Another crazy decision (possibly illegal) by a "caring" government.

First of all, when I speak about the government in this case, I am speaking about the men and women who make up the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda. You can see who these people are by clicking this link.
Anyway, Antigua and Barbuda has quite a large area of coastline that is legislated as Marine Protected Areas. One such place is the NEMMA and you can read something i wrote about the North East Marine Management Area by clicking here.
If you read that article you will see that while our government is quick to take international funds needed to set up marina protected areas, they are not so quick to accomplish their side of the bargain. NEMMA remains noticeably unchanged and many including myself would say its marine eco systems have never been in such poor shape with a huge increase in uncontrolled and unsustainable fishing being done within the park. There is no visible or noticeable management of any marine protected area in Antigua. If someone can show me that I am wrong then I would be delighted.
The point of this article is not only to show a dramatic failure of this government to set up their marine parks and specifically the NEMMA which they received money to do, but it is also to highlight one of the many major failures in that respect. In this case I will be speaking about spearfishing which according to the laws of Antigua and Barbuda is totally illegal unless the person spearfishing has a permit from the Chief Fisheries officer. I am not 100% sure but I think that back in 1999 a cabinet decision was made that the Chief Fisheries officer was not to give any of these special permits. So not only is spearfishing illegal, but it is being done within the Marine Protected Areas.

The photo above was taken by the guys at 365antigua.com on Windward Beach in Falmouth and shows a typical catch after an hour or two of spear fishing.
This week I had a guest on one of my boats who told me that he met some men coming out of the water at long bay with their spear guns and a huge collection of speared fish. Most of them were parrot fish too. Anyway, he told them that he used to be an avid spear fishermen himself and asked if he could pay them to take him the next day. They agreed and took him spearfishing for 5 hours the following day.
This week I also was in English Harbour and saw someone i recognized from one of the visiting yachts walking down the street with his snorkeling gear and his spear gun. This wasn't a local spear fishermen and I was surprised to see him just walking down the street with an illegal spear gun as if there was nothing wrong with it. Of course I had no reason to be surprised. 

Recently I spoke with Chief Fisheries officer, Cheryl Jeffrey –Appleton, about spear fishing that was being done inside the marine parks. She expressed great frustration and told me that the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda met recently and made and executive decision that the laws regarding spear fishing in our waters would no longer be enforced. Surprised, I asked for clarification, and she said that people with or without fishing licenses or permits from her would be able to spearfish anywhere around our waters. Again, I asked for clarification specifically asking if people would be able to fish within marine protected areas like NEMMA and Bird Island for example. She said they were instructed by this executive order not to enforce any of the laws surrounding spearfishing. She clearly didn't support this decision and when I spoke with other fisheries officers they too were against this decision and were totally surprised at the decision permitting people to spearfish.
Before anyone comes to the wrong conclusion about my views on spearfishing I would like to explain them. I believe that spearfishing should be legal but should be carefully managed and monitored so that it would only be permitted within certain areas and that only certain fish would be targeted.
As a kid I spearfished regularly and know how indiscriminate you can be if you want to be. A spear gun is no different than any other gun in that you point at your target, pull the trigger and shoot to kill. It doesn't matter what that target is and it's up to the person pulling the trigger to consciously make the decision to pick species and the sizes, and its up to them to also decide where to use the gun and where not to. Without the coast guard or fisheries division checking there is plenty of room for problems.
I see people regularly shooting all species and all sizes in various different areas including within marine parks.
I think that Marine Parks, regular dive sites and tourism related snorkeling sites which only make up a tiny tiny fraction of the marine environment should be off limits to any sort of fishing. Areas where fishing is permitted should be free to various types of fishing including spear fishing if managed properly.
Although this is my opinion, it is not that of the Chief Fisheries officer. I have been told by a Cabinet Member that she has written a report on why spearfishing is currently illegal in Antigua and why it should not only remain illegal but why the laws should be enforced. This is key because as we all know enforcement is the only thing that matters.
I spoke to this Cabinet Minister to find out why the decision was made to tell The Fisheries Department, the Coast Guard and by extension the Police to not enforce the laws about spearfishing. According to the Minister i spoke with today, the Cabinet Minister responsible for Fisheries spoke before Cabinet claiming to be representing the Fisheries Ministry asking that the Cabinet members vote to stop enforcing the laws so that people would be able to spearfish once again. The minister I spoke with said that he and the other ministers didn't have any background info about spearfishing and trusted that the Minister was representing the Fisheries Ministry and all of their technicians. It was only after the decision was made that it came to light that this decision was not supported by the Chief Fisheries Officer who then presented her report. I'm not sure where this report was presented but I hope to publish a copy of this report in the near future.
I could go on and on about why this possibly illegal Cabinet decision is bad for our country, but I will simply say that one of the reasons that many of our snorkeling sites are in trouble in this tourism based economy is that spearfishing and other forms are uncontrolled. Snappers and groupers are almost extinct in Antigua and the reefs and beaches are in decline. If you think that my statement about snorkeling sites are based on opinon and not on fact, I suggest you do some research. Go on tripadvisor's forum for Antigua and search for "snorkeling". What do you see our visitors saying about Antigua's snorkeling? The sad reality is that the only good snorkeling in Antigua is done by boat now because all the shore sites are over fished.
This decision is a slap in the face to everyone involved in tourism and to the Fisheries Department too. In fact, the biggest victims in all of this are the people who will probably never get a chance to see many of the fish that are being targeted.
I am sure that the Cabinet decision was one made in haste without proper information and should be revisited immediately. I will try to publish the report soon.

West Indies Sail - Home Video of Traditional Sailing Caribbean Style

First West Indies Sail regatta was perfect.

Eight traditionally built wooden boats all crafted in the West Indies met this past weekend at The Antigua Yacht Club for the first West Indies Sail. Our boat Zemi is out of the water getting ready for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in April and we were asked to race on Pipe Dream which was recently resurrected by owners of other West Indian work boats here on Antigua. Anyway, the event came off exactly as planned with a huge amount of interest in taking part. The one race was a bit challenging as the wind was doing funny things. We were becalmed three times but this gave us time to drink our rum stocks down to nothing while enjoying being out on these authentic work boats as a group. Enjoy the photos I took during and after the race. As you can see, fun was had by all. Remember if you would like to come sailing on one of these amazing boats you can check www.adventureantigua.com and contact us from there.

Antigua's interesting ecology (published in Liat's magazine ZING)

I looked high and low on my hard drives and in my emails for this article but couldn't find it anywhere. It's a good thing Zing had it on their website still. Anyway, I am publishing it here on my blog so it will be more easy to find and so that you may have a read if you like:

Eli Fuller is a third generation Antiguan who lives and plays on Antigua’s North Shore where his grandfather built the Lord Nelson Beach Hotel in the late 1940s. Eli spent most of his childhood boating around Antigua and Barbuda. Snorkelling was also a favourite and Eli was wearing a mask before he learned how to speak. When Eli was 12 years old he learned how to windsurf and began competing internationally later that year. In 1988 he was given the opportunity to represent Antigua in the games of the XXIVth Olympiad, held in Seoul, South Korea. He was 16 and the youngest competitor in the windsurfing division. After subsequently traveling all over the world competing at windsurfing tournaments, he began to miss island life and his family. Once home he realised that his love for Antigua, its ecology and history, coupled with his life experience, made him extremely well qualified to start his own tour business and so Adventure Antigua was born. Eli’s carefully designed eco-tours are now often the highlights of many people’s trip to Antigua.



The nation of Antigua and Barbuda has an intriguing and distinct ecological makeup. Keeping in mind that the country is actually made up of two larger islands and an unusually large collection of smaller ones, you will understand why its fascinating and different environments come together into something so beautifully unique in the Caribbean.
Let’s start with a geographical description of the country to give you a better idea as to why the natural side of the county is so fascinating. Firstly, the two main islands. Antigua and Barbuda sit on the same continental shelf with about 26 miles of shallow waters connecting them. On either side of the islands and their connecting shelf, the water drops off into abyss-like depths that contain a massive variety of life. Many people forget about Redonda, which is a small island about 30 miles to our west which is also part of the county. It sits on its own continental shelf and makes up the massive triangular territorial and ecological zone connecting Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda.
The three islands are different to each other in almost every aspect. Antigua is made up from limestone and volcanic rock with a slice of clay between them. Having both limestone and volcanic rocks on the same island is unusual and helps give it unique habitats.
Barbuda is totally made up of limestone rocks with nothing above 38 meters above sea level on the island. Caves, beaches and mangrove habitats provide a wealth of ecology that has yet to be properly documented.
Redonda is the most unusual in terms of its geographic makeup and is simply a huge volcanic mass of rocks pushing up from the sea. With its steep rocky cliffs and high top it supports a very interesting variety of plants and animals with its bird life being the most impressive.
Antigua is the largest island within the country. There are more bays and coves than any other in the Caribbean, and they say we even have 365 beaches. In the south, the volcanic side of the island, the landscape is hillier and as a consequence, often wetter. This has led to very different territorial eco- systems, with one area called Fig Tree Drive being described as the rainforest. Visitors can take taxi and jeep tours through the area to get a better look at some of the lush and tropical vegetation that one would expect in a rain forest. Although there are no perennial streams or rivers, you will see some little ones in that area during wetter periods.


The north and east of Antigua have been carved from limestone rock, and with that you will see many reefs, rocks and little islands off-shore. Quite a few of these islands are large enough to be habitable. One of them is the private Long Island, also known as ‘Jumby Bay’, where one of the Atlantic’s best scientific sea turtle studies has been taking place for over 20 years. The endangered hawksbill turtles come here to nest each year between May and November and a great many fascinating discoveries have been made there. Long Island is one of many protected from the Atlantic within the North Sound, which is a large area enveloped in the calm waters provided by barrier reefs and islands.


One of the most important islands in ecological terms is Great Bird Island, which didn’t get its name by accident. A large and diverse variety of migratory and indigenous birds spend time there nesting and roosting at different times of the year. My favourites are the Red Billed Tropic Birds that only nest on rocky windward facing cliffs that have caves. The windward ledge of the island has numerous small caves and during the winter you will see these beautiful birds coming in to land and take shelter there. Apart from the feathered friends on Great Bird Island, there are also many other life forms that make the island a must see destination on your visit to Antigua.

One of these is the Antigua Racer. The Racer is a totally harmless grass snake which is one of the rarest animals on the planet. The racer has only been found on Great Bird Island, and when the first proper scientific study was carried out back in 1995 only 60 of these animals were accounted for. That was the world’s entire population of Antigua Racer snakes! Anyway, much has been done for the little guys since then and you may be lucky enough to see one some day.


Nearby is Rabbit Island , where you won’t find a single rabbit, but you will find many more birds including our local brown pelicans which nest here during the early summer months.


Another few hundred meters to the south is Antigua’s largest offshore island called Guiana, with its vast expanse of mangrove habitat. There are several types of mangrove plants with the red variety, which sends its long roots into the sea, being most important for juvenile fish, crabs, lobster and other aquatic life.
Much of the sea life you will find in the waters surrounding the country’s territorial zone is sustained by mangrove habitats which is where a huge variety of sea life gets its start.
I could write pages and pages about the food chains and ecological habitats that you will find around Antigua and Barbuda, but to keep it simple I will just say that there is so much more to the country than meets the eye, and if you take the time to have a closer look off the beaten path you will enjoy your experience here so much more.
• For tour details go to www.adventureantigua.com

A Traditional boat regatta this weekend at The Antigua Yacht Club

So the small group of traditionally built West Indian Boat owners are racing this weekend. Our boat Zemi is currently out of the water getting ready for the Antigua Classic Yacht regatta in April and won't be able to make it but the other boats will be there. Here is more from the AYC:

Dear Members,

Please note that on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th March we will be hosting a gathering of West Indies Sail.

On Saturday afternoon the boats will be on the AYC dock from noon and we will be running a bar & BBQ on the lawn from 4:00pm. We are also planning a short film show featuring the boats.

On Sunday there will be a race starting at 1:30 p.m. with prizegiving on the lawn.
All proceeds will go to the Sailing Academy and some of our young sailors will be taking part in the racing. Anybody wishing to race please speak to the boats on Saturday.

All the yachts will be on the AYC dock for the weekend so please note no dockage will be available for other members’ yachts during that period.

Boats taking part will include: Genesis, Summer Cloud, Alexander Hamilton, Pipe Dream, Ocean Nomad, Sweetheart, Good Expectation, At Last.


Kind Regards,
Elizabeth Jordan
Commodore
Antigua Yacht Club
English Harbour
St. Paul's
Antigua
1 268 460 1799 (Office)

Caribbean nations fear ill effects of climate change

A climate change piece done by World Focus on behalf of PBS. I took them boating to see some of the south coast. Local film company www.acquafilms.com gave them additional reef footage. IT's worth having a look and ties in with another blog about how well we are doing in Antigua on the job of wiping out all reef fish in addition to the ones that help make sand and keep the reefs healthy. Coming soon!



www.adventureantigua.com

Rambler breaks Caribbean 600 monohull record (video)

As you know if you read the blog earler this week, (click here) one of our boats was used to chase the RORC Caribbean 600 open ocean regatta as it got started in windy conditions off Antigua. The six hundred mile regatta was probably the most exciting one so far. I followed it after I got back to land on twitter using the tags #rc600 which was almost as exciting as being out there. Anyway, Roddy from Acquafilms.com was doing video for Antigua Sailing Week and shot some amazing acgtion of the winning boat, Rambler. Check some of the action and an interview with the owner and skipper just after they finished the 600 mile adventure:

Carib 600, new monohull record for Rambler from acquafilms on Vimeo.

www.adventureantigua.com

The RORC Caribbean 600 2011 race start highlights (video)

Video highlights shot by www.acquafilms.com on our boat Xtreme yesterday after the start and on the way to Barbuda. 600 miles of open ocean racing.


2011 RORC Carib 600 race start hilights. from acquafilms on Vimeo.

Hundreds of images from the Caribbean 600 Regatta 2011

Today we were chartered by www.acquafilms.com to follow the RORC Caribbean 600. Acquafilms were shooting video for Antigua Sailing week and I was shooting stills. Here are two slide shows of photos taken at the Start of the Caribbean 600 regatta and from the reaching leg from Green Island to Barbuda. Today the winds were blowing hard at the start of the RORC Caribbean 600 sailing regatta. With squalls passing through it was blowing up to 30 knots and it was a real reality check for some racers who were just starting what will be 600 miles of hard core yacht racing through the Eastern Caribbean islands. The 100 foot long RAMBLER was way way faster than all the other yachts as she screamed over towards Barbuda after passing Green Island. Our boat Xtreme is 45 ft long and has tripple four stroke 225 hp engines. We had a tough time keeping up with Rambler as she screamed at speeds of up to 28 knots in 8 foot seas. If you would like more info on the regatta and would like to follow the yachts live check this link.
All of the images below are available in high res digital files. Call or text me on +1 268 725 7263 if you would like to use them.

www.adventureantigua.com

A slide show of Barbuda images.

The slide show below is essentially a collection of images that I took while on visits to Barbuda. Most of the time I visit Antigua's sister island on one of my company's boats, but once in a while I go by plane. If you have any questions about the images please comment below. We don't do any scheduled trips to Barbuda but do many private charters there and visit there for fun as often as we can. Barbuda is a lovely place to take a private charter to if you can handle the 26 mile Atlantic crossing.

A complete free for all when it comes to fishing in Antigua.

This past Sunday a Guadeloupean fishing boat was found drifting not too far from land. A locally registered fisherman came to their assistance and pulled them back to Antigua Slipway in Nelson's Dockyard. It turns out that this same boat was rescued three weeks earlier five miles east of Barbuda by ABSAR. Here is a report from their website:

January 22, 2011 0115L


ABSAR receives a call concerning a 406 EPIRB activation 5 miles east of Barbuda. ABSAR RESCUE 1 responds to the location and tows a 11m fishing vessel to safe harbour. A total of 10 hours and 103 NM were covered during this call out.

ABSAR towed them into Barbuda where repairs were done so that the fishing boat could return to Guadeloupe. The boat was not searched by the coast guard or by fisheries from what I can gather before it left Barbuda. When it was found five miles east of Barbuda they were 195 miles from the international fishing waters east of the island and some sixty miles north of the economic territorial line that stretches between Guadeloupe and Antigua. It doesn't take much to come to the conclusion that this boat was fishing in our waters.
I have not been fishing far east of Antigua or Barbuda within our economic zone without seeing Guadeloupean fishing boats for years. 100% of the time that Antiguan boats fish for tuna and Dolphin fish east of Antigua and Barbuda they either meet Guadelouplean FADs or their boats. Click here for more info on French FAD fishing for tuna and mahi mahi in our waters. See a short video of us passing one of these FADs less than 12 miles off Antigua's coast.

On the day we shot this little video we found 7 other FADs up to 25 miles East of Antigua. Fads have been found from the North side of Barbuda all the way across and east of our island to Guadeloupe.
Anyway, on Sunday when the boat arrived back in boat under tow, our Coast Guard inspected the boat and found hundreds of pounds of fresh fish on board. The ice was almost all melted. The coast guard asked the fishermen if they were fishing further than 12 miles off our coast and the fishermen said that answered that they were further than 12 miles. This was a simple but crucial mistake made by the Coast Guard who were more concerned to see if the boat was carrying drugs than if they were carrying fish. 12 miles is the territorial zone that goes around Antigua Redonda and Barbuda and is not the same as the ECONOMIC zone which unless it borders another nation is in fact 200 miles. This boat was surely not fishing 200 miles off Antigua when it broke down. Their GPS navigation system was mysteriously wiped clean so no proof about where they had been fishing could be gathered. According to someone on the scene, they did have hard copy charts on board which did have FAD coordinates marked within out economic zone.
With their ice melting and the boat needing fuel the captain was able to sell 165 lbs of fresh mahi mahi to one of the biggest fish wholesale companies here in Antigua, buy fuel filters, fuel and ice and leave the country without ever clearing in with immigration or customs, without speaking to customs about selling fish which was allegedly was caught in international waters, and without paying any taxes.
I spoke with Fisheries about this issue and they said that there was no way that they could prove that the fish had been caught in our waters and that the captain of the French boat claimed that he had been drifting for three days. This in my opinion was very weak in my opinion. I would like to see an Antiguan fishing boat try that one in French waters. Anyway, even if they were telling the truth about drifting out of international waters all the way down to the Antiguan coast, why were they permitted to sell their fish here in Antigua?
The boat left Antigua on Monday and is at this moment calling Pan-Pan out to sea adrift once again. I'd be interested to see if the Montserrat or St. Kitts coast guard and Fisheries departments are as friendly to foreign fishermen as ours are.
Two times in less than a month and this boat was only ever spotted by our authorities because they broke down. Every single day of the year boats from Guadeloupe and from St. Barts are fishing in our waters, and there is little wonder that our local fishermen refuse to call the coast guard or Fisheries to complain. Why should they waste their time?
While Antigua's fishermen fish inshore for meager pickings the Guadeloupean's are taking huge catches while fishing our waters. This all seems to smell less of fish and more of poor government planning and incompetence and one more time where this blog points missed financial opportunities for our Government.

Antigua Barbuda Search And Rescue saves the day.

The best way to see what's happening here on Antigua is to find the latest copy of Enjoy which is published by the Observer group. It comes out every two weeks and I write a little segment for them in each issue. For Enjoy, I only write about things related to the sea and my last one was about a very an incident that happend out on the The Classic Yacht Sailing Tour that we do.

Here is what was published:

This past week we had a lady out with us on one of our traditional
sailing boats who needed immediate medical attention. We had sailed up
into a beautiful secluded bay far away from everything and were
anticipating a nice relaxed afternoon of sailing. A calm peaceful bay
was just what our guests wanted, but none of us expected that we would
need medical assistance. Secluded as the bay was, we were as far from
the doctors and nurses in St. Johns as we could be. And after calling
the hotel on the closest beach for assistance, I realized that it
would take up to 45 minutes to get our guest into town via taxi or
even ambulance.
The alternative was ABSAR which stands for the Antigua Barbuda Search
And Rescue. Their highly professional team has off road 4x4 jeeps, and
boats equipped with emergency equipment and emergency medical
technicians ready to come to your rescue.
Immediately answering the phone, they said that they were already at
their base at the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, and that they would be
with us in less than ten minutes. This was a much better alternative,
and our guest was comforted by the news. Sure enough, in less than ten
minutes their high speed rescue boat raced around the point into view
and was alongside in no time and preparing to administer treatment.
Our guest was eventually taken back to her hotel under ABSAR's care
and has recovered nicely thanks to their superb help.
Our tour continued on afterwards. These photos were taken later in the day:
Click here

and here.

ABSAR is a purely volunteer and donation driven organization which has
been coming to the rescue of mariners around and off shore Antigua and
Barbuda for years. We are incredibly lucky to have them on standby 24
hours a day, 365 days a year. This week alone ABSAR has aided several
other boats during different emergency situations, and also provided
medical assistance to people on the mainland and on a deserted beach.
In one instance they were helped by Caribbean Helicopters in a
dramatic offshore search and rescue. There can be no doubt that the
people of Antigua and Barbuda and their visitors are safer as a result
of the efforts and expertise of a few good men and women volunteers
who wait for that distress call coming in over the VHF or phone line.
For more information about their organization and how you too can help
them please visit www.absar.org


www.adventureantigua.com 

The Antigua Classic Yacht Tour

Before you watch the video, I have to tell you that the www.sailin-antigua.com website is down and we are using the www.adventureantigua.com site for our sailing business too. Enjoy the amature but fun movie of our Antigua Classic Yacht Tour and look for a new professionally done video of this tour coming soon. AquaFilms will be doing the job as they did with our Xtreme and Eco Tour videos.

Cruise ship time or local time?????

Recently we have had two seperate groups that have missed our Eco Tour boat trip because their watches were set to Cruise Ship time which they say stays according to the time where they started their journey from. In both cases the cruise ships had left from the East Coast of the USA which as many people know is currently "Standard Eastern Time" and is an hour different from what it is normally in the summer and what we are here in Antigua all year long. Our captains and passengers waited and waited but finally had to leave the cruise area to get on with the tour.
We have stated in our email confirmation that all times are in local time.

The time in the Eastern Caribbean stays the same all year long. A good website for people who may be confused is here.
Any specific time that an Antiguan business and especially an excursion busines gives directly to someone coming to visit them will be in local time and is never on cruise ship time. We would have no way of knowing what "cruise ship time" is on the day it comes to Antigua.

All of the cruise passengers we take out on our tours on an almost daily basis at this time of year are either booked through our website or are booked from Shore Trips or Shore Excursions. We have never done business directly with the Cruise Ships. It's in their best interest to confuse people who are trying to book independently which is the last thing that they want. They want keep the huge booking commissions to themselves which is understandable. This won't stop us from providing tours for anyone who wants to book directly or through an agency.

Please check once you have arrived in Antigua what the local time is just to make sure you make our departure time from the ships. Thanks!

Stand Up Paddling is excellent exercise

If you have read most of the postings on this blog (and there are many) you may have come across some posts where I speak about using a stand up paddle board or SUP. Here you can see what the board looks like:

Anyway, when there are waves around those of us who have these boards and love surfing just paddle out to find them. Here you see Nik surfing a lovely wave:

The beauty about surfing on a SUP is that you can paddle on to the wave before you would normally be able to while laying on a regular surf board. This means you can take off and be on the wave further out and away from the critical section of the wave. This gives you time to move around and get perfect positioning on the wave. There are many other reasons that SUP has become so attractive to traditional wave surfers.
The biggest group of SUP users are those that simple paddle on flat water to exercise and explore in the same way that many people kayak. I don't usually show photos or video of myself, but my wife gave me a lovely new waterproof camera for Christmas and it works well on the SUP. This is my first test video. (IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VIEW THE VIDEO WITH MUSIC PLEASE CHANGE THE SETTINGS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE VIDEO FROM 360p TO 460p.) The workout is great and so much more enjoyable that hitting the gym in my opinion.


There are many sizes and shapes of SUP boards depending on what you are planning on doing. The board I am using is a good all around board that you can surf in the waves, do long down wind runs and or just do a little afternoon exploring and exercise. I hope to see you out there.

www.adventureantigua.com 

Adventure Antigua's other eco ambassador.

A little over a year ago it became apparent that I needed to focus more attention on the presentation of the Eco Tour. Over the past few years there had been quite a few changes on the tour with different crew coming and going, and with what seemed to be a never ending series of problems with engines and propulsion systems, I knew I had to invest in the boat and in the crew.

The boat is another story and I am happy to say that she has never run as economically or as reliably, but this blog is about one of the crew changes.

I put some ads in the paper and online and received a resume from a young lady called Nicola Nash. I didn't know her but immediately was interested to meet up and find out more. She sounded like what the Eco Tour was looking for. She had studied Marine Biology in University, had extensive snorkeling and diving experience and already had quite a bit of experience working on similar excursions. She was also genuinely interested in ecology and conservation which is something I am passionate about. I offered to take her on board and she accepted a job as guide on the boat.

When the boat came back in to port on the first day Nicola worked, the skipper called me to have a chat. Captain Shamel, who is always joking around, sounded serious and said that on a scale of one to ten, Nicola was a twelve!! He said that he thought that with some training, Nicola was going to be the star of the Eco Tour show. He was totally right.

Our reviews on TripAdvisor have never been better and the emails singing praise for our eco tour keep coming in on a weekly basis. Here is a passage from an email I received last week (the photo above also came in the email):

Hi Eli and Nicola

Just to say a huge thankyou for making it such a great trip on Tuesday
Nicola.  Your time and patience was fantastic, and it seemed like
nothing was too much trouble for you.  You obviously love your job,
which let's face it, must be one of the best jobs in the world!  Eli -
Nicola is a credit to you, as are the other guys on the boat. Jill and Chris

This was one of many recently on Tripadvisor:

We recently spent a week vacationing with friends in Antigua Eli Fuller's Adventure Antigua Eco-tour was one of the highlights of our stay on this beautiful island. We met so many kind and friendly people, but I don't think we will ever forget our day with tour-guide Nicola and a fantastic crew, and the FUN we had on the ocean! Despite a little rain, the tour took us around the bays and islands of the north and west sides of Antigua for some fascinating ecological info, beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife (both land and aquatic), a bit of snorkeling and shell-hunting, and a wonderful lunch on board. We hope we can return to Antigua soon, and will definitely plan to spend another day on one of Eli's exceptional tours.

When I get a crew member who loves the ocean so much that they actually go back to sea on their days off then I know it's impossible to find anyone better suited to the job. Nicola takes part in sailing adventures and diving during her spare time and is always ready to help out in any environmental endeavors that come up including helping endangered sea turtles.

I poached this photo from her facebook page and shows her helping one of the most famous sea turtle projects in the world over here in Antigua over at Long Island. In case you are trying to figure out what she's up to, she is counting how many eggs the big female sea turtle is laying.
Anyway, find out more about Nicola and our island's ecology on the Eco Tour if you are lucky enough to get out on it while you are in Antigua.

www.adventureantigua.com 

Another lovely review on Tripadvisor

Another very kind person has taken the time to write a lovely review about one of our tours. Remember we have four at the moment. In fact today is one of those rare ones when all four boats are out at the same time. www.adventureantigua.com for more info on these tours.
Here is the review:

“Excellent”

Adventure Antigua

joycerm   7 contributions

Minnesota

Jan 24, 2011

We easily booked this outing several weeks before our cruise. The meeting place is right off the cruise ship dock. We enjoyed hiking, snorkleing, learning about the hawksbill turtle, the birds, etc. We had a wonderful lunch. I would highly recommend this excursion.

If you would like to write one (a nice one ;-) ) you can click on this link.

Dolphin is delish!

This blog is just a "reprint" of something I wrote for the Enjoy which comes out every two weeks with a list of things to do in Antigua as well as some other cool info. You can see all the issues by clicking this link.

Delicious Dolphin? Yes indeed! The Dolphin fish is one of the most delicious of the tropical fish species, so be sure to try some while you’re here in Antigua. First of all, I should tell you that the dolphin FISH is very different from the dolphin mammal (flipper) so don't be alarmed to find it on local menus. To avoid that confusion many restaurants actually adopt the Hawaiian name for the fish: Mahi Mahi.
Other than being delicious, dolphin fish are also absolutely stunning to observe in the wild. The adults average about 4 feet in length and glisten in flashes of turquoise, green and yellow. Although the dazzling colours fade once they are caught, dolphin caught by rod and reel is one of the world’s most sustainable fisheries, which means that it’s one of the most “eco friendly” choices of fish that you’ll find on the menu. While most types of seafood are facing great threat from overfishing, dolphin populations are relatively healthy. The main reason for this is that the dolphin’s reproduction and life cycle is so incredibly fast. A female dolphin just one year old can spawn up to 240 thousand eggs during her season, which lasts several months a year. Within one year of hatching, a "baby" dolphin could be three feet long, and by the time the largest adult dies of old age they will only be about four years old. At that stage a female may weigh up to 35 lbs and a male could be as much as 90 lbs. My dad has the tournament record here in Antigua with a fish he caught two years ago that weighed in at 63 lbs.

Dolphin fish are pelagic which means they live out in the open ocean, and their favorite place to search for food is around Sargasso weeds, flotsam or jetsam. In fact, anything floating in the Atlantic may have tiny shrimp, crabs, squid, baby turtles, and fish living around it, and it is here that the dolphin will catch most of its prey. They also go after fast moving flying fish and small mackerel, swimming up to 40 mph into the schools of prey! Speaking of prey, if you are lucky enough to be feeding on dolphin fish you should make sure that it’s not overcooked. Like most pelagic fish, dolphin meat gets quite dry when cooked for too long. So enjoy your dolphin fillet – or better yet, get out on the water while you are here and catch one yourself!

www.adventureantigua.com

Sunday tours are becoming less unusual for us.

This weekend we have tours on both days with an Eco Tour booked for Sunday. Normally we try to keep the weekends free but we have had so many requests from people that we have started to do more regular weekend trips.



This video shows some of the fun things we get up to and some of the spots we visit on the eco tour. If you think you'd like to come out with us this Sunday, please get in touch through the site or call +! 268 726 6355. Ask about our special resident rates. It's not just Orlando's Disney World that has discounts for residents. Cash in!

A Sailing trip with friends up the coast.

On Saturday I decided to take our traditionally built wooden sloop up to the North coast and invited Roddy from www.acquafilms.com and JD who is usually the skipper of the Xtreme round the island tour. Of course for this kind of sailing trip we needed plenty of cold beer and once that was sorted out we were on our way out of the harbour.
This boat is called Ocean Nomad and is what we do "The Antigua Classic Yacht Tour" with. Simply, if you are interested in going on a sailing tour that's the most authentic Caribbean sailing experience you can get then this is for you. History, ecology, sailing, snorkeling, a great lunch and drinks is all part of this tour. Click here for more and remember to check out the photo page too.

 

These photos were taken with my phone along the way. As you can see, my favorite place so chill is always down low on the lee side of the boat where I can put my "bad leg" up on the cap rail. (sorry about the leg in the shot. lol)

 

The photo below is of us passing Deep Bay, The Royal Antiguan Hotel and Galley Bay.

All of these photos were posted on my twitter account too. I usually post cool stuff i capture on my phone there. Hope you enjoyed the images.

"Eco Tour was one of the highlights of our stay"

Such a nice email to get on a difficult day yesterday. Thanks!


Dear Rebecca, Our friends and we (the 8 of us) are back in the cold and snowy midwestern United States, and can't stop thinking about our recent vacation at Galleon Beach. The Adventure Antigua Eco-tour was one of the highlights of our stay in beautiful Antigua. We met so many kind and friendly people, but I don't think we will ever forget our day with Nicola and your fantastic crew, and the FUN we had on the ocean! In addition, we truly enjoyed meeting Norma-Jean Arey, a Peace Crops Volunteer in Antigua who also happened to be with us on our tour. We exchanged e-mail addresses so we can keep in touch. Maybe we will meet her again someday. We hope to meet you folks again someday too, and we do hope it will be soon! Best wishes to Eli and to all of you at Adventure Antigua, and thank you again for your warm hospitality and the wonderful eco-tour. Sincerely, Gary and Cynthia Deeter Indianapolis, Indiana USA

The latin name is fregata magnificens

"Enjoy" is the latest periodical here in Antigua and Barbuda and it comes out every two weeks as a supplement in the Daily Observer newspaper as well as on it's own. It's target market is visitors to the island and you can find it in many of the hotels and shops as well as online. I write a column every week and this was my last one. IF you are visiting Antigua and want to know what's going on while you are here grab your copy and have a read. For those living here it's a great way to keep you up to date as well. There are some great promotional opportunities as well. 

Imagine being a bird that could only eat fish but couldn’t get wet.... Hard to visualise isn’t it? Antigua and Barbuda has such birds trying to find fish year round, and their story is an interesting one. These birds are unable to take off from flat surfaces and don’t have the normal feather waterproofing that most sea birds have. The Magnificent Frigate Bird also known as Man of War or even Weather Bird lives its life feeding on fish without being able to dive into the ocean like many of their cousins. They accomplish this by using two very interesting fishing methods. The first is very brutish indeed. From a distance they observe other birds capturing fish and at that moment they dive out of the sky as if in a scene like one out of the TOP GUN film, a marvellous display of aerial acrobatics unfolds. Usually the bird that’s worked for the catch is dodging left and right up and down squawking with the Frigate dangerously close behind its tail feathers. Eventually they’re left with no option but to drop the freshly caught fish, and in mid air the Frigate catches the stolen prize and smugly, swallows quickly.

Most of the Frigate’s diet is caught in a less criminal manner with them actually working for it. Out in the deep waters off the continental drop off, big pelagic fish are spotted by the birds who usually are hovering high in the sky. They slowly follow a big mahi mahi, wahoo, marlin or tuna waiting patiently for one of these big pelagic predators to find a school of flying fish. They school in large numbers out in the Atlantic trying to evade a harmful variety of predators. As soon as they are spotted the large predator fish accelerates up to 40 mph right into the middle of the flying fish. None of this has been missed by the frigate who usually is diving out of the sky like a black missile with wings folded for extra speed at this point. At the moment when the flying fish sees the large fish coming, they also accelerate and leap out of the water spreading their large pectoral fins which act as wings, helping them glide away from the jaws of a hungry mahi mahi. Of course some of them fall victim to the frigate birds who catch the fish in mid air during their failed escapes. It’s always amazing to see this drama up close when you are off shore in the Atlantic, and nobody keeps an eye on this dance more than deep sea fishermen. In fact, they spend more time scanning the skies for frigate birds and keeping an eye on them once they spot them than they do looking for fish fish. Find frigate birds feeding out at sea and you will find big fish under them. Each animal out on the ocean has an interesting story to tell, and I hope you enjoyed this one.

All I can say is WOW at this tripadvisor review.

The title of the post on the latest TripAdvisor review for Adventure Antigua is “Great deck hands. No drinks. Little swimming” and the author decided to give us three stars out of five. These days some people look at reviews on Trip Advisor and read between the lines but so many do not and it's reviews like this one that really can hurt a company. It's my opinion that the review is totally flawed because the person obviously decided to go on the wrong cruise. Have a read first:

This boat tour is good for first timers. I am used to private charters and this one is tough if you want to have any freedom. Day is packed full of stops but this can make it feel like you have no time to sit on the beach and enjoy. We only got to swim at a beach around noon. Spent the morning driving to a couple locations and talking wildlife. Skip the Ecotour if you watch the Discovery Channel. You know all of this stuff already.

No drinks on board until 3:00. This is because there is a serious climbing/hiking adventure at Hells Gate around 1:30. I cannot stress enough how this portion of the day is NOT for children. Do not attempt to bring them on this part of the trip. It is extremely dangerous (even for adults). If you have any fear of heights this is not for you!

Lunch is very good. Staff are excellent and very friendly.

All in all, a good day on the water but I'd skip it if you prefer deserted beaches, rum drinks, and floating in blue Caribbean seas.

Clearly the person would have had more fun on a private charter which we do several times a week at this time of the year. Many people charter our boats to go to deserted beaches where they can drink and get sun all day long without hearing one bit about pelicans or any of the other stuff they would have learned on The Discovery Channel. In fact, they would have been better off on either the Xtreme Tour or the Half Day Catamaran cruise too which both spend proportionally more time on the beach and less time hearing "eco mumbo jumbo". The tour they did was called THE ECO TOUR which should have told them something about what to expect. The Eco Tour spends a few hours speaking about turtles and touring the mangrove habitats. Of course we have drinks all day long too, but no ALCOHOLIC drinks until the end. With several snorkeling options we only ever serve alcohol on regular tours after the water activities as a safety measure. This tour was designed around things that we did as kids and I have been taking kids on this tour since 1999. All kids are welcome and enjoy this tour more than most. Man this one didn't make me happy at all. Anyway, that's the nature of this business. We do an alternative tour to the regular ones that traditionally have been on offer here in the Caribbean. We will get fewer people loving it but the ones that like this kind of tour will be very very happy. All of us at Adventure Antigua are extremely proud of this tour and we are happy that many of the other recent TA reviews differ to this one. If you have been out on the tour and enjoyed it please write a review for us too. Thanks!
eli
PS to post a review of your own please click here and to read more about our tours click here.

www.adventureantigua.com  

Happy New Year from the Adventure Antigua team

On behalf of Mykl, Jill, Nell, Rebecca, Julia, Harriette and Co., JD, Shamel, Lindon, Trevor, Chris, Nicola, Jason, Itano, Serge, Natalie, Titou, and Leslie, I would like to thank those of you who helped our 2010 year be such a very good one. We had some very big challenges and some big changes and with them behind us, we have finished the year far stronger than we started. With this in mind we are eagerly looking forward to the new year and hope that we will get a chance to take you out on the water very soon. Thanks again and happy new year to you all!

www.adventureantigua.com

A slide show of images of Redonda

I took these images on a few adventures over to Redonda. I hope you enjoy them.

big ground swells this week in Antigua (forecasting)

There is a new publication in Antigua at the moment called Enjoy which generally has the goal to make sure visitors to Antigua and Barbuda know what's happening during their stay. Anyway, it comes out every two weeks and is put together by The Observer Group of Companies with help from http://www.antiguanice.com/.
I have a regular column in Enjoy and hope that I can interest you to go check it out. Anyway, my last piece was about ground swell and since today Antigua and Barbuda will be getting some huge ground swell, I figure it would be good to "reprint" it here.

Many people are often surprised by the size of the waves or “swells” that can roll into the leeward or Caribbean side of Antigua during the winter months. How can these big waves turn up without warning, coming in from what is clearly the opposite direction of the prevailing winds? These waves are properly called Ground Swells and usually are generated by strong storms up to two thousand miles away in the North Atlantic. In the winter months extremely powerful cold fronts sweep across North American and often turn into low pressure systems or “Nor-Easters” as they roll into the Atlantic Ocean. If you have ever seen the film The Perfect Storm then you know all about how powerful they can be. These large Atlantic storms are the generators of the ground swell and can send waves all the way to the South American coast. Typically we see these swells once a month from November until May with varying frequency and size. All surfers eagerly check sites like http://www.windguru.com/ and know exactly when the swells will arrive in Antigua. Unfortunately the only people who really like ground swell are the surfers as beaches and reefs can take a beating when the swells are really big. Historically many fishermen and mariners have lost boats and even crew by being caught in vulnerable bays or coves when swells have turned up without warning. These days accurate swell forecasting on the internet is so advanced that most yacht skippers and owners manage to move their boats from unprotected bays before the swells roll in. What’s so great about Antigua is that with our famous 365 beaches, off shore islands and barrier reefs, there are always many areas that remain calm even during the biggest ground swells. In fact, it’s beaches on the Atlantic side of Antigua that are usually nicest when the swells are rolling. When the waves are too big at your resort or favourite beach, jump in a car and go explore the south or east side of Antigua. Ground swells usually come in from the North East to the North West and typically only last a few days. They don’t have to keep you off the beach but be careful as they always pack more power than one would expect. If you would like to learn more about how to understand the modern forecasting tools like windguru.com please visit http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2008/07/understanding-windguru-and-weather-in.html

a surf story

As i pulled up to the beach there was what seemed to be a dense fog sitting over the shore. Without a breath of wind, the crashing shore break was sending a fine salty mist into the air giving a strange atmosphere to the pre surfing sunrise.
Within no time we were paddling out to the break in between schools of tiny translucent bait fish some instinctively jumping out of the way. Less than a mile away we could see that the huge barrels coming off the point were already being ridden by the eager dawn patrol. It was to be expected when conditions like these all came together. Our choice of waves this morning was probably not as good as the one up the coast but we were alone and could take our pick of the best this morning had to offer.
So many times when I am out on the water windsurfing, kitesurfing, surfing, sailing, snorkeling, boating or any of the other things that I've been lucky enough to take part in, I see images that people would have a hard time believing as real. If I had a camera in my hand at times like this people would judge the image to have been photoshopped. I mean, if I have a hard time believing what I am seeing, you can imagine how someone else sitting behind a computer screen would feel.
Sitting on my board waiting for the next set to roll in there were so many beautiful things to take in. A small wave crashed past me minutes before, leaving tiny little droplets of water floating on the glassy surface. Without any wind at all to move them they floated until the next pink swell rolled through.
Pink swell? Yes, pink lit up from the cloud sitting just over us to the west.

Just then two pelicans appeared flying low from around the point "surfing" inches above a small silky wave. This was another of those images people wouldn't believe. Pelicans gliding effortlessly above the critical section of a breaking wave along the entire bay isn't something you see every day i guess, but it wasn't the first time I had seen these guys do it either. I sat there thinking about the dolphins i had seen surfing waves before. They did it for hours surfing in on the waves and swimming quickly back out to wait for another set.

That's what I was doing today too.
A rainbow now appeared just in front of us as a tiny drizzle was released from the pink cloud. As we watched a second one formed just inside of it creating a double rainbow. Off to the right as I looked out at the surfers up the coast I saw a young hawksbill turtle chilling out on the surface, sticking its head out now and then to take a breath of air. Suddenly a nice wave came in and I took off paddling, gaining speed enough to glide down left on the face. The water was so glassy with the absence of wind that it felt like I was flying just like the pelicans I had just seen. Wow, it felt good. All of the images are still fresh in my mind as I glide down the wave thinking about how very lucky I am to be alive and well.

Happy Holidays from the Adventure Antigua Team

So many people around the world tomorrow will be enjoying a special meal with friends and family. It's our sincere hope that you all enjoy the holiday if you are lucky enough to have one tomorrow.
Here is a tiny Antigua, Caribbean gift to you all. It's just an image to look at and hopefully to make you feel warmer if you are in the middle of a cold winter.
This photo below can be clicked on to get the larger size if you think you would like to use it for your desktop's background.

A new Antiguan book hits the shelves and it's something very unique

There are still a few people out there who wait until the last minute before they buy their Christmas gifts and if you are one of them in Antigua, then you may want to consider THE HISTORY OF SALVAGE IN ANITGUA written by my uncle, Dr. Nickolas Fuller.
The large "coffee table" book is a collection of stories and accounts taken from a long career of yacht salvage here in Antigua and Barbuda. Nick of course is a medical doctor but has spent considerable time saving yachts and their crews from being destroyed out on the reefs around Antigua. After filling boxes and boxes of reports and photos he decided that he had to tell the tales to a larger audience in order to save the accounts forever in print.

Read actual captain's reports and explanations supported by photos of how the boats were saved. In many cases the vessels were not so lucky as you can see in the photo above of one of the many ship wrecks that have littered Sandy Island since the very early days of colonial history to this day. This very interesting publication gives the reader an idea about how easily a skipper can get themselves into trouble and how important it is to have a good salvage company on standby. Everyone considering buying a boat and navigating around the Caribbean should read this to make sure these mistakes don't happen on their watch. Have a read and tell me what you think. You can get a copy at Best of Books, Lord Jim's Locker in Nelson's Dockyard, Catamaran Marina, The woods Pharmacy and North Coast Hardware.

A new direct flight to Antigua from New York

While North America from Key West in the South East to Alaska in the North West and everywhere in between shivers with extremely low temperatures this week, some people are managing to escape to Antigua's regular warm temperatures via Caribbean Airlines' new jet service direct from New York. What we knew as kids to be called BWIA is now called Caribbean Airlines and thankfully this week they started flying back into Antigua directly from New York City's JFK airport.
It's now so easy to get here once again. All you have to do is imagine that within just a few hours you could say goodbye to the cold and be sitting on a beach sipping a traditional rum punch watching one of my boats go past as seen here in this Roddy Grimes-Graeme photo.

I know it's never that easy, but I am quite sure that for some people this new flight will be very exciting indeed. For more on the service and a bit of back slapping you can click here.
Please tell people about this new direct flight as we want to make sure that it stays here for good this time.
I remember when I was a kid we seemed to have more direct flights from the US that we do now. Glad to see there is a move in the right direction.

www.adventureantigua.com

Photography?

As some of you know, one of my hobbies is photography and quite often it ends up being work too. Almost all of the photos shown on this blog since I started it in 2006 have been taken by me but I also have to shoot images for my brochures and website too. Ever since I first took up photography in university, i have been using photography to help my writing, and since then I have had images published with bits and pieces that i have written in many different magazines and other publications. Recently I wrote a big article for Liat Airline's Zing Magazine. Included in the feature were a bunch of images and I was very happy with the way it turned out. If you like Antigua you should try and get a copy as the article is about what makes our country unique from my point of view. Unfortunately Zing's website only has the words. Click here for that.
Although, I do plenty of photography work, I don't particularly like doing photo jobs or any sort of commissions other than travel related stuff. I was asked several times to shoot weddings. Check out the slide show of some of my wedding images here:

Although I have shot several of them, I don't like the pressure that goes along with shooting them and don't take any wedding jobs at all anymore. When anyone tells me that they need a photographer I point them to Roddy Grimes Graeme who i think is one of Antigua's best photographers. Click here for his site and some of his images. He shoots stills under his name and then does video with his company Acquafilms. Acquafilms mostly does yachting video but does all sorts of other video as well including weddings. I can't find their wedding site at the moment but hopefully will link to it another time.

Anyway, yesterday Roddy asked me to help him out by shooting an event at the Yacht Show that's taking place here at the moment. (I shot the photo above in low light from Xtreme on Sunday evening.) He became double booked because of the recent flight cancellations out of London. A wedding was moved to today and clashed with this yachting event. I said I would do it and have gotten my Canon 5D out and charged all the batteries. Wish me luck.
If you have time and want to have a look at more of my images you can look through some of my sets on flickr by clicking here. (remember Roddy shoots better shots if you are looking for a pro!)

www.adventureantigua.com