Jolly Harbour - And a category 5 hurricane (part 1)

Despite only having one direct hit from a hurricane between 1954 and 1995, on the last day of August in that year we all knew things were about to turn sour. The horrific looking Hurricane Luis was traveling very slowly on a track straight for Antigua.

The satellite maps showed the massive storm churning slowly across the Atlantic. All reports indicated that we wouldn't escape, and people across the island and other islands nearby were frantically doing last minute preparations.

Things didn’t look good at all and my dad was extremely worried about his most prized possession…his boat.

Of course he had workmen doing work on his house putting in extra nails, screws and hurricane clips but the boat was a major worry. It was being kept alongside a dock in Jolly Harbour outside a property that he shared with Steve Mendes. Steve’s boat was there too. The problem was that Jolly Harbour had never been tested by a hurricane and nobody wanted to see what a category 4 or 5 storm would do. Some feared that nothing at all would be left. After all, the place was on the water and the seawall was only about 2 feet above regular tide level. On the day before the storm was due to hit which I think was September 2nd 1995 my dad and Steve decided to move the boats up into a traditional sort of hiding place for boats during storms. The mangrove inlets scattered around Antigua have been very good historically and they both felt that the boats would be safer tied up close inside a mangrove inlet. The one they chose was in Seatons up near Pineapple hotel. I remember taking the small boat from where I live to meet up with them in Seatons that day. We had loaded a massive anchor which probably weighed about 300 lbs into my boat as an extra for my dad’s boat. Together with the massive chain we were sure that there was no possible way for the boat to drag. Steve secured his boat and then helped us get this massive anchor into the water for Dad’s boat. Once we were all comfortable with how the boats sat in that little mangrove inlet we took off back towards home. There was no doubt that Jolly Harbour wouldn’t be safe during a category five hurricane. The storm came and as we sat locked down on the ground floor of my dad’s house listening to all sorts of crashing and scary noises outside. I secretly started feeling sorry for Dad. No boat could make it through those winds. Officially Hurricane Luis was a Category four hurricane when it hit Antigua, but the measurement was taken after it had passed over. The US Naval Base here at the time recorded a gust of 190 knots 218 mph, so I think we had a cat 5 storm. Anyway, people here knew it was a cat 5. The island was a total mess and although we had Hurricane Hugo hit us in 1989 giving us some idea of what a bad storm would be like, the island took the Louis hit hard. Concrete houses were destroyed all over the place and we saw things that we had never dreamed of. The funny thing is that many wooden houses still stood….testament to good design and construction. My dad’s wooden house was one of them. Apart from the garden which his wife cried over upon seeing it, the house wasn’t harmed at all. Plants and trees were down all around the house and the sight of dead birds made it even more awful. After making sure that all friends and family were ok, it was time to go and check on the boat. Of course the entire island looked different and we were able to see things that we had never seen before. Imagine your home town without a single leaf on any tree….imagine most of the trees being down. Things come into view that were hidden before. The coast looked different. Beaches had disappeared and some had been moved. As we got closer to Seatons Harbour I worried more and more. Coming around the last point Steve’s boat came into View as if it had left the planet the night before the storm and had just returned. It was in perfect shape and even looked better with the water blasting it had taken. Immediately we recognized that my Dad’s boat was missing!!!!

Read part two tomorrow to find out about the old man's boat and what happened in Jolly Harbour.

Jolly Harbour - one man's dream

Over the past year we have been trying to buy a piece of land in Jolly Harbour where we can keep our boats in the future. Last month I started renting a villa here as well. It’s an interesting place. Jolly Harbour is really more than just a big marina. It’s a story, a town, and an unusual man’s dream. There is now way that I can come close to touching the full story that is Jolly Harbour, but this blog entry today will give some general info about the place which at the end of the day is the main base of Adventure Antigua and is also the place where we plan to expand into new areas.
Back when I was a youngster, my father, uncle and some of their friends would hunt wild ducks in the winter at several places around Antigua. One of the best spots in Antigua was exactly where Jolly Harbour is now. It was a huge mangrove salt pond filled with wildlife and nothing else. Tourism in Antigua was on a high point at the time and when the owner of the largest hotel on the island told the Prime Minister about his dream to turn the “mosquito ridden swamp” into the largest Marina in the Eastern Caribbean, the idea was welcomed. Environmental concerns were worse than they are now, and now they are not that good either. Jolly Beach located next door to the swamp, was owned by the Swiss hotel tycoon, Dr. Alfred Erhart who had made squillions with his hotel and real estate deals in the Mediterranean. I think his company was called Universal. I always thought he was a unusual man because of his fishing habits. When he was here in Antigua he loved to go fishing, but not the type of fishing that most of the other multi millionaires did. Dr. Erhart would go out on a tiny aluminum skiff by himself with a little net. He would set the net and catch small fish off Jolly Harbour. People on yachts would wonder who this poor white fisherman was. Most other men with his kind of money had 65 foot Bertram sportfishing boats with full time crew. His idea of fishing was more simple. His mega marina idea wasn't. One day after Jolly Harbour had been finished and was hosting a stop during the Antigua Sailing Week event here, I sat next to him as he chatted with my Dad. You see, my Dad was his lawyer here at the time. Anyway, my Dad looking around him at the thousands of people and hundreds of yachts said, “Doc, are you happy with all of this”. Dr. Earhart said with a smile and a scratchy voice, “You know I only did it originally to stop the mosquitoes from biting my Jolly Beach guests”. I thought that was such a funny thing to hear. Anyway, he went on to describe how the idea had developed while running his Jolly Beach Hotel into something much bigger and meaningful to him. Some say that between the two developments he spent US $400 million. It was quite obvious that Jolly Harbour was a passion of his, and despite criticism from a great many people, he pushed on with the development. He loved Antigua and wanted to prove all his advisors wrong about the Jolly Harbor concept. Even as we sat there, Jolly Harbour was still not self sufficient and in fact was far from being the success that he had envisioned. At that time back in the mid 90s most of the 500 or so villas remained unoccupied. Villa sales had been terrible and some people thought that the entire project would end up being a white elephant. The funny thing is that they were not that bad looking. The blocks of two bedroom waterfront villas that had seawall ready for dock space and were going for as little as US $140K. Many Antiguans (who are kicking themselves now) were sure that it would all be knocked down in a hurricane.

They also never dreamed that the prices would go so high. They were so wrong. Will write more tomorrow.

Making a new brochure...wanna help?

Today i am making a new brochure for the Xtreme -round the island Tour.

The brochure will cover two different tours around antigua on our faster boat Xtreme. One of the tours will be making a stop at the Stingray City Marine Park where our partners take us on a tour of their big off shore aquarium filled with rays and other exotic life. The other tour is the same round the island trip substituting The Marine Park with a extra snorkeling stop near bird island.

Anyway, if you would like to help design a brochure or at least help me pick some good photos that would interest would be guests then have a look at the current brochure which folds into three in an upright. It is seen folded out flat below. The first photo is of the front (outer fold):

and the second is the inside fold:

I want to change the front more than anything and am thinking about putting several photos on the front far right fold. Then goto this Flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiguan/sets/ and on the top row on the right hand side there is a box titled "photos related to my job"....click on that and there are 100 photos that we can pick from to use on the new brochure. After you have found one that you like, copy the url and paste it into the comment section below this post. There is a comment verification email that i have to approve (so that we dont get porn crap on this blog) and then your pick or picks will be listed below this blog entry. IT can be fun. The point is that we are trying to get the best possible photos that will help generate more interest in this tour. I think its an excellent tour which just hasn't had as many people try it as we have had on the eco tour. By offering another version of the same tour to this new brochure, we will be able to offer it at a better rate. Anyway, thanks for the help. The top photo is of some of the crew after coming in from Fridays tours. Eli

the antigua humane society

Here on Antigua and Barbuda we are sometimes guilty of being a little behind when it comes to the proper treatment of animals. Of course this is being very general and most of the animals here in Antigua and Barbuda are treated very well indeed. Some animals like my "Sparky" are treated too well!

Anyway, despite what the silly animated forecasts on www.weather.com, yahooweather.com and others which have led people to believe it rains all the time, we have had almost no rain at all in Antigua for about 2 months and the poor grazing animals have been suffering. Isn't it funny how most people think its raining here all the time after seeing a stupid thing like this:

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/ACXX0002.html

Many animal owners have had a difficult time finding food and water for their animals which often are kept in remote areas, but as we can see from the post on the antigua news group, some owners have neglected their duty. This situation sounds aweful, and after speaking with someone at The Antigua Humane Society http://www.antiguaanimals.org/ i have a better understanding about how serious this drought is. They are overwhelmed with donkeys, cats, dogs and horses and only are able to operate with donations from people like us. Their funds are limited and they are unwilling to take any more large animals as this would take away from the ones they have now. They need more financial assistance as you would immagine. Feed for donkeys and horses seems to be a big problem at the moment. All of this kinda stuff is more expensive here. They gave me the phone number of the Government Vet. There are 2 of them: Dr. Goodwin and Dr. Diaz. I spoke with Dr. Goodwin who seems like a lovely caring lady faced with a very difficult job. She was sending someone from her office to go and inspect the poor horse, but said that she only had two options. The first is a tricky one which relies on finding the owner. If and its a big IF they find the owner, then he can be forced to do something and or face penalties. The problem with this she says, is that when conditions are as dry as they are now many animal owners who can't look after their animals seem to dissapear. If they can not be located, then the only thing left to do is option number 2 which is a terrible one. Putting the animal down is the last resort and something that the Vet hates doing. Anyway, they will determine if this has to be done in this case after the animal is located.

Someone on the message board said that nothing can be done, but as you can see just from reading above there is much to be done and much that can be done. I think that if the Antigua Humane Society had more resources then they would be able to take in more animals. I think that you can email them first and then send them a donation. Their web site with email is :http://www.antiguaanimals.org/welfarefund.htm and i think you should email them if you care about stray and unfortunate animals in Antigua and Barbuda. Its people like you and me that will make a difference. Something can be done. Email them. This blog is co-sponsored by the good people at JHR.

"The Caribbean as a Terrorist hub." Idiotic statement.

Today I read an article in The Economist online: http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9294568 and have to say that it enraged me. Look how the article begins: "In the wake of the arrests on June 2nd of several Caribbean nationals in an alleged plot to attack John F Kennedy airport in New York, questions are swirling over the threat of terrorist cells sprouting up across the region and its potential use as a base to launch attacks against the US." A friend of mine from Trinidad was surprised that the whole region has now been implicated. Why is fear such a powerful tool used in the media?

This hypothesis seems to be rampant all over the US media as well as with "officials". Thankfully I don't have TV at the moment after this move, but I am sure it’s even worse with Fox and CNN. To show how stupid this kind of statement is I will just go over a few things. What is really considered "The Caribbean"? According to Wiki the "The Caribbean.......is a region of the Americas consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north and west of South America." Take a look at this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CaribbeanIslands.png to get an idea how large and separated it is. Most of the named areas are different countries all together. Guyana, an independent country, is further from Havana, Cuba in the North of the Caribbean than Rome is from Bagdad. As far as Cuba is from Guyana is about as different as the people, politics, language and ethnic makeup. The funny thing is that you don't have to go far in the Caribbean to be dramatically different. Let’s just look at Antigua for example and compare it to our neighbors Guadeloupe. These islands are only 50 miles apart and today as it’s so beautifully clear, we can even see each other. We are as different as you can get though so to be grouped in the media as "the Caribbean" with the implication that terrorist cells are quietly organized ready for attack is asinine and totally irresponsible. The general lack of good geography education in the USA is famous and can only be made worse during situations like this. It is so frustrating to me and other people who rely on tourism to see our little independent island in the cross hairs of the war on terror because of idiotic news headlines. Some people may think that I am taking this too far, but I can tell you that when someone who doesn't know the West Indies well reads the Economist article they may think twice about booking their winter holiday here.

Now the story of these bumbling idiots or would be terrorists is obviously going to get plenty air time for many reasons. Many would say that anything that shows some success in the war on terror will be highlighted and the US authorities did an excellent job of infiltrating and eventually busting this group using other criminals. The fact of the matter though is that this alleged group of would be terrorists appear to have been pretty stupid (thank god) and according to some officials had no chance of doing any harm. According to the New York Times these misfits were more talk than action which we can all thank God for. That being said I find it so strange that there are articles all over the web implying that the Caribbean is a hotbed of terrorist cells. Trinidad and Guyana in the far south of the Caribbean Basin are up to 2000 miles away from the Northern part of the Caribbean and are independent nations. After the end of slavery in 1834, plantation owners sought laborers from India as spoken about on wiki: "As can be seen in the movie "Guiana 1838, after the slaves were freed, the plantation owners were desperate for new sources of labor. In 1839 the British government began a program of recruiting Indian labourers (or coolies) in Calcutta to be sent to Trinidad and British Guiana (now Guyana). They bound themselves to work as indentured labourers for a set number of years on the plantations." This is how the Trinidad and Guyana came to have East Indians making up large parts of their populations bringing along their culture and religions including the Muslim faith. Unfortunately, Muslim extremism however small, does seem to exist in these two countries and there have been several occasions where "terrorist crimes" have been committed. The weirdest thing is that Muslim extremism in Trinidad seems to be limited to a small group of Afro-Trinidadians. The most infamous group is the Jamaat al Muslimeen which as WIKI says is a known terrorist group headed by Yasin Abu Bakr who tried to take over the Trinidadian government in a coup in 1990. This group arrested with the terrorist plot at JFK is allegedly linked with the Jamaat al Muslimeen.

Anyway, all of this has nothing at all to do with the rest of the Caribbean region. In fact, even Tobago which is part of the country called Trinidad and Tobago has no Muslim influence of any sort. It is so unfortunate that Trinidad and Guyana have been slated let alone the rest of the region. This tiny group is insulated and separate from the rest of us in the region. The independent Christian nation of Antigua and Barbuda is 754 miles from Georgetown, Guyana and 446 miles from Port of Spain, Trinidad. Between Antigua and Trinidad and Guyana there are so many other countries, cultures, languages and ocean. I think the generalization as spelled out in the Economist and other media publications is just ridiculous, and I think that the media is just keeping people in the dark while causing many innocent people to be slated and discriminated against. Shame on them!

This photo below was taken on the sister island of Trinidad, Tobago where the tourism must be taking a hit at the moment because of irresponsible journalism.

Antigua photos

The Antigua photographers were at woods gallery on Friday evening with Alexis Andrews there for the opening as well. Alexis is generally recognized as our best photographer and was there to show support for the photographers on exhibit as well as to show his new book "IMAGES" which is the most lovely coffee table book of photographs on Antigua that has been published since the original one done by Alan Aflak back in the 80s. This is a photo i took of him taking a photo of some dolphins on the way to Redonda:

Instead of using all his own photos which he easily could have done, Alexis used some great images from other local photographers as well. At the time that he was selecting images, i didn't have many done with a super duper camera and most of them were too small. He chose one of mine which i am very happy with. ITs a version of this one:

Anyway, my friends Alex Portman, Roddy Grimes Graeme, and Alan Aflak have photos in the book as well. You can buy copies of the book on line. I think there is a link to it on my links page and will attach the link before i post this blog. Go to the bottom of my website's links section and you will find the images link.

Anyway, Lisa Farara of Quin Farara liquors did a lovely job of providing the wine tasting which is quite common at Woods Gallery exhibition openings. The canapes were done by Jan Jackson and were delicious too.

Again, the photographers on display at the Woods Art Gallery during the month of June are as follows: Jan Jackson with lovely photos mostly of birds taken near her home on the South West side of Antigua. You can see more of her work on her web site.

Joseph Jones did manage to get his images into the show after all and apart from seeing his lovely work at the Woods Gallery. You can see more of his images on his website . Also there on display was Roland Hansen. I know he reads the blog and will hopefully comment below with his website. By the way, i love your photo of the guy "picking nuts" out of the coconut tree.

The last photographer on display was Eli Fuller (me) and my photos were a mix of different things you would see in the caribbean if you spent quite a bit of time on or around the water. You can see more of my images on this flickr site.

The show was a very nice affair but i must say that it could have been busier. Its funny how in Antigua many people keep saying that there isn't enough to do. Woods Art Gallery openings are always a nice way to end the work week and next time that you hear about one....try it. For now, our photo exhibition will be on display for the whole month of june. Although you can see many of the images on the web, it is far better to view them large and in nice frames. Jan even makes her own lovely frames at home too. Of course there are many other art forms and artists on display in the main part of the Woods Gallery. It will make a good stop on an island tour. Just goto woods mall on the opposite end of epicurean right next to the Carib Photo lab. Have a great June!

some of my photos on show tonight

Yup! Tonight there is an art gallery showing at Woods Gallery where several Antiguan photographers will be showing their work. Some dude called Eli Fuller will have photos there too:)

So I am joining Jan Jackeson, Sokoto George, Roland Hansen and hopefully Joseph Jones in the exhibit. If you are here on island and are thinking of doing something different, please consider coming down anytime after 5:30 pm to The Woods Mall on the opposite end from Epicurean next to the photo lab.

Quin Farara liquor store will be c0-sponsoring a wine tasting as well during the show and Tony and the boys from Adventure Antigua will also be putting on some special rum punch as well.

The photo exhibit will run for the month of June in one whole section of the Woods Art Gallery, but the other half will have the usual variety of Antiguan art work. While you are in Antigua you should definitely go and have a look. Hope to see you there tonight.

As you know, if you have been reading my blog over the past week, JHR Caribbean (a.k.a Caribbean Real Estate) was kind enough to sponsor our Xtreme team in the 41st Annual Sport Fishing Tournament. As our exclusive sponsor, they also get to have their banner on the blog for three months. Not only are they the first sponsor of the Xtreme Team but they are also the first sponsor of the Antigua Island blog. So to Nadia, Derek, Adam, and the rest of the gang....Thank you. I am sure that you will get some return on your investment. The time right now is 9:45 am and my blog has gotten 134 unique visitors already for the day. Good luck and thanks again.

The 41st Annual Fishing Tournament (part 3)

Sunday was day two and the final day of the fishing tournament. Francis had a little “domestic” trouble and had let me know the afternoon before that he wouldn’t be able to come out with us. Not all the “better halves” understand fishing. Understandably I guess. When the alarm went off at 3 am Sunday morning I thought I had a hard time understanding it all too. Anyway, I managed to get up and out the door meeting up with the boys on time. We loaded the boat and set off for the little bank with hope of seeing the grander again. At first it was fairly quiet, but this time there were birds around the bank and it seemed like there would be more action. My dad arrived in the area on his boat the “Blue Rapid” and we fished near each other making passes in and out of the birds which were feeding in between the little tuna off the bank. We did a few runs back and forth over the “GRANDER” spot and didn’t see or hear a thing. Both of us decided to go a little further towards the thousand fathom (6000 feet) drop off. We were just passing over a section of water that my chart plotter said was 3600 feet deep when Big John screamed out: “strike on number 5”. The fish hadn’t taken any line at all but John had seen the rod tip bend suddenly and get slack again. I was closest to it and let go of the wheel to reel it in 15 feet very quickly. Sometimes when a marlin hits a lure it expects the lure to act like a fish. The fish if not killed would either speed up or slow down if injured. I reeled very quickly as if the lure was afraid….the marlin came after it and hit it again. Once again it didn’t get hooked, so I let the lure back about 20 feet “free spooling” the reel making the lure look as if it were an injured fish. When I stopped it the marlin hit it hard and was hooked. The reel erupted in noise as the marlin stripped the green 80 pound test line from it. It was Choppa’s turn to fight and he was strapped into the stand up fighting belt and harness in no time. The marlin wasn’t ready and it kept on taking out line as the other crew and I took in the other lines in order to slow down and turn towards the fish.

David did a good job of fighting with Tony holding the strap on the belt just to make sure we didn’t lose him over the side if the fish made a big run. John did his usual calm and sensible coaching of both the crew and captain and we all fought that marlin to the boat fairly quickly. It wasn’t hooked very well and was easy to release once we had taken the mandatory photo. In this tournament you are provided with cameras which you must use to record the fish as you release it. This way you are sure to get the 300 release points. We had done it and had now 300 under our belt. The leader at that point had 647so we were not out of the contest and were now full of enthusiasm and ready to catch more. We fished that area for a while longer without any luck and then decided to go to a FAD that we knew about from last year half way to Barbuda. On the way there was a spot I marked on my GPS chart plotter called “Marlin” and was where we caught the big one last year. Like clockwork we got a big strike as we passed the spot. The fish got off and we made another run over the spot. Once again we had a strike and Tony was on the rod fighting in his usual expert style in no time. This time however the fish “spat the hook” and Tony was left in great disappointment and with just a lure on the end of his line. “Lines back out” was the call and we were fishing again towards the FAD. Up ahead I saw my uncle’s boat “Nicole” and gave him a shout as we got close to the FAD. Nothing was happening with either of us and there didn’t seem to be fish around it at all. This wasn’t a good sign at all and after 45 minutes we turned back to head for the spot marked “marlin”. The toll of the past few days had torn away at me and fatigue was setting in big time. All of the crew had taken rests, and I knew that I had to rest. Tony took over driving and I lay down on the floor next to the consol. It took me a while to doze off and I think just at the time when I fell asleep a marlin decided to bite rod #1. The fish released it immediately just as Tony got to it. He let the line run back imitating a dead or injured fish. I took over and he got back to the helm. I reeled in quickly and as I was doing that the marlin attacked. This time the marlin was obviously more charged and starting taking a good amount of line. I usually speak about the reel screaming, but the ratchet noise this time was more like a fine symphony. We fishermen long for the music made by line being peeled off a reel. It ignites adrenalin, action, excitement and joy, fear and many other things all at once. Once again it was Choppa’s turn and he had the marlin under control in quick time once again. This time however the fish had not only taken more line but was also taking longer to come to the boat. We fought the fish for over 30 minutes this time and I could see that David was getting tired. As the fish got closer it changed direction several times and I had to work to keep the fish at the right angle and position to the boat.

Once or twice I had to make sharp movements in order to prevent the fish from going under the boat. It was a battle and we were ready for it which made it even more enjoyable. Finally John had the leader. According to International Game Fishing Association rules this now counted as a release, but in our tournament we not only needed to grab the leader but we needed to also get a photo. The second condition of our tournament rule was never to be accomplished because as John held the leader tight the fish made a dash under the boat and pulled free of the hook. We could see it right beside the boat but couldn’t get its head out of the water for the photo, and with the camera in my hand I had to watch it as it swam off missing a bit of skin from its lip. The hook was just hanging on all this time and we were now still stuck at 300 points officially. I told the boys that they had done an excellent job and as far as I was concerned we had just released our 4th blue marlin for the week. That was to be our last strike of the day and as the clock ran out towards 16:30 hours so did our chance of winning the tournament. Team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate had done everything right and was totally prepared, but it wasn’t to be. Back at the dock we heard all the stories and made sure to make good use of the free rum bar put on by Mount Gay. Captain Frank Hart running his boat “Overdraft” was overall winner with biggest blue marlin at 347 lbs as well as most releases.

He also had a grand slam on Sunday with a spearfish and a Blue and white marlin release. All in all it was a fun event and we did well. On behalf of my excellent team I would like to thank Caribbean Real Estate for helping us take part in this years 41st Annual Sport Fishing Tournament. For more photos and reports please check http://www.antiguabarbudasportfishing.com/. The photos of the fighting above were taken by Big John and the fish back at the dock by me. I am sorry I haven’t been writing as often this week. I have been getting ready for an art show which opens tomorrow afternoon (FRIDAY) at woods gallery. Some of my photos will be on display.

The 41st Annual Fishing Tournament (part 2)

Continued from yesterday…..

We were about two miles north east of the bank and Tony was sitting in front of rod #2 on the port transom, and the rest of the crew all close to the other rods. Rod #2’s marlin lure, a maverick “top gun” was only 25 feet behind the boat in the middle of the wake’s white water. He had just let out a little line and was testing the drag or line tension when we a monster marlin shot across the wake and attacked the lure with its massive bill. Tony let out a yell and we all looked just in time to see the beast. Its huge head and bill came out of the water right at the back of the boat slashing the water as it shook its head back and forth almost like a bit bull. The fish was significantly larger than any we had ever seen before, and the bill’s thickness made the one I still have from last year’s 589 lb marlin look small. As she shook her head and bill looking as if it were in a pre-historic sword fight I knew she could “spit the hook”. Very little line was being taken out and John yelled at me to speed up which was the right thing to do. Without proper tension on the line as she shook so violently the hook could get slack and come out. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened and the line went slack. This all took about 8 seconds to happen and we will remember each of those seconds for years to come. The marlin was probably a grander (thousand pounds or more) and as we had never seen one before all of us were in a kind of daze or state of shock. What would have happened if one of the two 12.0 hooks had sunk in properly? Of our 5 rods, three were filled with 80 lb test line and two used 50 lb. Of course this was one of the 50s and the battle would have been long and hard. It took us over two hours of incredible battle to land our 589 lb marlin last year on the same rod and reel so this one would have tested us like nothing before. We tried to gain composure as we called in the strike on the VHF. We had to make a few more runs over the same spot just in case it hadn’t been too spooked by the event and wanted more. Two other boats including “Wa’apen” came by hoping for the same thing. On our first pass we actually got a strike in exactly the same spot. This time it was on a lure way back in the spread and we didn’t see the fish. It took about 10 feet of line and came off. On our third pass with “Wa’apen” right next to us we saw one of their rods bend. Their crew scrambled to get the other lures in and we screamed and yelled in frustration and anger with the thought that they had hooked our monster. We watched in despair as they fought it, but I could tell pretty quickly that it wasn’t the same fish. Very quickly they were gaining line and I told my boys that there was no way that it was our fish. Line wouldn’t be coming back on that reel so easy if it was a grander. Sure enough 10 minutes later they called in that they had landed a yellowfin tuna. Sushi was gonna be served later at their apartment.
We searched and searched for the rest of the afternoon without finding a marlin and at 4:30 we returned home without a single blue marlin release.

Even with 6 wahoo and 3 big mahi mahi we were all feeling a bit down about not getting a good chance on the marlin. It was Francis’ turn too and I am sure that he would have done a good job of fighting that beast. A fishing story would be a fishing story without the “big one getting away” section and you have just had it. The free rum did help us liven up the mood back at the dock and the party atmosphere was all good fun. Before long team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate

was ready for more action the next morning, and had made a plan to meet at the boat at 4 am the next morning. Lines were permitted to go in the water at 5:30 and it would take us that long to get to the spot marked “GRANDER” on our GPS map.

(the fishing photos here today were taken by by mom. see her other photos on her flickr site.)

The 41st Annual Fishing Tournament

Friday’s registration was a fairly low key event with skippers and some of the crew taking part after drinking heavily at the free rum bars that were set up by Mount Gay on the dock. Who’s idea was that? Free rum drinks for fishermen? Wow…..i think I can remember some of the things that were said at the briefing, but it seems like a very long time ago at this point. Phillip Shoul, the chairman of the Antigua Sport Fishing Club welcomed all the boats before going through some of the rules, divisions and prizes. There seemed to be about 10 boats from other islands and about 25 from Antigua. After the skippers meeting I made sure that team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate knew the plan and was all set to meet up in the morning.

Big John had quite a bit of work to do in setting up the smaller baits and tony had to organize lunch. Francis and David (choppa) were staying near the boat and we were all going to meet up for 5:30 am the next morning. There was a bimini start the first morning where all the boats line up at the entrance of the harbour and race out together towards their secret fishing spots. There was two of three boats with similar power and size to Xtreme and it was setting up to be a fun start to the event. As we listened to the countdown on the VHF nerves rattled and choppa broke the silence with his “war call” which sounded more like a mix between a parrot and chimp call. Anyway, with smiles wide we hit the throttles all the way down at 0 seconds and flew out the entrance with 35 or so boats behind us. Going into 6 foot waves at 40 knots was a majour rush and we continuted at similar speeds for 16 miles straight out into the Atlantic where we had marked our FAD position the day before. Staying right next to us the whole way was Wa’apen, a boat from St. Barts, which had done the event several times in the past. They knew that being a local boat we would have a good spot and followed us for almost the entire day. We got to the FAD and fished it for about 45 mintes without a strike. We saw nothing and the action we had the day before didn’t materialize. Ms Ashley which is owned by Phillip Shoul came up and past us going even further east and we kept an eye on him even as he started disappearing below the horizon. You have to call in all of your fish on the VHF radio to the organizers and if I heard phillip calling in fish I would have gone up to him. We did anyway thinking that he may be fishing another FAD up there. Half way up to him we had a strike but very quickly could tell it wasn’t anything big. It was a small wahoo. These fish are only found out in the deep when there is a floating object around. Wa’apen was fairly close and when I called in the fish they made a turn to come closer. We were both looking for the floating object. Before we saw it we had another wahoo strike but the fish managed to get off. We quickly changed some of the lures from massive marlin lures to smaller ones which had Tobago flying fish beneath them. These lures are better for catching wahoo and mahi mahi which were sure to be around the floating object. Just then I spotted it and told the guys to stand by. As soon as I uttered the words we had fish on. Mahi mahi were jumping behind the boat. For another hour or so we had manic action catching and losing fish, bringing lines in, changing baits, pulling fish into the boat, cleaning, yelling….. This photo below was taken this Easter when we had three mahi on at the same time and gives you an idea of how it would have looked (minus the back row of seats.)

It was total madness as it always in when you find a big bit of flotsam that is supporting a massive school of fish. Wa’apan was catching them too and both of us had to keep track of where the flotsam was. It was a wooden shipping pallet covered with barnacles. There were probably hundreds and hundreds of wahoo spread up to a mile away from it feeding on flying fish and tiny bonito. We could see them jumping out of the water and the frenzy was in full swing with baby flying fish being close to the visual bottom of it and Wa’apan and Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate at the top. It was starting to be a slaughter and the crew had blood all over their nice new fishing tournament shirts provided by Caribbean Real Estate. John who is first mate on our team and I had a quiet discussion while the others faught a mahi mahi. We agreed that although this was fun and was winning us points in the overall sport division, it wasn’t what we were really here to do. We were here to catch big marlin we had no chance of doing that here. With some hesitation we all decided to move on in search of a big blue marlin. We left the bite as hot as we had found it and had about 150 lbs of wahoo and mahi mahi in the fish box. In fact it was so hot that one of our mahi mahi had actually swallowed both Tony’s and Francis’ baits at the same time. They both faught the big mahi to the boat and then argued for the next 20 minutes about who’s fish is actually was. With the big lures out we were back on track towards the famous “little bank” also known as the “east bank” where the little tuna congregate and the marlin gather to feed on them. Once again “Wa’apan” was following us. On the way there John and I spotted a big fishing crate floating and although there were some fish around it there were no wahoo or mahi so we kept on going to the bank. We passed a spot where last year we had landed a small marlin but nothing happened. We got to the bank and started working it with our buddies “Wa’apan” from St. Barts cloaking us. For an hour we saw nothing at all and the adrenalin packed action of earlier in the morning was taking its toll on the boys. Choppa was passed out cold and Big John was looking tired too. Marlin fishing can be very slow but we all knew this and were still ready for anything that would come our way. I had a nice text from Teddy D. up in the USA wishing us luck and telling me he was following the blog. We could hear the other boats calling in strikes. The Nightwing fishing charter boat “Vitamin B” owned and operated by Mike Piggot (spelling ouch) was having lots of action and we were happy for him. Jolly Harbour massive!!!
My dad had also been having some action and had released one blue already. They had lost a big one too due to equipment failure. I could tell he wasn’t happy which was expected. Follow Me 4 from St. Martin had landed a blue marlin which meant that it was probably over 300 lbs and local fishing charter Overdraft owned by Frank Hart was doing well too. We were trying not to get too frustrated but with nothing happening it wasn’t easy. We took a longer run than normal North-east from the bank towards the thousand fathom (6000 feet) drop off and then it happened. Read about “IT” tomorrow.

the last training day

Well today is the last day before The Antigua and Barbuda Sport Fishing Tournament. It is the 41st year that the club has been holding these events and this year looks like it will be a pretty big one with entries from most of the nearby islands taking part. Of course if you have been reading the previous blog entries then you will know that our company is sending off one of its boats to compete once again and has been doing quite a bit of preparation and training. Team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate has been on the water four times now including this morning’s session. Our lures, rods, reels and crew are all polished and totally ready to win this event and today we solidified our confidence by catching and releasing another marlin. We took the boat up from Jolly Harbour at about 7 am this morning and set out South of Falmouth Harbour once we had gotten up the coast. We were looking for FADs (as explained earlier this week) as well as blue marlin. We searched and searched pulling our huge marlin lures over miles of Atlantic without any luck only spotting some atlantic spotted dolphins jumping next to the boat. I tried to get my cam out but by the time i got it all set up i only could manage the one funny looking shot above. At about 11:30 we found a FAD out in the middle of nowhere obviously set by some French fishermen from Guadeloupe. After marking it on my GPS we trolled up to a mile away from it in criss crosses hoping to hook up with a marlin that may have been feeding near to the FAD. After about 25 minutes when we were starting to lose interest the top rod with the famous Black Bart “Grander Candy” lure started to scream as a big fish tried to pull of all its line. I looked back about a hundred meters behind and saw a big silver flash beneath a wave as john let out a expletive signaling that we had lost the fish. The big marlin had “spat the hook” as they say, but it have us some home that there may be some action at this FAD after all. I re-traced my GPS track a few more times and a little while later we saw a huge yellowfin tuna rocket out of the water just off our port side. There were fish here, and we decided to give it a few more runs. All of a sudden rod #1 took started making a hellish noise as the line started vanishing from its gold spool…this line loss could only come from a blue marlin and we were hooked into a good one once again. This time it was Tony on the rod, and in no time he was in the harness and fighting with David helping out. Tony did a text book example of proper stand-up marlin fighting and had the fish at the boat within 25 minutes.

It was a fairly short stout fish which they all said had to be about 250 lbs. We easily took the hook out and gave it a little pull through the water before it sped off with a few waves of its tail.

For the second time this week we had released a blue marlin and once again we were all elated. We had nothing more to do today and knew that it was time to go in.

Team Caribbean Real Estate was gonna register for the tournament and relax with our deserved confidence to carry us through until the bimini start tomorrow. There will be free rum on offer thanks to Mount Gay from 4:30 pm today until the skipper’s meeting at 6:30 pm. Of course our Xtreme team has to take part in all aspects of this tournament so I will post this entry and be off. Rum cant be released! I will try to post something about tomorrow’s fishing later tomorrow when we get in. “Tight lines”.

the team in training - part 2

Continued from yesterday’s blog entry:

Upon hitting the drop off below the famous bank, Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate set out the big marlin lures hoping that we would finally get “a release”. A release is when you hook up and fight a blue marlin all the way to the boat and then release it alive. The mood was excellent even though it was a little choppy out in the Atlantic, and the boys were ready. We decided to fish a place that has been called “Frank’s Hole” which is a deep trench very close to the drop off. Frank Hark of overdraft is a famous fisherman here and had spent many tournament days looking for marlin there. We made north-south runs over the trench hoping to pull a big marlin out of the dark waters below, but nothing seemed to happen. On one of our last runs in before taking an easterly turn towards the bank I saw a piece of plywood floating several boat lengths away. I told the boys to stand by as I knew that mahi would be around it. Sure enough as we approached we could see the amazing blues and greens that always give the mahi (dolphin fish) away. Within seconds we had three 20-25 lb mahi mahi on the lines peeling off line and jumping behind the boat. We managed to land two and the third pulled free right beside the boat. These fish are so delicious and colourful that the mood became elevated once again.
“Lines back out” I shouted and we were fishing for marlin again very quickly. We had seen Frank’s boat “Overdraft” out earlier and called them with the GPS position of the ply so that they could come and catch some mahi mahi for their Jumby Bay guests. We didn’t have any bait and since we were only using artificial lures the chances of catching more mahi was pretty slim. The situation at “the bank” was very unusual with no birds or typical schools of little tuna. We fished there for several hours hoping to find a big blue. After all this was our all time best spot for finding blue marlin and so far we had nothing to show for it. Back and forth from the 3500 depths towards the shallow bank and nothing was spotted at all. The boys were very hungry and choppa and francis actually had cut a small fillet of mahi mahi, dropped it into some vinegar and salad dressing and were having a pre-lunch snack. Tony and John didn’t feel like trying some of the boy’s sushi and chose to wait a little longer for lunch.
Later lunch came and passed and we still had no sign of a marlin……or anything else for that matter. The seas got rougher and we started getting pretty wet. Coming from way upwind of us a small boat was spotted by Tony appearing now and again as it crested the big atlantic waves. These French fishermen were crazy. Fishing illegally 60 miles from home in little open boats was normal for them, but no antiguan would dream of doing the same. I kept an eye on them and noticed them stop way off in the distance South of the bank. I told Big John that we would go have a closer inspection in case they were fishing a hidden FAD out there. As we got closer I saw them pulling huge mahi mahi into the boat and told the boys to get ready. We didn’t see any FAD buoys or anything else floating which would tell us why these mahi mahi were here, but once our lines started screaming we knew something must be close. We ended up losing one of the fish but landed a nice wahoo. The fishermen waved us off as if to say that this was their special spot. Just looking at their French fishing registration made me a little agrivated but actually being told to leave the area almost made me laugh out loud. I made sure we got even closer on the next pass and then we saw the object in the water. It was a huge piece of semi submerged natural rubber and the fish were congregating all around it and the French fishermen. We hooked up with another wahoo and the French guys decided to pull out in case I had called the coast guard. We made several more passes hooking up with crazed wahoo one after another. We had no bait and were using large marlin lures which made us lose many of our hookups. Big John had ordered a very special lure from California which took weeks to get here just in preparation for the tournament this weekend. The massive lure made by Black Bart was very similar to the Grander Candy that he had gotten the year before. We had so much luck with the Grander Candy that we were hoping for great things with this lure until it got bitten clean off by a wahoo. The wahoo’s teeth are the shapest of any fish in the sea and one had hit the line above the leader cutting the entire thing off. John was devastated, and I tried to remind him that this was all part of fishing. It can be an incredibly expensive and frustrating game. We landed another wahoo close to big chunk of flotsam and trolled off a little further on the next run. As had been happening over the past hour at regular intervals we got a fast strike very similar to the rest, but this one didn’t slow down. The boys shouted “MARLIN” and I saw it slashing the water about a hundred yards behind the boat. Choppa was quickly in the harness and fighting while the others quickly brought in the other lines. I turned towards the fish and we were fighting. Tony held on to the back of his harness and quietly coached him while Choppa struggled with the blue marlin. This was something that we had waited for three days of fishing for and were all very excited. The fish was well behaved and within 30 minutes we had the marlin near the boat.

Big John grabbed the 25 foot long 300 lb test leader and brought the fish alongside and grabbed the bill. As he did that the fish went ballistic thrashing about and hitting the side of the boat.

John who is a good few pounds over 200lbs himself was getting thrown about like a lightweight, and all of us were happy it was not us in such a close battle with a blue marlin.

Its sharp bill has been known to so terrible damage, and we let it chill out before I tried to get the hook. Francis took photos and I finally took the hook out. The fish was very tired and we put the boat in gear so that we could pull the fish though some water in order to revive it a bit. The colour started becoming more vibrant and we knew it was ready to swim off again free to fight another day. WE estimated the fish to be about 200 lbs and were all delighted to have had such a good opportunity to practice catching a beautiful blue just days before the tournament. We went back to the GPS spot I had marked where the flotsam was and decided to go for a swim. We had heard our neighbors call sign on the VHF radio earlier and called them to let them know where we were. They were 3 miles away and coming to find this thing. While we waited for them we swam with the object. The wahoo circled all around the boat below and thousands of small fish tucked close together hoping to avoid the inevitable. There were huge triggerfish and triple tail too. The mahi mahi had moved on but we were sure there were other fish nearby too. Once back on board we were very satisfied and although we could have stayed longer catching more…we decided to head home charged and ready for this weekend’s action.

Team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate was on top once again.

the team in training

Tuesday was the third marlin practice session for team Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate and the excitement as we left port was fever pitched. Tony, Big John, Francis, Choppa were all on hand with me to set out in search of the target species for the 41st annual Antigua Sport Fishing Tournament. Registration is just a few days away and although we didn’t release any marlin in our previous two practice runs, this morning we were more confident than ever. On our first practice run last week we went out in search of some FADs and managed to only find one. A FAD or a fish aggregating device is essentially an anchored bit of debris both floating and submerged which attracts a massive variety of small fish. They are usually set way out off-shore in secret locations usually in depths of about 2000 feet. This means that the average length of rope is usually 6000 feet (2000 meters). Wherever there are many small fish there will always be larger ones and FADs can be places of great excitement and bounty. Most are set illegally in our waters by fishermen from our neighboring French island; Guadeloupe. My dad and his friends caught 18 mahi mahi at a FAD several weeks ago in just 3 hours. Mahi Mahi was the special on all the menus in Antigua that week. Anyway, not only do Mahi Mahi hang out there but tuna, wahoo and even marlin too. While looking for a FAD which we had marked with our GPS last year, we managed to hook up with a small Blue Marlin. The fish which we estimated to be about 150 lbs jumped and thrashed a bit before releasing itself. Within seconds the fight was over. We searched for more FADS that we had marked a year earlier and of the 6 we looked for we only managed to locate one which didn’t seem to have any fish about it. We caught several cudas and one mahi by the time the day was over, but no marlin. The day managed to be productive in many ways and the practice was good for us all. Marlin fishing isn’t easy at all. Anyway on our second run after the party on Saturday night, we managed to leave after lunch in search of the same blue marlin target. We hooked up with a good wahoo way out in the deep which is usually more suited towards blue marlin than wahoo. We thought for sure that it was a marlin until the fish stopped peeling line off the reel. Once it slowed we knew it wasn’t a huge fish, and were quite surprised to see it was a wahoo as it came to the boat. We had started fishing at about 2 pm and it had been very slow most of the day. We were looking for blue marlin and hadn’t seen a sign of one at all. Just before sunset we spotted some frigate birds doing their acrobatic displays of unique flying fish catching and knew that there were bigger fish below. We approached and managed to hook up immediately expecting to find a mahi at the end once we had retrieved the line. Instead it was a massive Black Fin Tuna. Once we had landed it and bled it we were off at 35 knots back towards Jolly Harbour which was about 25 miles from us. Watching the setting sun from the sea has always been one of the things I love most….especially when you have fish to share up back at the dock. No marlin though and as the sun sank below the dark waves a tiny bit of unease set in about our poor marlin catching luck. We had to get one before the tournament in order to get the Xtreme morale back to its deserved level. Tuesday was our third practice day and the entire Xtreme Caribbean Real Estate team was ready. The plan was slightly different and we fished the plan as we usually do.

Very quickly we ran into action and later I will tell you about it. Check back early tomorrow morning and i will have filled you in on the days events.