believe" campaign to develop the area came to a stop after a fight with the current PM last year. Since then he's been fairly quiet on that concept. Of course he was anything but quiet with his international Cricket 20 20 competitions. In fact he got plenty of bad press in the UK. I wrote about that in this blog here. Anyway, his development of Maiden Island stopped my regular Eco Tour stops there and only some of my first guests will remember us stopping every day there. I got tired of his personal security guards telling me to get off the island, and it made the tour look bad too. As mentioned in the end we stopped going there.
In fact this image is probably the last one of an official tour stop there some time back in 2003. Maiden was taken over by the Stanford Development Company around that time and it quickly became a construction project. He manipulated many by telling them he was helping repair damaged coral reefs while in reality he was dredging up healthy mangroves and delicate flats systems covered in coral species that live in turtle grass systems. I spoke quite a bit about that and included photos in an article i wrote back then. The papers here were not that interested in talking about that side of things back then. Here is the article i wrote that was only published in the end on my blog. These mangroves seen in this pic that i took before he took over maiden island lasted about a week and then were pushed down to make way for the landing craft carrying heavy machinery.

A place that i had visited all my life enjoying the incredible and complex ecosystems that it supported was very quickly turned into a construction project, and we were asked not to get off our boats whenever we got too close. My Eco Tour just picked a different spot to stop and the tour went on as normal, but this time with a little more info about Stanford and his dealings. I can't imagine anyone back then investing money into his banks after listening to my "rant" as one tourist described it on an internet forum. I may have talked too much back then, but i am sure that some people may have ended up saving money as a result. There are hundreds of stories that will surface about his dealings here locally and internationally and i am sure there are as many positive stories as their are negative ones. We here in Antigua were fortunate that he did many good things for our country and like many i was never really sure if having him here doing all that he did was better for the country or worse. There were many positive things created by him and I'm sure that although the immideate future of all his assets are up in the air, his footprint here will be around for some time. We don't even know where he is at this time, so there will be much more to this story. At the moment there is a run still going on at his local bank and i think all the off shore accounts are frozen. I spent a few hours at the Airport branch of the Bank of Antigua today waiting to pick up a friend who was closing his account there. These images show people who had been waiting for hours and hours. My friend got there long before they opened at 8 am and didn't get his money until 1 PM. He was only able to get a fraction of his money in cash and the rest in the form of a draft. Businesses in Antigua have started telling customers that they will not accept Bank of Antigua checks. The implications are huge and i will try to keep you up to date with more. For now you can also goto www.caribarena.com. Forget trying to get info from Stanford's Paper. They had nothing about it today!

Dolphins in Antigua and Barbuda

Both Cruise Ship passengers and Hotel guests often want to know if they will see dolphins on one of our cruises. Many people ask if you can swim with dolphins in Antigua too. What i tell them is that seeing dolphins is very likely while on a cruise or while saying in Antigua. We have several types of dolphins cruising off Antigua, but thankfully we don't have any dolphin parks here anymore. You can read why i don't like Dolphin parks here or here. Anyway, swimming with dolphins happens several times a year on our tours and one group of guests who private chartered out of Jumby Bay have jumped in with dolphins on two different charters with us which i can tell you is very very rare. The chances of seeing them are way higher than being able to swim with them and the chances of doing it twice over two tours that you would take with us are extremely low.

Dolphins don't usually like to stick around for that long unless you are out in the deep Atlantic and are moving fairly quickly. When you stop they usually just swim off fairly quickly just like the humpback whales usually do here. There are those rare occasions when for whatever reason they are just super curious and want to check you out. What i find most amazing when this happens is how carefully they look at you. You see their heads move up and down or side to side as they examine your body and face. I remember being surprised the first time i was in the water with them how much their heads could move. You don't see a "neck" but they sure have them. In deeper waters where sometimes there are big schools of bait fish you can come across hundreds of dolphins at a time. I have seen massive pods of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (read more) while out fishing. This old vid my brother took shows a calm day of fishing interrupted by a group of about 20 (it was about 5 miles from land and we were in about 1200 feet of water. I didn't feel like swimming far from the boat for good reasons which materialized after a while):


This little movie i made last night shows a bunch of still images I have taken over the past two years as well as some video I took while out fishing on a day off with JD and Tony:


Hope you enjoyed today's dolphin blog. Made me feel like going boating. This weekend looks good. It's been rough for the past two days. Yesterday was the first day in three months that we had to cancel a tour because of weather. Two cruise ships didn't even bother to come into port which is something i had never heard of before.

regular people for change in antigua

There is a meeting tomorrow night from 7 pm at the St. Anthony's school on the Blue Waters Main Road just down from North Shore corner. The purpose of the meeting will be to come up with ideas that we as individuals or as a group can turn into action that will help the youth of the nation. I strongly feel that many of our island's problems can be traced back to the misguided youth. Anyway there are many programs here in Antigua that were set up to help the youth. I heard over the weekend about the a group that was set up in Clair Hall. I think it was called HOPE or something like that. Maybe someone knows more about that. The Antigua Yacht Club and the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club both have youth sailing programs which aim to teach kids how to sail and eventually how to race. Anyway, you get the idea. Youth Skills (the site) is a government program which was set up to help kids learn skills like carpentry, masonry and other similar things. If you know of other programs here in Antigua please come to the meeting and share them. If you cant make the meeting but know of some programs here in Antigua let me know here. If you know of other good programs that exist outside of the country that would work well here to give the youth some direction please come to the meeting or speak about them here. Last night on CNN i was watching something about Hank Aaron's foundation. I tried to find out more online but didn't get a great site. This one was connected in some way and looks great. It should be a good place to search for ideas. That page was the mission statement but you can navigate around the site. Anyway, come to the meeting or let us know about existing programs that we as regular people here in Antigua can join and help.

Cutting lead again

Yesterday we cut nearly 1800 lbs of lead and loaded it into the back of my truck.

Actually my good friend Martin Dudley who has a tree trimming business here cut the lead this time with one of his chainsaws.

He also has purchased and refurbished a Carriacou Sloop down in the Grenadines. His will be here in time for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta this year.
Anyway, if you follow this blog regularly then you will have seen this video of our second boat being built which was shot back in the summer.

It's still slowly being built and we are getting the lead ballast ready for her at the moment. We will have to sail the lead down to Carriacou soon. Off to cut and collect some more lead now from the 23 ton keel we have been salvaging.

A beautiful Beach stop on the Xtreme Round Antigua Tour

For more info on this beautiful beach in Antigua go check our website www.adventureantigua.com and click on the Xtreme Tour. With a very fast boat you spend less time getting to a spot and more time enjoying it. There are five stops on this tour with Rendezvous Bay seen here being the last one and the best tour beach stop on Antigua by far.

RCL Serenade Cruise: Southern Caribbean video

Today i got an email from a friend who saw a youtube video done by some recent Eco Tour guests of ours. They were on a Royal Caribbean Line cruise from Puerto Rico through the Caribbean with stops in St. Thomas. St. Marteen (St. Martin), Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. The three part video done by "Bill" is like a proper travel show of a Caribbean cruise with great info on each island. I suggest you look at all of the videos if you are taking a cruise to these islands. The ship he was on was the Serenade of the Seas which is a lovely one and we get many passengers on our tours from that ship who book through our website.
Anyway, if you are only interested in the Antigua part go two thirds towards the end of Part one and then watch the first third of Part two. Either way it's something that will help you on your cruise to the Caribbean. Thanks Bill!

Here is part one:



and here is part two:



and part three:

Happy Cruise Ship Passengers

Read a lovely review that some of our recent sailing guests wrote on the Cruise Critic site. Here it is:

We just returned from a visit to Antigua last week. We too love snorkeling. We've heard lots of excellent reports from others re: Adventure Antigua eco-tours (Eli and company). We elected instead to try his Classic Sail tour. In a word -- outstanding! My wife had a less than good experience with a dive tour the previous day and was reluctant to go out. After motoring out to Cades Reef, we snorkeled. It was fabulous! Eli skippered the boat. His two crew, Jason and Serge were in the water with us (one other couple besides us) and kept an eye on things. The reef is offshore and is great. The boat is a traditional wooden boat built in island tradition. Heavy construction so it doesn't have the bobing motion of more modern sailboats. After reef, motor into a nice little harbor for lunch and more snorkeling. Then change location and more snorkeling. Then the sail for home. Yes, real sailing as in shut the motor off, put up the sails and go. Not as fast as a catamaran (9 knots surfing downwind) but a great solid sail back to the ship.Of all the tours (7) on last weeks cruise in the southern Caribbean, this is the one we'd do again (probably more than once even).

Xtreme round the island.

JD called in sick today with a bad flu, so last minute i was on Xtreme with Chris and Serge. The winds had been blowing super hard all day and into the night and the seas were pretty rough. We had 18 people on board and we all had a nice time. Seems like Greedy Bob isn't there at Stingray city anymore and the rays are free to come and go as they please. Green Island was lovely as usual and the people on board got more sight seeing than normal when we passed alongside a large yacht that had several nude female crew members enjoying themselves. Needless to say my crew members were slightly thrown off :)
Despite all the doom and gloom withing the yachting industry, Nelson's Dockyard and Falmouth Harbour seemed to have plenty of yachts. Rendezvous Bay was rougher than normal and was crowded today with three people! They didn't seem to like clothes either. Anyway, it was a great day on the water and fun was had by all. Here is the old vid of the Xtreme tour done by Iain of http://www.acquafilms.com/ I love the music!

Antigua leaders involved in "Blood Money"

Once again the Japanese Government have succeeded in influencing our government, press and our people. Like in the past this manipulation comes in the form of (free $) fisheries grants. We have had several large fisheries plants designed and built by Japanese here in Antigua. With no proper study done on the type of fishing that would be sustainable and profitable these Japanese plants were quickly errected after feeding the politicians a pile of propaganda about how good they would be for the people of Antigua. Since the ones here in Antigua have been finished there has not been in increase in production. In fact our depleated fishery with it's terrible lack of funding for proper management has suffered as a result of these things. If a fraction of the money was spent on careful management then Antigua would be be better off. Ask our fisheried why the protected area within the NEMA have not been protected. Simply because they don't have the money to get it done. Meanwhile Japan calls the shots and tells our leaders simply that the construction of these plants will help the fishermen. People rent stoor rooms in the fisheries plant at Urlings to stoor household items and little boats tie up there to do the same type of non sustainable fishing that they have been doing for generations. There is no fish exported properly from there. Gill nets still are set in the reefs and in the mangrove habitats, fish traps are dumped wherever the fishemen want with no proper monitering of their movements. "Protected areas" are not protected and generally our fishery suffers. The areas where sustainable fishing is possible are not promoted to our fishermen and at the end of the day the only people winning are the Japanese. Why are they winning?

All of the support Japan gives to Antigua financially and otherwise is purely done to buy our country's vote on international whaling at the IWC. The IWC (international whaling convention) was set up as an international body to regulate international whaling (whale killing). Antigua was always against the killing of whales until the Japanese government started giving the Government millions of dollars for its vote. Tens of millions of US dollars (over 50 million) have been given to Antigua's governments (both ALP and UPP) in the forms of fisheries related "grants". I wasn't able to dig up clear stats but you can read more from their site here. And more here. Some of that official info is a total fabrication too in order to fool their own people. The Japanese government has also been involved with a propaganda war using the media both printed, web and televised to almost brain wash the people of these islands. You sometimes see full page ads where they speak about whales killing the fish that local people make money from. PURE BS! I hate seeing educated people (nations in this case) manipulate people because of their lack of education. They always use the arguement that we have to protect the right of our people to use their fisheries how they see fit. I agree with that notion, but my idea is based on facts and not on profit making manipulation. Education is the key like in most cases i guess. Most Antiguans don't know much about any of this in the same way that most don't know we have whales passing through our waters each year. Propaganda is a tried and true way of fooling uneducated people. Speaking of Japanese propaganda check this site. To really learn why it is crazy that our leaders talk about being "Green" and speak about sustainable development and sustainable fishing check this very interesting article that tries to put some of these issues into perspective. One of groups they speak about out there trying to stop the Japanese slaughter of whales is Sea Shepherd. Two people here in Antigua that i know very well worked on that boat. It's very upsetting to know that our government is out there taking money from Japan so that they can kill more whales. I think we should send money (if we have a bit extra) to that mad man on Sea Shepherd to counter the efforts of our Government. Don't get me wrong I do think Sea Shepherd is a crazy organization, but I am glad that there is such a bunch of crazies out there taking photos and videos of this dark and horrific practice of whale slaughter. I'm also glad that the Animal Planet network is doing the terrible things the Japanese Government says its doing by showing Whale Wars on TV. It's a shame that Greenpeace pulled out this year.

Dominica took the bold stance recently to abstain from voting at the IWC in what appeared to be a change in their policy which had been one of accepting Japanese money to vote with them. Some call that practice taking blood money some call it taking bribes. Call it what you want. Dominca didn't want to take part anymore. They after all are called the "nature island" and do many whale watching tours. The images below were taken by me here in Antigua. How can we be involved in tourism and be helping Japan to kill whales at the same time? Our leaders (now the UPP government) like the photo ops and the record of "development" and don't think like the Dominicans. Yesterday Japanese leaders here met with ours for a back slapping photo op where they spoke about the new "mega fisheries complex" to be built in Barbuda. The media reported it but never mentioned anything about whales or our support for the Japanese hunt for whales...... the same whales we see here in Antigua. Sometimes i get so frustrated at how easily our press is manipulated in the same manner at the political leaders and in turn our people. To me, this article is so sad because it isn't even slightly balanced. I guess it helps when the person writing it is employed by the Government and works in the Ministy of Agriculture. To me the article is propaganda, and f you think so too then please comment there. I don't know if it will influence many readers but it's worth a try.

Letters and comments of support for Adventure Antigua

The reason I wrote the blog entry before this one was to try to show some concerned cruise passengers what it was that we offer. The post has helped some people understand more clearly what happens on the Eco Tour. Anyway, I don't want to assume that it is impossible for someone to have a bad experience on any of our tours as i know anything is possible on any given day. What i pledge to my customers and to the prospective ones is that what sets Adventure Antigua apart from the rest is that we aim to treat our guest like old friends or long lost family. You are not just another number when you are with us. We never have signed a contract with a cruise director and every single cruise ship passenger we have taken out has come to us through our website. Most of them got to our site after reading customer reviews on Tripadvisor, Cruise Critic, or from the Antigua Forum. All my crew know this and know very well that doing a good job is the key to our survival. There are many tours who get passengers because they have contracts with the ships and whatever happens on the tour that day the ship will send them guests the next week. We don't operate like this and this totally unusual bad review hurt us not just in terms of people cancelling but it upset my crew and upset me. We hate (that extreme word) hearing that people didn't enjoy themselves. It makes Tony and JD sulk and depressed when i tell them. We have talked about the review and have discussed ways to make our tour even better. Thanks to the person who sent it in and thanks even more to all the people who have emailed us with support and posted on the forums. This especially nice one came in today:


Hi Eli, I hope you are well. I was astounded by the recent problems you've had with comments made by some cruise ship clients - I thought the email you sent was very restrained and hopefully should avoid you losing any more business. But the PM is really to voice support for your company. We (Tracey & I) took one of your trips back in 1999 when we first visited the island (with Sunsail). (A few years after that first visit we bought on the south finger, overlooking the marina channel.) We took that first tour based on the recommendation of Sunsail and other guests - it was brilliant and far exceeded our expectations. Since then we have been on many of your trips - both Eco and xTreme and have never been other than pleased - you and your staff are always warm, friendly, well informed and very considerate of the needs and expectations of your clients. Even though we've gone on trips a second (or more!) time we always seem to find out something new! We have recommended your trips to family and friends of all ages and they have always been very pleased they took our advice. In fact in all the years since we took that first trip we have never ever heard anything other than praise about you or your company. I think you were very unfortunate with those cruise ship clients - they seem to be in the minority that doesn’t want what you’re delivering. So hang on in there you're all doing a great job! We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending your trips and you are free to publish/post any or all of the above. Kind regards Anton & Tracey Szklarek

Cruise Passenger assurance package....

Instead of worrying about the financial meltdown or the crime situation in Antigua and the Caribbean, we at Adventure Antigua are worrying today about the fallout from a very harsh review of the Eco Tour on Cruise Critic. I guess on my blog tomorrow I will deal with stuff that went down in Falmouth. Anyway, we have offered the guests below a complete refund but that won't help us out much. Here is the review that is hurting our business today:
Okay I'm going to be real honest here because your husband seems to have some concerns. Everyone raves about Eli's tours because if it's what you're looking for it's great. We were on the tour with several families with teenagers and many people hated it, especially the kids. I enjoyed the tour, but my husband absolutely hated it except for Hell's Gate which is awesome by anybody's standards. Our problem was we were on a boat surrounded by the most gorgeous clear water you could ever imagine and we couldn't get in it! It was over 3 hours from the time we left dock until we were able to get off the boat and swim. These 3 hours were spent hearing about every luxury hotel on the island, the famous guests that stayed there etc. For some people, this is important but we could care less and we wanted to snorkel or hike or something!
We did get to see some neat things-a mangrove area with interesting things in the water and an island where many pelicans where nesting in the trees. The babies were sticking their heads out of the nests which was really cute. Hell's Gate was great fun too. The second snorkel spot was incredibly rough because it was later in the day and the waves were whipping up so don't plan the tour based on snorkeling.
On the positive side, the guys on the boat were nice and worked hard. The lunch was also good. If you're someone wanting to basically sit on a boat most of the time or take a walk up Great Bird Island then this is a great tour. If you're leaning toward a more active tour you may want to look at his extreme tour which is more expensive.
I would love to do this tour again if they skipped all the hotel lectures which basically took up the first 2 hours or so of the tour. I would've liked to have had more time at Hell's Gate and done the snorkeling first instead of last when the waves were so rough.
Here are a few photos of the tour:
http://www.familytravelfun.com/antiguapicture.html
And of Hell's Gate:
http://www.familytravelfun.com/hellsgatephoto.html

Almost immideately after that review appeared on Cruise Critic we have had people cancel their trips and more have emailed their concerns. One such email is here:

Hello Nell,

We are a group of 7 people booked on Friday February 6. The email you sent us describing your tour is very different from the thread on cruise critic, http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=910813

They said they spent time collecting other people and it was 3 hours riding around before they were able to swim.

You told us in your email: “After we collect you from the ships dock, you would spend about one hour doing the tour and talk of Long20Island, Maiden Island, Guiana Island and then you head to Bird Island where you get off the boat and do a short walk/hike up to the top of the island, where the views are absolutely stunning of both the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea and your guide will be pointing interesting things out to you on the way. When you come back from the hike, which lasts from start to finish about 35mins, there is a short snorkeling lesson to those persons that are not up to date with their snorkeling.

So how exactly will our tour be run? We like to snorkel and hike. On the way to these places we would enjoy hearing about flora and fauna. We signed up for the tour as you described it. If it is more like this participant’s description, we do not want it. We are an active group and thought we were choosing an active, intellectual tour, not a laid-back “cruise.”

Please let us know the itinerary and timeframes of the tour, which is what I asked you for in my first email to you. I will discuss it with the others in my group (we booked individually).

Thank you,
%$#@@ #$$^^@

Here is my email reply:

Louise, the review was warped and damaging in its misleading and untrue descriptions. We collect passengers at the cruise ship dock at minutes to 10 am. At the very latest (even if we do have to pick up any other guests, which sometimes happens), we will be stopped for drinks at Long Island (Jumby Bay) by 11:15 am. Here (since it's an eco tour) we speak about the ecological aspects of the island including the turtles, reef, flats... etc.
Then, as we pass the interesting Maiden Island we speak about its ecology and history, then we’re off to Guiana Island’s mangroves to speak about the habitats and history there Following our exploration of the mangroves, we cruise through the myriad other islands pointing out anything of interest as we pass and arriving at Great Bird Island at noon or very shortly after. This is where we get off the boat to do the nature walk. That wasn't and will never be 3 hours. 10 until 12 in my book is two hours of sight-seeing and education which are some of the things that have made our Eco Tour the #1 selling tour on Antigua. After the nature walk or "hike" as some call it, we come back down to the shore where people are encouraged to take part in the snorkeling lessons. That's probably at about 12:30-12:45 pm. Those who don't want to take part sit on the boat and have drinks, swim, snorkel from the boat, chill on the beach or explore the island some more. This only takes 15-20 minutes. Then we are back on the boat to have lunch. At 1:50 pm, after lunch, we do the short trip to Hells Gate where at 2 pm there are 5 choices every day as follows:
1) Go snorkeling with a guide
2) Go and chill in the "jacuzzi" (tidal pool) at hells gate
3) Follow the guide into the caves of Hells Gate
4) Swim around the boat
5) Chill on the boat.

For 8 years those have been the choices at 2 pm on the Eco tour. Many have their mind so set on checking the caves that they don’t hear the skipper’s instructions about the other things but they are read out every time at 2 pm.

At 2:30 pm we shoot back over to Welch Rock for the final guided snorkeling. Here you have two choices: snorkel with the guides or stay on the boat. Most of the time it is calm there but we haven't figured out how to control the weather and occasionally it can be choppy in Antigua. The review made it sound as if it is rough in Antigua every afternoon and we punish our guests by only snorkeling in the rough afternoons. So strange! Anyway, after a good 30 to 40 mins of snorkeling (if you get in the water with the guides instead of taking a while to get in the water) then we pull the anchor and start heading back into the ship area in St. Johns where we get in at the very latest at 4:15 pm. On the way back there is no stopping for turtles dolphins or other points of interest. We just cruise straight back enjoying traditional rum punch and other drinks.

Our tour is very rigidly structured according to this timeline because we have to fit everything in and be back at the cruise ship dock for 4:15 pm. We have never been late and we try to do it without ever appearing to be in a rush. As I said earlier, this tour is #1 for a reason and we are not going to change much. The vast majority of people love this tour because it has a good mix of both ecological and historical info mixed with the usual suspects like snorkeling, swimming, beaching and sight-seeing. There are some people who couldn't give a dam about the turtle nesting season or about the US Army base stationed here during World War 2. Some people just want to snorkel and nothing else, some people just want to sit on a beach and nothing else, some people don't hear enough about the mangrove habitat, some people don't get to drink enough booze since we only serve alcohol on the way home, some people would like to hear music (we don't usually play any at all). We aim to please everyone who comes out with us and I personally think we do an excellent job of accomplishing that goal. It is never a 100% and there are some people who are not happy. Those people who "hated" it recently were the first I have heard of since I started running the tour.
I am sorry if I sound upset, but I have to admit that I am slightly annoyed with the review. I had a feeling we would be getting emails like yours, and I hope you have a better idea now of what to expect. Please email this to the other people in your party or to anyone else who is concerned. Thanks again for booking with us and for taking the time to email us instead of cancelling, Eli.

If anyone out there is worried about their booked tour. Please email me on elifuller @ hotmail. com or call me on +1 268 725 7263. I am available most of the time to speak about Antigua and my company and assure you that you will not "hate" the eco tour.

Dredging and dumping of material

Every year I see people digging up the sea floor around Antigua without the slightest care for the environment. Remember this blog entry which mentioned some dredging which was very close to home. Anyway, the latest was within Jolly Harbour a few days ago when a homeowner had the Devcon barge dig up the area around their villa (which i don't have a big problem with if done right inside Jolly Harbour) and then instead of getting rid of the material correctly they dumped it in the ocean just outside the marina. Devcon dredging should know better, but in Antigua the Government is so anti-environment that people know they can get away with stuff like this. Shame on them both for this enethical behaviour!!!

Snorkeling at Cades

For years I have enjoyed snorkeling at Cades Reef especially at one particular section which we still go on private tours (xtreme and Eco only). We have never made Cades reef one of our regular snorkeling stops until we started the Classic Yacht Sailing cruise seen here. Our day sailing offers snorkeling twice with Cades Reef being the first and longest stop. Both Jason and the other guide (depending on the day) go in the water with the guests and take them on a tour through the reef to make sure that they see the best parts. Most of the time we have people who have never been snorkeling before so like on all of the Adventure Antigua tours we give a snorkeling briefing before we get in. This usually includes info for total beginners and tips for people who haven't been for a while. Once the briefing is out of the way then the guests can get into the water and take a few minutes next to the boat to get used to the gear and surroundings. The spot at Cades that we go to with the sailing tour is almost always clear. I have not seen it murky there yet which is great. The reef has been damaged by hurricanes and by the effects of climate change like most reefs these days, but there is still loads of interesting stuff to see including corals, fish, turtles, rays, and the rest of the usual undersea life. Of course not every day provides this variety as this is the wild and you never know what you will find. On all of our boats we have high end silicone snorkeling gear, and with the special guided experience even first timers can enjoy themselves. I hope to see you out with us soon on this unique sailing and snorkeling experience.

Calm seas and nice conditions

I know my friends in North America don't need to hear this but the weather here couldn't be better at the moment. During the week i had the worst cold ever and it seemed that the weather was also "cold" and miserable for a few days. That has all changed very quickly and today was so nice that Roddy, Guili and I decided to go sailing up to Falmouth Harbour. We took a fishing rod and sailed straight out to see towards Guadeloupe which was just visible through the haze. We didn't get a bite but had a lovely sail up the coast. In Falmouth the harbour was full of mega yachts along the docks i suppose because charters are slow.

Our Eco Tour for tomorrow filled up with local people catching the deal we offered which is very nice of them. Thanks to you all!

Captain JD and Captain Tony will be on the boat with Trevor so it will be a great team out there. I will be sailing the Ocean Nomad back from Falmouth because after a few espresso martinis at Skullduggeries we decided to leave her there for the night. I hope that it warms up for you guys up north but if not you are all still welcome back here in sunny Antigua!

Dolphins

There is so much that people who want to swim with dolphins don't know about. One such dark secret is the huge dolphin slaughter in Japan. Recently i mentioned it in this blog when a Dolphin Park manager was trying to suggest that his sea lions were rescued from a cull in South America. I asked him if he meant like the ones in Taiji seen in this link.
The reason I knew about it was that years ago when many of us here on the island were protesting the way the ALP leaders were giving dolphin import permits to a dolphin park here an activist called Rick O'barry (website) came to Antigua to speak about the whole captive dolphin argument. Well he tried to come here. He was actually taken off an American Airlines flight just before take off in Miami and told that the Antigua Government would not permit him to step foot in Antigua. Anyway, he came to Antigua via telephone conference and then years later came properly to tell us about the whole concept of Dolphin captivity including the method of how many dolphins were captured. One such way was shown in his bloody video taken in Teiji. Check it here. Back then he was a radical who was taken off flights and labelled as a trouble maker. Since then info that he tried to get out has spread throughout the world and there is now a movie about the Japanese Dolphin Slaughter about to be launched worldwide done by a new more aggressive breed of Radicals. One of them is a friend from Antigua who like me owns and sails one of the beautiful Carriacou Sloops. Charles missed a few regattas over the past few years because he was deep undercover making this movie. "The Cove" is already gaining critical acclaim internationally and you can read more about it here and see a trailer here. Charles is the guy with the "goatee" you first see.





www.adventureantigua.com

Sailing in Antigua during your holiday.

Today I was scheduled to take some guests sailing, but I have been wiped out by the flu. Everyone says it doesn't last long so I am keeping my fingers crossed. This is a collection of video and pictures piled together in a little movie. I originally used a track from Bob Marley (which would have been pirating) and had to change it to something that YouTube let me use. Not the best music for a sailing video but legal!
There isn't a much better way to spend the day than sailing on a Caribbean build wooden vessel. "Ocean Nomad" and her crew will take you on an educational cruise with all the adventures you would expect from Adventure Antigua including snorkeling and turtle watching. For more info you can go to the sailing website http://www.sailing-antigua.com/. Hope you like this cheap and cheerful movie.

Huge discount on Eco Tour this Sunday

This coming sunday we had just two passengers from a Cruise Ship booked with us via our website: http://www.adventureantigua.com/ and with the big after holiday slow down that we've been experiencing we havent been able to get anymore bookings for that day. This time last year it would have been the norm to be full most of the time. Today we have no boats out, yesterday we had two but with very low numbers. This whole week is very slow and bookings are few and far between. Nell who does all the bookings was worried that she would have to cancell the couple from the cruise ship, but this isn't easy to do. By now they will have left their homes and will be on the ship. We don't ever cancel tours unless we absolutely have to, so in an effort to take more than just two people out this sunday we are offering a special "buy one...get one free" one time deal. If you want to go boating this sunday and will be here in Antigua then call nell on 726 6355. The cruise is this one and it's 50% off the normal rate of US $100. If you are a resident here you will get a better deal as is the norm on all of our tours. I hear that bookings have picked up for later in the season with all the super flight deals that are bing offered. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow we have another sailing charter booked which is cool. We had a nice one on monday. Will add a cool vid of the sailing tours tomorrow.

more activity in 2009!

Of course at the start of every New Year millions of people all across the world try to make positive changes according to their “new year’s resolutions”. I have decided that I am going to try to get a little fitter this year and more importantly I want to have something physical to do on a regular basis. With all the injuries to my joints from years of windsurfing and kitesurfing I have to try something new and less Xtreme.
It’s gonna be Golf.
I can imagine many of you shaking your heads, but I have always been interested in the technical and tactical aspects of golf. In fact, in the old days many of my friends on the pro windsurfing tour would play golf whenever they had time off.
A few months ago I was in the San Juan airport in Puerto Rico and noticed with excitement a new Carl Hiaasen book. I have read every book he has written and immediately snatched this one which was called The Downhill Lie. Little did I know this book was something entirely different than his usual crazy environmental and crime ridden works of fiction. There were no snakes being dropped on to cruise ships, there were no former governers living in the bush and eating road kill, there were no captive dolpins killing the bad guys by trying to copulate with them. This was just his golf memoirs. I got duped just like many others into buying a book completely about golf. Oh well, he is a funny guy and I decided to read it. While reading it I visited some friends in London who had recently purchased the Nintendo Wii game that came with the Wii Sports. After seeing them play golf using their remotes like clubs to whack imaginary balls towards a green, I knew I had to give it a try. Wii has revolutionized what I call “video games” by adding physical action to what has always been a true couch potato activity. Check this random video of some guy telling you about it.



The game is way better than he makes it look btw. Anyway, it was silly and fun, but actually taught me what a par was! In fact it taught me plenty as I had no idea about the game even though I was reading a book about it. The next thing I knew was that I had a Nintendo Wii and was playing golf back in my home in Jolly Harbour. Of course this wasn’t the steady activity that I was hoping for, but it was a good bit of silly fun. Most of the Adventure Antigua crew has been over to play Golf and Tennis. Trevor who is one of the best cricketers and tennis players with the AA team sucked at Tennis but was far better at golf. I guess the rum and cokes didn’t help for tennis too well. Anyway, the next thing I had to do was to get some proper lessons. For Christmas my mom got me some golf lessons and yesterday I took my first one at the Jolly Harbour Golf Club. The pro there, Ulrich Francis, admitted that although he has given a huge number of lessons, he had never taught anyone who hadn’t held a golf club before. I was the most inexperienced beginner he had ever taken onto the course which didn’t sit well with me. Isn’t a beginner someone who hasn’t played before? Well anyway, I was the most legitimate beginner he’s ever taught and it wasn’t easy for either of us. I had to learn how to hold the club (a sand wedge), I had to learn how to bend my back properly, how to position my feet with weight in the right places, how to bend my knees properly and push my ass out correctly, I had to learn how to swing, had to learn how to release and hold it, I had to learn how to twist my hips the right way and most importantly I had to turn my right leg and foot towards the left. There were other things too and this was all before I could begin worrying about hitting the blasted ball. JEEZ this was not nearly as easy as I thought, but then again I had just read a book about how insanely hard the game was even for experts. After 30 minutes I was sweating and there were balls all over the place. With the club that was too short for me I think it didn't make much difference. I dug some nice holes (divots) and made a couple of hits where Ulrich seemed to be happy with. He was concerned about my obviously broken arm and about my knee pain, but was optimistic that me playing a round of golf may happen some day. Lesson two will be Thursday. My good friend Andre Phillip who I taught how to Kitesurf before he became one of the best kitesurfers on the planet has been harassing me to get these lessons so that he can have another person to play with here. Since he is leaving on Saturday, I think he will have to wait until he comes back from his next international kitesurfing adventure. Wish me luck tomorrow and by the way I am way better than the guy in the vid. lol
PS. Mom, thanks for the golf lessons....... i think.

Adventure Antigua crew "Sergie"

Serge "sergie" Gobinet has been working for Adventure Antigua for some time now and i thought i had a bio on him on the blog. I don't know how i missed it but i am getting older and we will just blame it on that.

Serge is the younger brother of Francis Gobibet who worked of and on with me from the start of Adventure Antigua's eco tour way back in 2000. I have known the Gobinet family since they arrived here in Antigua when Francis was a little child. Serge was born on the island and shortly afterwards was on the little boat with his brother, sister and parents cruising up the North Sound of Antigua where we now do our Eco Tour. His life has been spent fishing, diving, snorkeling, sailing and generally doing what Adventure Antigua is all about - enjoying Antigua and Barbuda's natural marine side. He's probably been swimming (and snorkeling) long before he could walk!

After Francis left Adventure Antigua to go work on some of the huge mega private yachts that spend their winters in the Caribbean and summers in the "Med", Serge decided to follow him looking for the same kind of work.

Serge said that despite Palma being a similar hub for the mega yacht industry and an excellent place to find work on the massive private luxury yachts, it wasn't nearly enough like Antigua. He missed home here in the Caribbean and finally decided to come back. We were happy to have him work with us and with the new sailing side of Adventure Antigua starting up Serge was even more happy. Of course, Serge is an excellent snorkeling guide and is a great asset on the powerboats, but his experience in sailing is most important and you will see him out with me whenever we have tours on the Ocean Nomad. Say hi when you see him.