Happy guests with Adventure Antigua

Not much time to write the blog today but thought you would like this one (thanks tracy):

From: Tracy Porter [xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com]


Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 5:41 PM

To: Adventure Antigua

Subject: RE: AA-Booking Xtreme Circumnav Confirmation Oct 1st x1





Nell,



I just wanted to write and let you know how much fun I had on the Xtreme Circumnav on October 1st. I went on the eco tour last year and also had a great time. Tony, one of your employees, is such an incredible guy and he actually remembered me from the previous year which was incredible. I look forward to returning to Antigua and hanging out with you all again. Thanks for making the trip so much fun!!





Tracy Porter

Amazing story of how the internationally famous "Suzie" came to Barbuda

My brother Ali, send me some links the other day from a very interesting turtle project. All of my family loves sea turtles and have worked for many years to help these endangered creatures. Anyway, this link told a story about two turtles that were rescued (purchased) from fishermen. It must still be legal there to kill them. The scientists named the adult green turtle "Suzie" and placed a satellite transmitter on her back so that they could see where she went off to.

Most people interested in turtles know that where they live and feed isn't usually the place that they mate and nest. In fact, Mykl just came back from a major turtle study in Bermuda where they have no nesting turtles at all.

Historical records showed that all of the nesting turtles were killed off many years ago. Turtles return to the place of their birth to lay eggs and if you kill them all off when they come up to nest and or take all their eggs.... nesting will stop. That's what happened in Bermuda. Interestingly though, they have thousands of young turtles feeding there which arrive on the Atlantic currents and stay until they near maturity. The study she was on was carefully catching them and taking DNA samples to figure out where they were born. This would also tell them where these turtles would go back to lay eggs. Back to Suzie. Suzie was feeding in the Turks and Caicos islands and the scientists hoped that they would learn where this turtle lived or nested without taking DNA. I'm not sure if they were sure if she had nested in Turks or if she had been living there. I have a feeling that she was living there. DNA only works if you have a common sample from another area to match it with. Many times that DNA has never been taken. Anyway, my brother all the family the link showing "suzie's" movement, and we were amazed to see her swim straight over to the Virgin Islands. My bro and I had made that trip ourselves back in June 1995, and even on a 40 foot boat it wasn't an easy one. Suzie didn't stop there. She then made the voyage up to St. Martin. From there the google tracking map showed her swimming over towards St. Kitts and last night she arrived off the pink sandy beach of Barbuda's Palmetto Point. There are no more islands in that direction, so it looks like she may start nesting very soon in Barbuda. She may lay on average 110 eggs three or four times every few weeks before returning back to the Turks and Caicos. Because of huge variety of things that kill turtles the chances that one of the hundreds of eggs will make it to maturity are not very high. In fact, some scientists say one in ten thousand eggs will reach maturity at 25 years old. That's not too good is it?

This photo below was taken on the same beach over in Barbuda several weeks ago and shows the tracks of a hawksbill turtle. They need coastal vegetation to nest comfortably. In Antigua that's called "bush" and for some reason is seen to be something that must be cut down.
Anyway, Antigua will get some good press out of this one for a change if she makes it through her nesting without being killed. Our fisheries department here on the island is run by people and a government who in my humble opinion don't care about the survival of these turtles. They drew up new laws in their Fisheries Act which would protect these amazing species, but years later it hasn't been passed. It is still legal to kill mature endangered sea turtles after august 31st. We all know that it's peak nesting season at that time. It would be so easy to pass the the act, but this government, like the last one cares little about the environment and nothing about the marine environment. To the ministers: IT’S TIME TO PASS THE FISHERIES ACT WHICH HAS BEEN SITTING FINISHED ON YOUR TABLE FOR YEARS!!!!!!

If you would like to see if Suzie makes it safely back to the Turks and Caicos after nesting please keep checking this website link.

another cool antigua video showing Adventure Antigua too

Why I Love Antigua and Barbuda from CKB Boards on Vimeo.

The True Story of six americans arrested in Antigua

Since this story broke there has been a non stop flow of bad publicity towards Antigua which I suppose is expected if the facts are not brought to light. Why the facts are not being put into the public and more important the internet's watchful eye is simply because Antigua is not very good at PR. The Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Department should have a proper PR department which is set up to out little fires before they get out of control. IT seems as though we here in Antigua always have some smoke on the ground!
The facts I will write here have been gathered from Caribarena.com antiguaobserver.com and The Antigua Sun newspaper, The Daily Observer newspaper and several people who were saw what went down. Most of the stuff that is written in the International press is coming from the people who have been charged.

The guys seen in the above photo which was featured today in the New York Daily News got on the Carnival Victory for a seven day cruise which stopped in Antigua back in early September. When they got off the ship here in St. Johns they were approached by a taxi driver on the boardwalk next to the ship. He asked them if they wanted to go to the beach and told them the rate was US $6 per person to go to Jolly Harbour's Castaway Beach. A few of them told him that he was ripping them off and that there was no way they'd pay that. The cab driver walked away as did the group of eleven young men and women from New York. Three of the eleven stopped and asked another cab driver what the price was to take the group of eleven to Castaways. He also told them that it was US $6 per person each way or $132 round trip in total. The tourists complained and said the same thing as told the last cab driver using words like "ripping us off".

The driver seen here in a photo taken from The Antigua Sun

Said that things were slow and he'd do it for US $5 instead of the US $6. One of the group said they wouldn't pay more than US $50 each way. The driver told them that the rate sheet says US $6 per person and even at $5 per person it was more than they were paying. Finally he gave in and said he'd take them.

According to court reports he took the eleven of them and even made a stop to a local shop for one of the girls to buy a phone card. She came back to the cab complaining how the card was a rip off.

He said he arrived at Castaways and wasn't paid anything. He had to wait there for them so that he could get paid. The stayed at Castaways. For the record Castaways is a beach bar and rest. which was closed at the time. One of the Taxi Association people was organizing a beach party for cruise passengers each week there where people could drink and relax on the beach. After spending time there the eleven tourists came back to the same cab driver and asked to be taken back to town. He says that when they got outside Big Banana Pizzas on Redcliffe Street just a few minutes walk from the ship which was in plain view as in this photo from the same spot, one of the eleven asked how much they had to pay. The cab driver told them it was US $100. Remember three of the eleven had negotiated with the driver. It was another of the eleven who asked how much they owed. Immedeately there was noise and cussing. Some yelled that there was no way they were paying more than US $50 and that they were being robbed. The taxi driver told them that he had already given them a $32 discount on the stated rate sheet charge and that he'd take them to the police if they didn't pay. One of the tourists yelled out "take us to the police". They slowly drove about a US "block" to the police station as there was plenty of traffic and people walking on the streets. When they arrived at the St. Johns Police Station a uniformed police officer was just walking in and asked the cab driver what was going on. He said he could clearly see that there was a problem and told the cab driver to drive into the station's yard. As the cab stopped one of the tourists jumped out and said something like "that fu$%ing nigger is trying to rip us off". With that the officer said he was placing him under arrest for the use of foul language in a police station. With that two others in the gang of eleven jumped between the officer and the guy he was arresting pushing and shoving. A female officer came in to help and was beaten to the ground by several of the eleven. From testimony in court a huge fight played out with five of the eleven INCLUDING THE ONES WHO FIRST MADE THE DEAL WITH THE TAXI DRIVER not getting involved. In fact, they paid their taxi bill and went back to the ship without getting into any trouble with the cops.

The other six have been accused of several charges including assault on a police officer.

They spent a night or two in jail before being bailed out facing their trial. Despite many reports the the contrary THEY HAVE NOT BEEN HELD SINCE THEIR ARREST! Their trial has been rushed through with them even operating on Saturdays. Many Jamaican and other non nationals have been saying that the tourists have been receiving special treatment with this speedy trial. I agree with them but that's just my opinion. I was attacked along with several other employees at the late night bar that i was working at by several thugs from London. These guys didn't want to pay a US $18 bar tab and became ultra aggressive when they were asked to pay up at the end of the night. They ended up throwing bar stools, beer bottles, glasses and glass ash trays at us. We couldn't believe that they could erupt into so much violence over less than US $20. Some people are saying that this isn't possible, but I have seen it first hand. Some are also saying that Antiguan taxi drivers are often trying to over charge people. In this case he undercharged them.

Carnival has pulled its ship out of Antigua leaving millions of dollars in revenue. Why have they done this? I think they have done this because most people on the net don't have the facts and are commenting negatively on the case. Bad reporting by the US media on this thing coupled with all the forum comments has fueled the negative vibe towards Antigua. Then you have the stupid Cruise Association and ALP here locally supporting the six tourists and the US representative too. There is no wonder Carnival pulled out. They were forced to by all the media hype against Antigua. In my opinion, this is one time (one of the few) when Antigua has gotten the bum rap. I keep thinking what would have happened had Antiguan's messed with American cops or if the 6 had beaten up some other cruise shippers here while on the island. If we had let them go without dealing with them imagine the bad press? The whole thing stinks IMHO.

5/10/09 Since i wrote this, 5 of the 6 changed their plea to guilty and saying that they were sorry asked for forgiveness. "The truth shall set you free"

a strange hurricane season

The child in this photo was born during the last storm we had come close to Antigua. In the middle of all the thunger and lightning one night last year , Alexander was born. It's been quiet since then. Let's hope it continues.

By all accounts, we have had the best weather this summer! The winds have been around to keep us cooler than usual, the rains have come occasionally just enough to keep it from getting dry and dusty, the hurricanes machinery has not been pumping out storms, the few that have formed have missed us.

All in all this season has been a very quiet one and perfect for boating. we have done plenty and will do more for sure.

Quick video for a facebook competition

The Antigua and Barbuda tourism department is giving away some flights for the winner of a 2 minute Antigua video. Here is my very quick amateur version:

Some old faces back at Adventure Antigua and more changes too.

With more tours on the market and fewer people on island thanks to the "financial crash" we are probably in the most challenging time of our life as a company. Adventure Antigua turns 10 this December and if there was one thing that has helped us get to this point I suppose it's the determination to always have word of mouth be our main revenue generator. We have always had word of mouth as the main way we get business and the main reason for that is that as a company we have all strived to make sure your day out with us is exceptionally good. We have always said that we are not your average snorkeling tour. We take guys who have snorkeled and boated their entire lives, guys who go to sea on their days off, guys who adore Antigua and Barbuda, guys who are friendly and respectful, and we put them on a boat with you. Nothing in the world makes them happy more than for me to tell them I had a nice email thanking them for a lovely tour. We thrive on good reviews and the trip advisors, and Antiguaforums, and cruise ship message boards have all helped us see these reviews.


Over the past few years we have had challenges where some of our best guys have asked me to let them go off and pursue other things. Some have left the country.. others, sadly, have left this world.

Adventure Antigua, although still the best high end excursion company in Antigua, has recently not been as strong as it wanted to be. Three of our best veteran Adventure Antigua crew knew that we needed some help and offered to come back and work with us.

Leslie, our strong man and loudest man has come back to work on the boats and says he is happier than he's been in years. We all love having him back with us too.

Trevor starts work again today after being off in the UK playing county cricket. As a very old windsurfing friend, Trevor and I go way back. I am delighted that he's come back to work once again with us.

Lastly Captain Shamel has decided to join our team again. Shamel, like m any of the other Adventure Antigua guys cares about our company. It's unusual when someone who is no longer working for the company cares so strongly about how well the company does. Shamel is that guy, and with more boating and tour experience than any other of my crew, Shamel will help me with all the boats and may skipper each of them depending on the day.

We have invested some money into erecting a proper building for all of our spare parts, tools, stocks, and other equipment. For ten years we have been shoving stuff here and there and we have finally made a move to get our gear and maintenance department even more organized.

I had wanted to spend about US $70 K on repowering the eco boat, but at this point I am being forced to hold off on that investment. I wish things hadn't gotten so slow, but it will pick up and the funds needed for the project will be there for next summer.

Of course, some of you know about our sailing program. We have invested some money and time into sailing training for our core poweboat crew. Captain JD and Captain Tony just recently completed a three week day skipper course. Two weeks of book work and one week on a yacht doing practical stuff. They passed with flying colours and are excited about our second sailing vessel's launch coming soon. Yes, our second sailing vessel will be finished and launched soon. I'm not sure when because there is a little thing that may postpone it a bit. That little thing is my wedding. lol I am getting married to my beautiful finance and friend, Mykl. She's an addition to Adventure Antigua that we have needed for some time and has proven to be a fantastic consultant on organizational and eco issues.

The rest of the gang seems to be very happy with these changes and we are having a meeting later today to go over more of our plans. I think that over the past six months my core crew has been under too much pressure holding up our high standards without enough support. They did an amazing job, but I know it's been difficult. With the veterans back on the boats and on the team they will be breathing a sigh of relief and happy at the prospect of out continued success. There is no doubt in my mind that Adventure Antigua has the best tours in Antigua and although there will be changes to the management and structure of the organization, we won't change the way we treat our guests or the way we operate our tours. Coming out with us should be like coming to visit old friends on their island.... a place with hidden secrets that they are eager to show you.

big changes with Adventure Antigua

We are in the slowest part of the season and it's time to take stock and see where we are. Adventure Antigua has had some difficulties and challenges over the past 12 months and we are making some changes over the next 60 days. This coming season will see a rejuvinated Adventure Antigua with new direction, stronger leadership, more experienced crew and newer products.
The first stages of our plan are underway and I will fill you in on some news over the next few days. I'm excited.

Shocking photos and story from St. Johns, Antigua

My company Adventure Antigua operates tours by powerboat around Antigua and often has to collect guests from Redcliffe Quay in St. Johns. Every single time we go in there we pass garbage floating inside the harbour. Commercial harbours around the world are usually nasty and it's fairly normal for some garbage to bypass storm drains and end up in the water. Water running along the gutters and drains has to end up in the harbour, but there should be some sort of grate filtering garbage. In Antigua this doesn't seem to be a priority. These images were taken after an hour of rain in St. Johns back in January of 2007. Both the Antigua Sun and the Daily Observer papers used my images and mentioned the garbage. One of the call in shows spoke about it and generally people were shocked to see all the trash floating around in the harbour. A small fraction is stopped by the coastline around Deep Water Harbour, but most of it goes into the sea. I can't imagine what the east coast of Nevis and St. Kitts look like. They should write to our government on this issue! Dumping garbage into the sea is against International Law and the government of Antigua and Barbuda know that this is happening. It wouldn't take much to put small catchment mechanisms on the gutters preventing the trash from getting into the harbour, and why it's not done is beyond me. Check the photos taken from my boat:

Anyway, this past Saturday September 19th was International Coastal Cleanup Day and we went out to see if we could get rid of some of the trash in the hopes that we could stop it from getting back into the sea. There are a huge variety of living organisms that are harmed by this garbage. The most common way they are killed is by getting tangled in it, but they also are killed when they mistake the plastics for food. Human beings are being harmed as well and more and more of the chemicals in breaking down marine plastics are finding their way into our bodies. In some areas in the ocean up to 50% of the stomach contents of fish have been found to contain plastics. This article on marine plastics breaking down was published today on BBC.

Anyway, on Saturday a group of 18 of us took one of my company's boats out to two tiny beaches near Yeptons and Coconut Beach Hotel. A few years ago i had seen one of the life boats from a cruise ship collecting garbage from there. I guess they were embarrassed to have their guests see this trash on their first Antiguan beach as they entered the country. This is probably yet another thing the wealthy Cruise Association should look at. I guess the huge staff at the Ministry of Tourism could come up with some action too. As we arrived, the rain was coming down sideways and the weather wasn't great. Unfortunately we ran out of garbage bags very quickly. We had taken 150 of them. The trash not only is on the shore but has been washed and blown up the hillsides. It's embedded in the ground there too. What a mess. Although the beaches looked so much better after we attacked them we could see more garbage flowing out of the harbour as we worked. It's won't stop until the gutters and drains are fixed properly (and not just with yellow and blue paint). Check the images we took from Saturday:

Sailing course offered in Jolly Harbour

The Jolly Harbour Yacht Club is offering two types of sailing courses at the moment. One on Saturdays is for kids and is totally full at the moment. The other is for any age group and still has space. IT starts this Sunday and is EC $300 for members and $450 for non members. It goes from 9 am until 12 and lasts six weeks. Learn the basics and then sail on their little "boats". In no time you will be sailing by yourself on a "laser". For more info speak with Pippa Tel: 722 8468
Although Jason has sailed up and down the Caribbean with me and does all the http://www.sailing-antigua.com/ charters with me too, I am going to send him so that he can be trained properly from the basics.

If you would like to get involved in a new sport in Antigua give them a call.

Free boat trip this saturday

As long as you don't mind helping pick up some garbage for a few hours you can have a free boat cruise and even some snorkeling. This saturday is the International Coastal Cleanup day all over the world and Adventure Antigua has been taking part for three years now. If you want to come please contact nell on 726 6355 or email her on info @ adventureantigua.com

amazing weather = plenty of boating

The weather this past week has been totally amazing for power boating with clear sunny skies and very calm seas. I always love September for the calm days and think we have more light wind days during this month than any other. Today is another sunny and glass calm one and we've decided to take some family and friends to Barbuda for the day. Will try to take some photos!

The Adventure Antigua team takes themselves out on a tour.

Back in the early days of Adventure Antigua I would often take the entire crew (back then it wasn't that big) on regular outings when we didn't have tours. If we weren't fishing we were taking friends out on with some lunch and drinks.


Our favorite "company outings" were the ones where we went to St. Martin. Nearly 100 miles down and 100 back and non stop laughing and enjoyment the entire time.


I have many fond memories of us doing a tour on a Friday, dropping off our guests at the cruise ship or hotel and hustling back to clear customs, grab some things and leave into the sunset with the St. Martin "goto" set on our GPS.

It's one those sessions that we would dip into our own special rum punch and take the time to enjoy the ocean even more.

Wow. We consumed too much rum on some of those trips!

BUT I think we will have to do one of those st martin trips again soon.
Anyway, we haven't done a proper crew outing for some time and all our group "meetings" have either been on the dock or over at Foredeck Bar in Jolly Harbour on a Friday for their happy hour. Of course September is probably the slowest month of the year for us so we do have quite a bit of free time on our hands. I knew there were no tours scheduled for Monday so I sent a text to the crew and Nell telling them that they all had to meet by my house at 9 because we were going sailing. I also told them this wasn't optional just to make sure they all would be there.
First to show up at 8:45 am was Leslie. Then JD and Tony shortly afterwards. Then Chris, Alex and Jason pulled in just before Nell at 9 am. Mom was the only part of the Adventure Antigua team that wasn't on this trip and i will organize another one with her soon. She was running the office and couldn't make it. Anyway, for me it started well because usually if the guys know that we don't have tourists to pick up on time they can be a bit late. This time everyone was there on time and I was very happy not to have to wait. We jumped right on to Ocean Nomad (the only sailing vessel in our small fleet), and let go dock lines. We were off! "Fenders in!" was the call by the three captains on board almost all at the same time. The laughing had already started. Within no time we were sailing towards Johnsons Point and up the south coast passing Curtain Bluff and Carlisle Bay on route to Falmouth Harbour. Our destination was Bumpkins Beach Bar on Pigeon Beach where Nell had placed a lunch order. The winds were better than i had expected probably blowing between 12 and 16 knots right on the nose.

Two of the crew had never been sailing in their lives before so it was especially enjoyable for us all. Tony and JD are doing a structured sailing course next week so it was good to have them helping out in all the tacks we did up the coast.

Lunch was pretty good and we decided to go up to The Yacht Club Marina for ice cream. Of course as we arrived back on the boat each of the boys had to show that they had the best flips and dives. There were quite a few flops which usually ended in wild laughter.

Leslie's flip attempts were definitely the best of them, but i can't embarrass him by showing them here.

We actually played there for nearly an hour forgetting about the ice cream for a quite a while. The anchor came up and we headed over to Seabreeze in search of some sweets. Unfortunately it was closed, so we set the sails and head out of the harbour. The cruise back was very relaxing even with five or six gybes.

For a fairly inexperienced crew made up mostly of power boaters they did very well.

I think each one of us enjoyed the day and it was probably one of the best team outings we have ever done. Simple but fun.
http://www.adventureantigua.com/

The entire Adventure Antigua Crew goes sailing

September is a terribly slow month and there are many days when nothing at all is going. Today we are going sailing to try and have some fun and also to try to help JD and Tony learn a bit more about sailing.

Both of them are doing a sailing course later this month and could do with a bit of experience. I think the plan will be to sail up the coast towards Sandals and Dickenson Day, have some lunch and sail back.

Will post some photos tomorrow. All of the photos on this blog entry were done by www.photoaction.com and were purchased by one of our racing crew, Harry Ingram.