days off

Ok so i didn't post yesterday as we were off island visiting one of Antigua's sisters again. Our independent country is actually called Antigua and Barbuda but we also have another large island that belongs to us which is called Redonda. It’s not mentioned much because at the moment it is uninhabited and will probably stay that way for years to come. Picture the lost island from KING CONG without any nice lush rainforest and that is Redonda. Desperately rugged and uninviting, this island is perfect for nature lovers and adventurers. We went the day before to take a pro photographer and my crew was so interested that we decided to go again for more fishing and exploring. The water was GIN clear and fishing was excellent. We ended up with 4 wahoo a.k.a. ONO and two tuna before we went snorkeling. The snorkeling below these massive jagged rocks was pretty spooky but we met up with 3 Hawksbill turtles and 1 green turtle as well as many other colorful neighbors. It is a true nature/adventure lover’s paradise and i am sure that one day it will be seen as an important part of our country. The pics show the crew waiting for one last wahoo to bite (which we are having for dinner tonight) and also us 7 miles off and approaching the island of Redonda.

another day on the rock

day off for some of us. In fact, JD, Leslie, and Tony took out Xtreme today on tour so my cousin David and my crew David and a few others went on an adventure........We went to the third island that makes up our country. Its not spoken about much as people don't live there at the moment. At one time there was a guano mine there or something. Anyway, Redonda today is an amazing dive, fishing, snorkel, and hike spot. A true adventurers paradise and we found some today. Kinda late now so i will just post one pic from the island.

back no normal.......Sunshine

We'll after one nite and a day of clouds and rain we are back to normal today with nice calm seas and loads of sunshine. Despite what the little animated "five day forecasts" say we are usually hot and sunny here in Antigua. Do you know that weather.com and yahoo weather and most of the rest of the internet animated forecasts predict rain every day of the year. Today and the rest of the weak reads incorrectly like this on yahoo weather:

Today	Tomorrow	Sun	Mon
T-showers	Scattered Showers	Scattered Showers	Scattered Showers
High: 85°Low: 78°	High: 86°Low: 79°	High: 87°Low: 78°	High: 87°Low: 78°

Its always been the same. I mean when we haven't had any rain in weeks and all the greass around the island is brown they are still saying its raining here. The reason behind it is that our local forecasters' reports say "fair to partly cloudy with a chance of scattered showers" every day, and the big companies interpret that with animated rain clouds which you cant see above but would see on the link. Anyway, most of our emails come in with comments from guests worrying about the rain (that we are not getting) and for 7 years now i have been trying to reassure people that we are not the rain capital of the world. In fact, we probably get less rain that 95% of all Caribbean Islands.

Enough about weather, since this weekend looks like it will be a calm one, i am going to take some of the crew deep sea fishing. Its what we like to do on our days off at this time of year. This is actually a very active time for a fish called Wahoo. They fight incredibly hard and are sooo delicious. We have done quite a few fishing tournaments since we got our boats and if we go to a new one some people laugh and say "you are a snorkeling boat...not a fishing boat". Well by the time we get back in that laugh is long forgotten because we usually do well. Here is an example of Tony's marlin from last May: http://static.flickr.com/75/153881678_e20871ad18_o.jpg
Look out for photos of the monster Wahoo that we are going to catch this weekend. We all love to eat fish and don't like buying fish. We have to catch something!!!!

The ODD rainy day

The forecasters were correct and i did have to cancel both my boat trips today. It rained all night and for most of the day so far. They are forecasting rain for tomorrow but the latest satellite images make it look like things will get better tonight. I met our cruise passengers in the rain this morning on the Redcliffe Quay boardwalk to give them back their credit card deposits, and to try to organize another land tour for them. Since it was raining they understood, but sometimes when its extremely rough outside of the harbour and i cancel they are less understanding. You see, on those days it can be nice and sunny and the water in the harbour is nice and calm. They don't see the dangerous conditions a mile or two around the corner. I cancel tours very rarely since we get such ideal boating conditions in Antigua, but when and if i do........it is for good reason. I saw one boat smaller than mine go out with about 10 people form the ship to do a fishing tour. This is a new one and is organized by NCL. They are going to regret leaving port. WOW that will suck out there today and it could actually be very dangerous. Many new operators in Antigua don't have a boating background and are only in it to make money. They don't even work on the boats. This practice is not good but happens because there is little control of our sector. Anyways.............SUNSHINE TOMORROW!!!!!!
I am going to put two pics up today. One shows the cloud cover over antigua this morning and the other shows what its going to look like this weekend. Enjoy!

Wed 11th OCT

I don't have all of my staff on the site at the moment and will have to update that later. David Mendes seen here on the left having some fun while on a private charter in Barbuda, is now working full time with us. He will be here in Antigua until Jan 2007 when he goes off to study medicine. Growing up here in Antigua spending all his free time on boats, he is perfect for the job. This guy loves the water sooo much that even on his days off he goes out fishing, snorkeling, kitesurfing or surfing.
We have both boats on tours tomorrow but there is a fairly active tropical wave to our east that we are looking at. For good weather info and forecasts a simple site to goto for Antigua is Windguru. If what they are saying is correct, then i will have to cancel both of my trips tomorrow which sucks!!! The satellite imagery looks bad too. We have had such awesome weather this summer so far........the "H" season is almost over too thank god. Usually when we cancel a tour because of weather we can only rebook 50% of the people and of course if its a cruise ship day then we don't get a second chance. Of course, we credit all deposits that we have taken, and try our hardest to re-schedule. I usually encourage people to book early in their trips so that we can reschedule if we have to. We'll see about tomorrow.

Tuesday 10th OCT

Wow, its almost like someone heard me yesterday. Today is calm and looks like lovely weather for a bit of boating. Saweeet!!!

We also have our main boat "arawak odyssey" going out on tour with a good number of guests. I think i would like to use this somehow to gain feedback and offer new info quickly about the business. Will have to see how that is possible. Xtreme will be going out onThursday (hopefully). She is gonna go through some maintenance today but needs some parts changed on the port engine.

People are still worried about swimming with the rays and i am starting to think about putting on another excursion. The Xtreme Circumnav is such an amazing excursion for younger more active people and we have had such fantastic feedback, but its more expensive and now has stingray fear associated with it. You know its the best selling tour at Sandals with more positive guest comments than from any other tour there. Maybe i will design a tour that goes to Cades Reef and Rendezvous Bay. When ground swell is kicking in the winter on the North side this would be perfect. I dunno.....we will see.

A note on stingrays here: Antigua is lucky enough to have three different types of rays gracing out waters. We have the extremely rare Manta Rays which I have only seen a few times, Spotted Eagle Rays which are fairly common and you may see and the very common Southern Stingrays. After the terrible news about Steve Erwin's tragic death, I though I had better do some PR for the rays. Firstly, in world recorded history, there have been 18 deaths attributed to the 150 species of rays world wide. You can see Steve's death in OZ was a total freak accident and a horrible tragedy. The one that killed "croc hunter", Steve Erwin, is called a Bull Ray and is found in South Africa , New Zealand and Australia . It is the largest of all rays getting up to 700 lbs. Our rays here in Antigua are extremely gentle and cuddly feeding on crabs and shell life. They don't have muscle control over their barbs and can not use them to attack anything. Please don't worry about them on your trip to the Caribbean . If you need more info please email us.

Another Antigua Blog is born

hmm....."everyone is doing it"........"companies are doing it"...........

Its october, and the quietest i have ever seen the island. Business is dead, the nightlife is booooooooring, i'm single again, and the worst thing about this month is the weather. October is usually a very calm month with excellent fishing. We go out fishing when there is no work and get too tired to worry about night life. BUT its windy and rough and i am not even fishing.

Instead, i am spending way too much time on the net. So a blog is born: