Purple Haze

LAst night i was in the mood for a beer or two after a nice dinner with the Acqua Films crew. I drove down to The Coast where most of the Adventure Antigua team were already soaking up a few, and the place was packed. The Coast disco and bar is adjacent to Kings Casino in St Johns, and it has recently turned into the place to be if you are not liming on the South side. By the way, "liming" is a caribbean word that means hanging out socially.
Anyway, i got home pretty late and was hoping for a nice lay in today, but of course that can never happen when you want it to. At 7 am i jumped out of bed to the smell of burning plastic....i thought at first it was my electrical fan having a melt down but that seemed to be working well. I ventured outside to see a purple haze enveloping the house. Hoping that my house wasn't on fire i ran upstairs only to finally see where the source of this smoke was coming from. My considerate neighbors had decided to burn their garbage which by the way is kept very close to the windward side of our property. What a lovely smell burning plastic is...NOT!!!!!!!
Once i am up its hard for me to go back to sleep so here i am writing my blog. hehe i missed it yesterday as i spent most of the day finishing up the ZAP CAT. My buddie Stevie, came and helped me put the boat on a trailer and attach the motor. We decided to try and start the engine before going to the marina and a good thing too, gasoline poured out when we attached the fuel line. The line to the carbereuator was cut, and we had to do some quick mechinc work to get that fixed. The engine had been sitting for so long that i was worried it wouldn't start, but the 55 hp two stroke fired up after one pull of the cord. We were now in business.
We launched at the Shell Beach Marina and went up into the North Sound for a few hours, and pulled up next to Francis who was ancbhored off Welch Rock doing the last snorkeling session on the Eco Tour. The water was beautiful and the sky clear. Yesterday was a lovely day to be on the sea, and i was sooo happy to finally have the little cat back on the water.
Anyway, after the fire next door had burned itself to death thismorning, i noticed that it wass still very hazy, and I decided to write about the haze that we experience so often at this time of year in the islands. If you are living here or visiting you will sometimes notice how one day is sooooo clear and the next totally hazy. I hear people comment on it and am always surprised how few people know what the haze is. To me its incredibly interesting information and tomorrow i will blog about that. Trust me, if you don't know about it, you will be facinated too. Happy Saturday!
The top photo is of Captain Tony on the way in from a tour during a hazy sunset.

Go learn how to windsurf

Much of my identity is associated with windsurfing so i will always have a soft spot for the sport. I think you should give it a try when u are here. Like i said in yesterday's post, i learned when i was 12 years old back in the old days when windsurfing was one of the fastest growing sports on the planet. IT was hot back then, but that wasn't the reason i got hooked. I think the thing that got me hooked was the fact that i was told that i wouldn't be any good at it. That got me determined to learn, and once i got started i realized how pure a sport it was for a person like me. All by yourself you can go out into the natural environment speeding with the wind and waves being your fuel. It’s a way to be independent and yet it can be a very social sport. I leaned very quickly back then as i lived just up the hill from Windsurfing Antigua which got started the same year. Before i turned 13 i was invited to join Windsurfing Antigua Week 1985 which was a windsurfing regatta sailing around Antigua. One of the big races was a huge marathon from Jolly Beach all the way across to the island of Montserrat. There was a practice race the day before and i did well and was encouraged to do the island crossing. Anyway, the next day after we got started the winds died down and we slowly made our way across the 31 miles of open ocean towards the "emerald isle". There were about 20 of is racing and probably about 6 or 7 chase boats hanging with us. I wanted to quit a few times but decided that i had to make it, and was delighted to reach the hot dark volcanic beach four hours after i started. From that day onwards i raced in every competition that i could join across the Caribbean. When i was 16 i was chosen to be the alternate representative in windsurfing for Antigua at the Korean Olympics . I ended up doing better than Inigo Ross (who later co founded Wadadli Cats) during the training and in the end replaced him and was sent over to race in Korea. It was as amazing an experience as you can imagine for a 16 year old island boy. Anyway for the next twelve years i raced all over the world eventually joining the Professional Windsurfing Associations World Tour. The sport really took me far and wide and helped me develop into the person that i am. It’s a difficult sport to learn on your own which is what i did back in 1984, but today with the excellent lessons and more modern gear it isn't that difficult. The rush from gliding along the water with winds in your sails that you can feel and tame....well it is totally addictive. There is no age that is too old or too young in my opinion. I have seen all ages out there enjoying the wind and the waves. Windsurfing Antigua is now mobile and is teaching most days except Mondays on jabbawock beach. That's on the north side about 3 miles from the airport, and Patrick Scales is doing the teaching there.


He will have you "bending your knees and feeling the breeze" in no time. Keep this number 461 WIND (9463) or mobile 773 9463 and give him a call when u are next here. I think his email is windsurfingantigua@hotmail.com. Anyway at the least go check it out because Jabbawock is such a beautiful beach, and the kite school is there as well. I will talk about the kite school sometime soon. The top shot is of me in my last race a couple of years ago in the BVI. The other pic is of the windsurfing school and was taken by Mark the photo guy. He's great!

mini Xtreme

Since i started windsurfing at the age of 12 i have always been drawn to speed and extreme sea sports. In 2005 my knee was killing me and was not getting better after my second operation. The crushed tibia plateau had also ended up getting mixed up with torn cartilage. I had stopped windsurfing and kitesurfing and needed some kinda rush almost like a junkie not getting a fix. I felt lost without some sort of adrenalin rush and after seeing a friend zoooming over the waves on something he called a ZAPCAT i knew i had to get one....and i did.



Anyway, these little boats are only 13 feet long and have way too much power. They are like angry dinghies on iv steroids, and after seeing some of the videos i knew i would love to get involved. Anyway, it was very hard finding one made by Zapcat, and i finally located a copy cat company in the USA called Dux Inflatable who said that theirs were stronger and better. These things need a very unusual design of engine which carries a shorter shaft length than most other motors. Also they are steered by tiller and not by wheel which gives you direct control and feel over the engine. I finally found a us made engine which was only made for export that fit the design specs and got it all shipped.
At the end of the day this was a big toy that could be used as a tender to my boats if needed. Anyway, once i set it up i realized that this was a super high performance machine which wasn't to be messed with. I never used a hand held GPS to check the speed but it felt like it could do 50 mph, but the craziest thing about it was the turns and acceleration. They turn on a dime because of the type of bottom they have, and also float over waves because of the air that gets trapped between the hulls.
The video above and this one were both taken in barbuda during our carnival holiday. lots of silly holiday fun.

The ZAPCAT is a mini catamaran with loads of power behind it. Most dinghies that size have 15 or 20 hp motors but these usually use between 40 and 55 hp engines on them. I could only find a 55. After using it and abusing it for a year i managed to damage the transom (what the engine attaches to) as well as a few other problems. I knew the job was going to be big and during the summer David and i got some of the prelim work done. This past weekend Tony and i used the machined metal brackets i had made to reinforce the transom. We didn't finish and it’s taken me the past few days to get it all bolted together and ready for the engine to go back on. I do have one little leak to fix too and then she's ready to launch. One of the reasons i am excited about getting it fixed up and back on the water is that a couple of friends here now have them and are interested in having races and "poker runs". Should be some good Xtreme fun out on the water on weekends. I will be sure to get some good pics and video when i get it sorted but for now it’s just mpeg video. I hope u enjoy this light bit of fun. The top video was taken by roddy using my little sony cam. He was supposed to throw the tiny anchor into the sand near the reef but decided it would be fun to throw my camera over too. ha ha it was funny afterwards. The snorkeling was great too. This vid below is of crazy zap cat crashes....and stuff that i won’t be doing. ouch!!!




and if you are super bored and want to see one more vid of us going too fast, too shallow and too close to a deserted beach in barbuda check this one:

cricket world cup

ouch! i just pressed "publish" and lost everything i had written. I had researched and written a nice blog about the cricket world cup. wow....don't u just hate when the computer eats your work. i feel sick. anyway, i will include a good article about today’s match which was the first of the 2007 cricket world cup. It is the first time it has been held in the West Indies and no home team has ever been triumphant at the end of it all. However, with the hype and incredible pride, history, and talent that is west indian cricket, we may have an upset in store for the world. This is the second biggest sporting event behind the football world cup, and although the west indies isn't a country, together we are united as one when it comes to this ground beaking cricket even. Trevor is the main man at Adventure Antigua when it comes to cricket playing for the stingray city team here during the winter and for a team in england during the summer. It's his birthday on March 29th and i will be joining him at the party stand to see a world cup match at our new stadium. Its gonna be a huge party. After all Antigua was the first country to have musical entertainment during an international cricket match. It’s a shame that i lost my original post, but tomorrow i will use microsoft word first before pasting it here. I took the photos during the Stanford 20 20 which was the best sporting event i have ever seen.

It was that event last year that got me interested in cricket for the first time in my life. Read this article for more on today's match. Well done windies.

how about something more serious

With the fun and jokes of the last post about coconuts i thought possibly it may be time for some serious business once again. I wrote the following article about 2 years ago when things in the North Sound where i live were looking pretty bad. Since then Stanford has decided to stop his plans on maiden island and now is trying to sell the idea of his 2 billion us dollar development to the people of antigua. i went to a 2.5 hour presentation last week that his public relation team was showing which describes in detail his proposals and plans. I will have to fill you guys in on that next week. For now though you can read something i wrote 2 years ago. The observer newspaper decided that it wasn't worth putting in their paper so it never really got anywhere. I had written it to them to try to get people to think about where Antigua was going. To me it still is as important a dilemma as it was back then. It’s a long read, but perfect for a weekend relaxation or as the rastas say "ibration". If you are an antiguan or love antigua please give it a try: http://www.antiguaadventures.com/eco-article.htm

A Coconut Republic

Since i was a kid i have been intrigued with coconut trees and coconuts in general. My earliest memories are of "tyrone" coming to my grandparents’ hotel in an old dilapidated pickup with a bunch of young scruffy guys to "clean the trees". My grandfather's property had loads and loads of coconut trees on it and the danger of a coconut falling and causing injury was always a problem. Instead of paying someone to come and cut down old branches and take down ripe nuts, he would call tyrone. Tyrone's business wasn't cleaning trees at all, but was really selling coconuts and coconut water. When my cousins and i were little there were two important occasions when we would all gather around. The most important was when the lobster man came....we would wait around while 20 or 30 lobster were boiled in a big pot so that we could get the legs that dropped off. Yum yum....we could never get enough freshly boiled lobster legs. I still think they are the best thing on a lobster. Of course the other time was when tyrone and his men came to clean the trees. Those guys seemed to just walk up the 40 foot tall coconut tree like it was on level ground. In those days they just had a rope and a machete and they would climb up and pull themselves into the branches. Once up there they would tie one end of the rope onto a bunch of coconuts, cut the stalk and then lower it down to be untied by someone below. Usually trees would have several bunches. Once all the nuts were collected and taken back to the truck it was our turn to feast. Tyrone could open a "jelly" in about 3 seconds, chopping away the bottom of the nut in a blur. Now it was nearly impossible for a kid under 10 to drink all the water out of a jelly nut, but we would try every time. Once you gave up or miraculously finished it, you would hand it back to him. Tyrone would then cut a "spoon" from the side of the nut and then chop it in half. These guys never wore gloves or shoes, we would marvel at how skillful they were. Now i guess i should clarify what a "jelly" is before i go on. A jelly is a green or young coconut that hardly has any "meat" inside of it. The meat is very thin and delicious with a soft consistency kinda like jellow or jelly. None of us would ever dream of eating hard coconut.....yuk.

Anyway, when i was about 6 years old my parents split up and my mom took us off to England. One of the things i remember is seeing old hard coconuts without the "husk" on them in the markets there. Mom got one once so that we wouldn't forget what they were like, but the meat inside the old coconut was about half of an inch thick and dry as hell. That was good for cooking with bit not fit for eating just like that. Man i missed those green jelly nuts. Anyway, my mom realized this a few years later and we move back home thank god.

Anyway, since then i have always chuckled under by breath whenever i have seen tourists try to open coconuts. One great one is when they find an ancient brown coconut that has been on the ground for months and think that they are going to find something delicious inside. The pain and suffering that unfolds next while this unfortunate soul frustratingly tries in vain to open the thing is comical in an evil kinda way. I am sorry but it’s true. Another good one is when a proud dad tries to do some father son bonding when he finds a big fully mature coconut on the beach. He nods to his son as if to say "look what your dad is gonna do son...you are gonna love this". After 15 minutes of bruised fingers, sweat carrying sunscreen into his eyes, and a few curse words thrown in for good measure..the dad finally says, "son this one isn’t any good".

Now that is even sadder than the first one so the purpose of this blog is to help all the dads out there make their son's proud. If you come across a coconut in the future you will be able to open it with your bare hands after reading the rest of this. I am even gonna throw in pics too.

As a single guy, who doesn't have kids i still happen to know what it feels like to open a coconut for loved ones as you will see below. I am going to use my "kids", Sparky and Lila in this guide. They both worship coconuts and have done since they were little pups. This pic is of them bringing their dad the nut they have found:

You don't want to have a coconut that is too dark. The darker and older looking it is, the more hard the coconut meat is going to be, and if it’s too dark or even brown the nut can be sour. Green ones have the jelly and with a little yellow or even orange in it they are gonna have some good meat inside the nut. Once you have the nut you want to find a rock, a pavement or a bit of concrete. Just so you know, it will stain the ground so don't get the hotel upset if you are using their nice walkway. haha

Ok, hold it firmly in your hand with the top of the nut facing up. The top is the side that was once attached to the tree. This first photo is of the bottom and it’s the side that will be facing down, and is also the side you will be hitting directly onto the rock or walkway.

Hold it tight and hit that end down hard being careful to hit it "plum" right on the bottom, and don't let it go. After one good hit you may see vertical cracks appear, but you must keep hitting it a few more times sometimes. Anyway, the worst thing to do is to try to pull off a section before they are all ready to come off. You see, the nut will almost always split into thirds and you want to keep them together until all are ready to separate. Sometimes they don't all come free at the same time, so keep hitting it on the bottom and eventually it will open up like this (this is the top and not the end you are hitting against the rock):

From here you should be able to start pulling of the outer skin. You will be left with a very furry looking thing like this:

Throughout the opening process you must always remember which side is top and which side is bottom. Now you have to hit the opposite side or the top side in order to free up the thickest part of the fuzzy "husk". After a few decent hits you should be able to just peel it all away like this:

Keep peeling and you will end up with a nut that is clean and ready to be opened. At this point your onlookers with be intently looking on with anticipation and watering mouths (like this:)

Without tools this is tricky if you want to drink the coconut water. You now have to tap around the bottom of the nut moving it each time you tap it so as to try to create cracks around the edges. You should end up with something like this or better:

If you are lucky you will be able to take some of the shell out and drink the water. This takes some skill and luck. If it doesn't go well and the water leaks all over the place all you need to do is hit the nut a few more times and start sharing the bounty. I can open a coconut this way in about 3 minutes in a rush. It can be a bit more difficult taking the older and harder coconut meat off the shell once its open, but you can just let them gnaw at is which is what lila loves to do anyway. Hope you had a laugh and will use this guide some day. If you have any questions please use the comment section and i or some other coconute expert will answer.

Da Xtreme Video!!!!!!

My good friends Ian and Roddy started a tiny company called Acqua Films some time ago on a tiny budget with the idea of making DVDs for huge charter yachts. These DVDs would then be used by yacht charter brokers to help them find charter guests. Some of the yachts are still relying on print media to sell their charters, and the idea is slowly catching on.
With Ian's extensive experience in video and tv, he managed to bring to acquafilms the expertise needed to provide professional quality video to the end user.

Roddy on the other hand had years and years experience in yachting here in the Caribbean as well as many years doing still photography.

Both have what people call "a good eye" which is essential in providing unique video.
Although they have done wedding, hotel, tour, and other DVDs their main focus is still entrenched in the yachting industry which bases itself in the Eastern Caribbean during the winter.

Antigua, St. Martin, and St. Barts are the three main places on the planet for these massive yachts during the winter months. Most of the world’s largest private yachts can be found here at this time.
I had spoken with Ian about getting a little promo video done for my Xtreme Tour some time last year. He had already done a bit of filming from a chopper one day on the way back from another job, and i thought that with a bit more we could come up with a fun little vid. He had an old friend in town from Canada during the summer and took her out on the tour to see the sights and to shoot some more film. What came shortly after was this promo film which i immediately used at Sandals resort. It's taken me some time but i finally got him to convert it to a youtube readable format so that we can see it on the web. I uploaded it 2 times without sound for some reason, and started getting stressed. My cousin, Richard, in the uk said "youtube is a bit shit sometimes....delete the vid from youtube and upload it again". I tried it and finally got volume. Yay!! Here is the vid enjoy!


Also, if you want some video or photo work done please contact them on +1 268 726 2782 or goto their site

Get your Permit!

Fishing is a big part of my life and always has been. Although i have two boats and use them for fishing on days off whenever we have nice weather, i don't do fishing charters. I am sure that if you have been following this blog since the start then you will have seen my blog about Tony catching the monster marlin back in may of 2006. We love to fish when the conditions are right and the bite is on. It's not just deep sea fishing either.....I love light tackle inshore fishing which is kinda how i became so interested in the eco side of our islands. You can help but notice all the symbiotic and other relationships out there when you are trying to catch fish. It’s all there for you to see from the little pilchards hiding beneath the mangrove shoots to the pelicans gliding and searching for them above. The show is awesome out there and it’s a joy to be a witness out there seeing how it all comes together as it was created or evolved to do. I could go on an on about all the little relationships you see out there in the mangrove habitats, or on the reefs, or on the flats, or even out in the offshore blue abyss. Although seriously threatened and damaged, it is still a joy to behold.
Anyway, let’s get back on track. When my knee was very bad this time last year, i took quite a bit of time off driving the boats as was recommended by my Dr in London. Of course when you have little or no cartilage in the knee, standing all day while driving a rocking boat is painful. However, i couldn't stand being away from the water, so took up fly fishing with my uncle Jim.

On his boat I can sit as a passenger until we get to the fishing spot and then stand on the sand bank casting for fish. It is way less jarring on the knee and was good fun too. He got me into fly fishing as is a hard core addict for the sport. As a long time hunter of various different game, fly-fishing was the natural progression for him. Hunting animals that live on land or in the air is very similar to proper fly-fishing. You need to be very quiet making no loud noise at all, you need to understand how the target species lives and feeds and travels. You equipment needs to be in tip top condition, and you need to be skilled at using it. When i am out there i almost feel like it must have been the same thing in the old days when hunting lions or other big game. The hunter carefully stalking the prey. The biggest difference is when we do saltwater fly fishing, we take great care to make sure the fish we catch are released safely back into the wild. There are two fish that we go after when we go fly fishing: Permit and Bonefish. These two fish are the most sought after fish in the world for saltwater fly fishermen because of their amazing strength and i guess even more for the incredible challenge it is to catch them. First let me talk about the bonefish. It is sometimes called the "Grey Ghost" because people out there hunting for them sometimes think they see them...and they just seem to vanish into thin air or thin water actually. They get "spooked" with the slightest sound or unusual water movement. They can see you almost always before you can see them mainly because of their mirror like scales which just reflect everything around them. They blend into their surroundings so well that sometimes they will be right close to you and you haven't seen them. All of a sudden when you move, the bones get spooked and with a huge splash they disappear. Only master anglers can catch bonefish on fly rod without messing it up because it’s just that difficult. On average they are about 6 or 7 pounds and can get up to about 14 pounds. The local name for them here is "ten pounder" which would excite many fishermen if they hooked in to that size every time. We use light tackle for them so that the fight is as hard core as possible. They usually graze the flats (grassy shallow sea beds) looking for shrimp and tiny crabs. Since the flats are usually very shallow you sometimes can see their wake or if you are lucky you can spot their tails sticking out of the water as they dig for a hiding prey. In fact, "tailing" is the easiest way of seeing them and it’s what i look for when i am on the flats with my fly rod. Another good indication that the grey ghost is around is when there is a stirred up patch in the flats. If you see a very cloudy spot about the size of a couch in the flats then that is either bone fish or a stingray. They dig for shells or crabs or shrimp in the flats and give their position away. Anyway, once you have found them you very quietly get close enough to cast your fly close to them. You want to make sure the fly (lure) which usually looks like a shrimp or a small pilchard or even a small crab lands very gently close to them. If it hits too hard then the ghost disappears in a flash, but if it’s too far then they don't see it and keep on grazing. If the winds are not too strong and the light fly gently lands in front of the fish then magic can happen. The fish sees the fly and stops searching in the grassy flats bed, and begins to follow the fly which you are slowly retrieving by taking short strips of fly line through the rod. As the bone fish bites the fly you strike it enough to set the hook and hold on for dear life as the explosive mass of power that is the bone fish peels the line off your rod. The run a bone fish makes when first hooked is legendary and you will hear many stories from fishermen about how the big fish got away after a monstrous run. They are known as the strongest fish in the sea pound for pound and will not just give one run and give up like many other fish. Like blue marlin in the deep these guys give many runs and will fight hard all the way to the boat if you are lucky enough not to get cut off. We use a special tool called a booger grip to grab the fish on the lower jaw in order to take the hook out without touching his scales. Like the rays in Stingray City these bonefish have a protective mucus coating that helps them stay healthy. When you release the fish you lose sight of it immediately as it flees in a camouflaged flash.
Last year i caught about 5 of them and spent a hell of a lot of time out on the flats trying to catch more. Fly fishermen can be happy just seeing them.
Now for the second fish and the main purpose of today's blog. My uncle Jim isn't as interested in Bone Fish as he is in Permit.

Permit are much larger fish feeding on some of the same stuff that bones do, but specifically like eating crabs. The type of crabs that they go after are not much larger than an inch and seem to live under small rocks and pieces of dead coral on the shallow flats beds. These fish are much larger than bone fish and on average must be about 20 lbs in Antigua. They feed in the same areas though and are as strong as bone fish. They get easily spooked too and you have to be exceptionally quiet and move ever so slowly when they are around. You stalk them like you see a lion stalking a gazelle. One false move and the permit is gone as the gazelle would too. These fish are even more difficult to catch on Fly and i doubt there is a more difficult fish to catch anywhere. I think my obsessed uncle has been hunting and stalking them for about 5 years without ever catching one. There have been many interesting articles on how they feed and why it’s so difficult to catch them on fly. One theory is that they inhale the fly and spit it out in one split second motion once they taste or feel that it’s not a real crab. I have had them follow my fly (fake crab) dozens of times and even had they try to bite it, but have never caught one either. You see them on the shallow flats when their tails or fins stick out when trying to get crabs from under a rock. They also don't particularly like to chase a moving fly which poses a problem. Where we find them, there is usually plenty on the bottom to get snagged on, so if you let your fly fall to the bottom you are in trouble. To avoid this you have to be ever so careful to retrieve the fly slowly enough to make it look like a crab and not too slow that it gets snagged. It’s a mission which is why so few people have caught them. In fact, i don’t think anyone has ever caught one in Antigua on fly until yesterday.
My uncle Jim and a friend of his today finally scored one on fly. The friend had fished all over the world trying to get one and was elated to finally get his glory. The fish wasn't that large but it was a permit and that's what counts. Jim's wife Mossy told me that the two great hunters came home grinning and joking like two teenage kids. Congrats jimbo!
The pics are of Jim holding a bonefish before we had the booger grip and the other is of a permit that was inside stingray city for a while before they let it go. IT was huge!

st martin's heineken regatta

St. Martin has been trying to get their regatta bigger than our Antigua Sailing Week for ages and has done an amazing job of it over the past couple of years. The main difference i guess is how well their event is organized. It is extremely professional at all levels in my opinion and you can tell that it’s being done by professional managers and not just volunteers. The parties are exceptionally well run and we have gone down to the even the last 3 years mainly for the party action.
This year we couldn't miss because Stephen and Damian Marley were performing after the prize giving. I saw Stephen Marley sing here in Antigua years and years ago when he was performing his other brother Ziggy who was extremely popular at the time. At the moment, Damian Marley is one of the biggest reggae stars on the planet with a huge following world wide. My sister saw him in England and said it was awesome. We had to go! The gang on Xtreme comprised of my bro ali and his girlfriend julia, my guys jd and tony, glenny from creole cruises, big john who is our fishing main fishing crew, and an old friend guilliano. We were due to head out on Sat morning since I had to be on Friday's Xtreme tour. We knew it was going to be windy but had no idea it would be as rough at it was out there once we got off shore. It was probably blowing about 25 knots and the seas were nasty. We started getting wet shortly after we left Jolly Harbour and didn't stop getting wet until we arrived in St. Martin 95 miles and 3 hours and 40 minutes later. JD said even his name got wet!
Anyway the party action was worth it and just being in a different island for 2 days was a good little adventure to take part in. The Marley brothers didn't let us down and performed very well. Stephen sang like his dad, Bob Marley which made all the old timers happy and his bro Damian excited the crowd singing more modern reggae with some of his recent chart hits. It was a free concert on the beach and thousands of people turned out to take part.
The winds were forecast to calm down for our trip back and we were not so happy when we got into the Atlantic to find that the seas were as bad as they had been on the way down. It’s faster coming down and the pounding that we took on the way back upwind to Antigua wasn't fun. It was rough and the waves were short which is the worst kinda sea to be going into. I think the ride back was over 5 hours too.
Anyway, we got back and all agreed that the trip was well worth the rides there and back. Of course as is too often the case, today's weather is calm and nice. JD just called from Green Island to say that the sea was beautiful and calm. Oh well, we did have it too easy last year. This pic of captain J-Dog was actually taken last year on the ride back. This time i didn't dare take my cam out with all the spray that was showering the boat.

half full or half empty?

Every now and then we get a not so good review of one of our tours and myself and friends who follow the boards wonder what went wrong. By now most of the good operators follow all the various message boards keeping up to date on what goes on. Some have been guilty of tampering with the boards and even posting their own reviews. I know of one operator who got his messages eraced from two different boards. Anyway, one of my competitors and good friends, Glen (a.k.a. Glennie), from Creole Cruises called me last night to inform me of a "not so good" review about my Xtreme Tour. He was dumfounded and he's a competitor! I told him that we had been getting the best Xtreme reviews ever and that i was sure that this review was written by someone who just was a half empty person. I know that my Xtreme Tour isn't for everyone and market it very carefully to avoid bad experiences. All you have to do is read through the description on the site of on the brochure and you will see what its all about.

I posted a wonderful email review about the tour earlier this week and it had actually been the 4th email we had received in as many days going on about how much they enjoyed the tour. Not everyone will like the same things and this is as sure as the sun rishing in the East.

BUT the review that i read had some "facts" that were not so accurate and some rather misleading info. One of the things that we stress to people on the tour during the 15 minute ride up to Green ISland is that you should stay seated. We show people the correct way to sit in the front of the boat. We tell them not to try to stand because when the boat comes off a wave if you try to stand you will come down harder on your behind. Everytime someone stands up when we go over a wave despite us telling them not to, they come down harder on the seat. Its way way more bumpy this way even though these people think they are cushioning the ride.

Another thing that the person said which blew me away is that there were very few rays inside stingray city. Hmmm......personally i think that they are a few too many. I think they have over 65 rays inside there as well as many other fish. If the water is too cold for someone as it was for the person writing the review, and that person decides not to stay in for very long.........then how could they get a proper idea about what is inside?

Another thing the person mentioned was that there was no head or toilet on board. This isnt a fact at all. We do have a toilet inside the cabin. The cabin is 11 feet deep and 9 feet wide with just under a 6 foot standing room next to the head which is covered when not in use. Unless you knew it was stored there you wouldnt see it. When people ask, we open it up and show them how to use it. I even tell people sometimes when showing then how to use it "generally, if you wanna pee then do it in the sea like the fish do....otherwise the head is here with a holding tank for you to use". For a huge variety of reasons which i will not get into here, we do not advertise that we have a head on the boat during the tour, but its there.

Another thing to understand is that if you are going on a boat tour in Antigua during the winter you will come across water that is about 78 degrees at its coldest.....if that is too cold for you, then you will not enjoy the snorkeling. People who don't go in eager to see cool things rarely enjoy the snorkeling, and those that don't get in the water will surely not enjoy.

I still think that this tour is the best tour that i have been on in Antigua and i am happy to be running it. It is not for everyone and you have to read about it first in order to decide, but more importantly you need to listen to the skipper's instructions.

Here are links to a few of the reviews from this week including the not so good one which at the end of the day wan't really that bad....just a big misleading unfortunately..Anyway i am on the tour today and am late for work...see ya:

(the photo is of me and tony coming back from an xtreme charter after dropping off the guests. francis took the pic)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=507335

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanews/messages/2/7680.html?1172827807

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanews/messages/2/7963.html?1172813037

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanews/messages/6/7782.html?1172774813

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanews/messages/2/7800.html?1173205168

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanews/messages/2/8229.html?1173230443

arrive back in antigua after 570 miles

After our exciting night somewhere in the Atlantic east of St. Vincent, the trip back to Antigua was quite uneventful with a good wind speed and direction giving us plenty enough to make the journey pass quickly. During the day I had time to think about the night before and be happy that nothing bad happened. Xabier's brother, Inigo, the co-founder of Wadadli Cats had gone missing from the south-west side of St. Lucia almost 10 years ago doing a similar journey in terms of miles. He had been on a hobie cat island hopping back to Antigua from Grenada. So many people in Antigua still have a hard time accepting the facts surrounding his disappearance, but the ocean can take people so easily. We were lucky the night before for sure or maybe someone was looking out for us.
We had anticipated a sharp wind change during the night, but in the end it wasn't so bad and we were able to make a straight shot back to Antigua going above the island chain.

After sunrise east of Dominica we saw several fishing boats chasing small tuna and mahi mahi. They were about 40 miles from land out in the ocean in little open fishing boats as is common with the local French fishermen. I saw one of the boats pull several tuna over the side as we sailed past them doing 12 knots. I looked and looked but never saw any humpback whales which I knew were there. March is the busy month for them I guess.

We got back into Antigua just after a beautiful sunset last Tuesday and all felt the pressure of returning to reality immediately. On the first phone call to home, I found out that we had actually turned the eco tour back to port that day after a hose had burst. I had blogged about Tony fixing that last Friday. I am sure that most people know what it’s like arriving back at home after a holiday. Wouldn’t it be nice to return home to all good news and happy stories? Next time it will be like that for sure! Actually next time will be Monday night as I am planning a trip down to St Martin this weekend with some of the crew to see Damian and Stephen Marley perform at the end of the Heineken Regatta. Should be good fun.

barbados to antigua- 285 nautical miles to go

After a lovely adventure in Barbados, it was time for the sailing adventure back to Antigua. We had been looking at the weather forecast which showed a big cold front approaching from the North. Not many people realize that strong cold fronts sometimes can make it all the way down from Canada through the USA and into the Caribbean. Anyway, this one was a biggie and the winds and waves were forecast to get nasty. We wanted to get close to home before the worst of the weather came through.
After trying to track down my brand new mobile phone that had been charging inside the Boat Yard restaurant, we decided to give it up, clear customs and immigration, and set off for Antigua. Clearing out took forever because Barbados doesn’t seem ready for cruising yachts. In fact during our stay there we only saw three or four other cruising yachts. Antigua has hundreds coming and going each week and is more welcoming to the cruising world.
The phone thing kinda added to the stress of departing because it was a nasty situation. After lunch the day before we left, the manager on duty at Boat Yard agreed to charge my phone behind the bar. We came back at 9 pm and the security told us the place had closed early and that i had to come the next day. I could see the bar and after explaining about my phone was told that the bar was locked up. I remember thinking that it didn't look like it. Anyway, the next morning the phone was gone. The owner called the staff who had been working and assured me that it would be found. There could only be so many people with access to the phone, so it would be easy to sort it out. After the owner had left in the morning the staff just decided to stall me and jerk me around. The owner had told them to either produce the phone or pay for a new one. They did neither and in the end i had to leave with the boat. I am sooo over having expensive phones!!!!! (RANT) I am now sporting the cheapest phone available in the Caribbean, and it works and isn't attractive enough for anyone to want. Perfect!
Once we pulled the anchor up, Xabier's stress of clearing immigration and my phone theft stress seemed to wash away like the sand coming off the anchor. We were cruising again without time to be miserable. Those things seem so unimportant when you are out on the blue water with the winds blowing through your hair (or over your scalp in my case).

The winds had died down again to almost a breath in the lee of Barbados, but the waves were long large swells almost like a rolling field of blue wheat.

We tried at first to sail but that didn't work after we sailed into the glassy holes without enough air to fill the sails.

We motor sailed with just the main until we found some light winds on the North side of the island. Xabier hates the sound of his engines and no matter how light the winds were, was much happier to be sailing. With a specially designed light wind reaching sail called a "screacher" we were probably cruising between 8 and 9 knots. The winds were not much faster so we were happy with our speed. Xabier explained that on this hard core carbon fiber catamaran, sail choice was extremely critical, and we had to be careful not to carry the screacher in too much wind. We expected the winds to pick up during the night and at that time we would have to change to the regular jib which can handle stronger winds. The sun set as flying fish which Barbados is famous for flew off to our port side into the fading light. Sunsets out to sea are always an emotional thing for me......they are times of excitement and usually of nervous anticipation. Being at sea out in the middle of the ocean at night is as beautiful as it is dangerous, but all mariners love it.
Anyway Chef Francis got started making dinner at about 9 pm. The sky was overflowing with stars once again and the winds had picked up a bit to make it a little cooler than normal. In fact, as expected with cold fronts, the winds had bent a little more towards the North which kinda explained the chill.
At night, a radar adds a whole heap of technological security and comfort. Not only can u see land and other boats, but you can see squalls which can be dangerous to yachts. On the way to Barbados we had seen squalls coming on the radar and as they got close the winds picked up as expected. We were always prepared and ready for the spikes in wind speed. This time the massive jump in wind speed wasn't due to a squall. Well at least it wasn't a readable squall on the Radar. The sky showed no clouds either but just before we served the food a huge wind surge burst into our sails taking the screacher over the limits. The extremely light catamaran accelerated quickly and started to feel like it wanted to lift a hull. This all happened in seconds and although we were expecting the winds to pick up, we thought it was going to be much later in the night and more gradual. Xabier turned off the auto pilot which was straining to keep the boat on a reach, and she rounded up into the wind backwinding the screacher. Francis and i quickly tried to furl the sail in and within a few minutes we were back in control with the screacher rolled or furled on its bowsprit. Xabier decided to quickly put up the jib and to continue on as normal which is what i would have done too. In my opinion he was being a little too comfortable up on the front of the boat in a building sea at night with winds approaching 20 knots, but within a few minutes the sails were up again and we were on our way. Five minutes later we started hearing a sail making a hell of a noise up front and Xabier scurried quickly back up on the trampoline. The seas were building quickly and a few waves send spray all over us as we tried to figure what was going down. As it turns out, the screacher had been damaged in the wind surge and the damaged part was unrolling and filling with the strong winds which were ripping at it with noisy forked like gusts. Without hesitation Xabier decided that we had to drop the rolled up sail down from the mast. He released the halyard and the started pulling the partially rolled up sail down. Keep in mind that because of the winds we were probably doing about 12 knots of speed into a 20+ knot wind with large building invisible waves below us tossing the light cat around. At this point the real problem stopped us at the worst possible moment. The sail we were trying to drop was unfolding and catching some of the strong winds while this was happening the halyard got jammed. Try to imagine darkness with noisy strong winds, waves crashing over the decks, cold spray in your face and seeping under your clothes.....imagine that and then the nasty part. Imagine a huge sail with tons of power being stuck half way down as it threatens to totally unfurl while four tiny humans try to keep it under control. Poor Andre! He had been at the back of the boat kinda half asleep in a state of semi-seasickness. All of a sudden it was all hands on deck with total chaos unfurling in front of him. Not being a yacht sailor he didn't quite understand what was going on and was just ordered up onto the trampoline to attempt to hold down the bit of sail that had already reached the deck. Later he recounted that with every gust he was getting lifted and shaken like a rag doll. He was using all his power while kind of sitting to keep hold of it, but did say that he wasn't going over board with that sail no matter what. Xabier on the other hand was on the port side of the trampoline trying to pull down the damaged and unfurling screacher. I could kinda see him getting tossed around by the powerful and potentially deadly sail. One big wave, a little more unfurling, or one big gust and xabier could have been in the sea. Maybe there was no such danger but from my angle it was a frightening possibility and together with Francis we struggled to free the halyard. You see, earlier that day when Francis and Xabier had put up the big sail, they hadn't expected these problems and the halyard wasn't carefully stored in a way that ensured the sail could be quickly dropped. What had actually happened was a big tangle. The halyard looked like a big spilled bowl of spaghetti and it needed to be untangled to ensure our boat and crew's safety. Francis was holding back the halyard against the weight of Xabier and the wind while his fingers and hands jammed into the block at the base of the mast. He had to do that in order to give me enough slack to untangle the mess. Somehow i managed to pull some of my late grandma's tangle skills out of the air and the line came free. We dropped the screacher to the deck where it lay conquered like a huge snake for a few seconds. The waves were picking up quickly and i wanted to get the hell off the deck before a real accident happened. We quickly got the rest of the sail unattached and stowed it in the front lockers. When that front door finally closed i can tell you that i breathed a huge sigh of relief. When someone falls over at night from a yacht you can almost not even bother looking for them. People are almost never found and that's all i was thinking as we were zooming along on autopilot with jib and main sails up battling with the jammed screacher which was behaving like a prehistoric python on crack.
Anyway another thing that happened when we closed that door was that the smell of Chef Francis' food found its way to my nose. I can eat in almost any situation and although Dre and Xabier didn’t have an appetite immediately, it didn't take them that long to follow me and Francis into the pasta. Yum yum...it was good.
Man this story is getting long. Some of you will be reminded of my trip from Miami with Xtreme that i wrote about back in November. I will finish this story off tomorrow. The first and second photo show Andre up on the trampoline in the calm seas off Barbados. The first one shows him looking across the screacher. The third photo is of Xabier and Francis adjusting sails at the mast, and the last photo is of the bow of the catamaran in the glass calm seas near Barbados before the winds picked up. Hope you enjoyed. Night night little ones:)

The barbados event.

I was going to speak about the Barbados "Beach Culture World Tour" event last Friday but didn't get a chance to with the crazy story of the rescue. Anyway today I will finish the story off.
First I just gotta reprint an email we had from some very happy guests. We get these sort of emails all the time, but this one is especially nice I think. From California this morning:

Hi Nell -



It's my first day back here at work in Los Angeles, but all I can think about is eating barbequed chicken and pasta salad on Green Island. The Extreme Tour was an experience of a life time, and I just wanted to write to you to say thanks.



The Extreme boat was gorgeous, and it was thrilling to cut through the waves at such intense velocity. JD was our captain, and he was amazingly deft at handling the boat through coral reefs and against strong Atlantic currents. He made it look effortless to navigate, which is surely the mark of a skilled sailor. And between the crew of Ty and Junior, well, we felt completely safe, entertained, educated, and well-attended to throughout the entire trip.



Of course, snorkeling with Stingrays was sensational. They're so cute that I kept smiling whenever I saw one swim underneath me, which resulted in water getting into my snorkel mouthpiece constantly. (My fault entirely - you shouldn't smile while snorkeling, but I just could not help myself.)



Best of all, my husband had the best birthday ever in Antigua. He can't stop talking about his Extreme Circumnav tour. He sounds like he's 9 years old, and not 49, when he tells people about his great boat trip. He had a ball.



The bad news now is that we're back to work for a while, but the good news is that we get to go back to Antigua within the year. Sandals gave us a complimentary 4-night stay to come back, since the room we originally booked with them was still being constructed. We could not be more thrilled to return to your beautiful island. When we do, we're definitely taking the Eco tour.



Nell, thanks for all of your help in setting up this trip. Know that you provided to us - two city-weary, traffic-battered, urban dwellers - the trip of a lifetime. We really needed that, and you guys truly delivered beyond all of our expectations.



With much gratitude,



Jenny La Raia

Los Angeles, CA

OK back to the Barbados story. I know some people just love stories so here goes. If you go back a few days on the blog you can read about the first Beach Culture Event organized by Brian Talma seen here on the left.

Our little Antiguan team arrived at Silver Rock on Barbados' South shore after sailing 285 miles across the archipelago. When we arrived there wasn't much wind unfortunately and the windsurfing and kitesurfing wasn't being featured. This event is about all aspects of beach culture with a main focus being on the surfing sports: wave surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. There also were other competitions in a wide array of beach culture activities. Anyway, there were some waves rolling in and when we arrived a hard core surfing competition was going down. At first it was the junior girls and let me tell you that they would have put many adults to shame. Slashing off the lips and cool style showed that surfing in Barbados isn't just a male sport. We saw boys and girls of all ages surf and then the adults. In between "heats" of surfing where expert cementation was going on they had a conch blowing competition. In the Caribbean many people on the beach use Queen Conch shells as horns and let me tell you that they are loud as hell. Anyway, during the beach culture even there was a competition with contestants from around the world taking part. The poor fellas from Hungary didn’t do enough training because of the lack of good shells back home and as a result failed to make it into the finals. Trinidad's conch blower had been partying too much the night before and somehow didn't have the stamina that the Guiana and Barbados contestants seemed to possess. Unfortunately the fantastic melodical blowing prowess of the Guiana conch blowing sensation couldn't sway the crowd away from the extremely talented local favorite.

"Full Moon" as he is known on the beach in Barbados blew his conch like a demon possessed and the crowd went bananas (or should I say conch mad). Since this section of the Barbados Beach Culture World Tour was being judged by the beach crowd..the world conch blowing title went to Full Moon from Barbados who is now ranked #1 in the world.
When I was a kid, Pappy, from Pappy's watersports was the best conch blower in the world as far as I was concerned, but he'd have a hard time blowing with these young new stars.
That afternoon we chilled back on the catamaran and in the end went out to the famous St. Laurence Gap for some of the Bajan nightlife. In the morning we went back to the beach where the wind had picked up and the action was in full swing. Some of the best "freestyle" windsurfers in the world are from Bonaire and 25 people from there came down to take part in the event. Tonky and Tati Franz who have been winning freestyle (trick) events immediately stunned the crowd with massive aerial tricks. There were guys from Venezuela, the usa, europe, dominican republic, barbados and other countries taking part in a huge expression session of windsurfing freestyle. Some of the complex maneuvers were hard for even me to understand. These guys were amazing and the large beach crowd was eating it up.

After the windsurfing it was time for some kitesurfing action, and our only competitor in the Beach Culture even was full time kitesurfing pro, Andre Phillip. In fact, he was the only full time pro there and the competition was a little skewed in his favor. Anyway, not to just steal the show Dre decided to do a session comprised of the most difficult aerial tricks in his repertoire. To the untrained eye (which much of the crowd consisted of) his aerial display was in the same league as the rest of the competitors and only the hard core kitesurfers there knew how difficult his moves actually were. If was a good expression session with some of the guys showing some great and huge jumps. The windsurfers actually got more of the strong winds and as it died down the kiters slowly came back to the shore.
In between events there was beach cricket with some famous international cricketers taking part. Both the kids and adults seemed to enjoy the cricket as much as the other events and it was pure energetic action throughout.
All in all the first event in the "Beach Culture World Tour" was a massive success and I am sure that we will be back there with a bigger team next year. Most of the international competitors there have competed in extremely serious events all over the world which at the top level are rarely about fun. They are sometimes soo serious that having fun is impossible. Brian Talma, the Beach Culture even organizer, has been to many of the serious events and wanted to make this event something different. Its all about fun and action as he keeps on saying. It's not all about who won or which rule book was being used....it’s about coming together to take part in what makes the beach more of a life and not just a place.

Stay tuned for a story about the trip back to Antigua. That was pure adventure.
Pics include conch blowing finals, dre kitesurfing, the beach, team antigua, and a pic of brian, Full Moon and Andre.

no big deal? ya right!!

After, explaining what happened yesterday to the coast guard and the news people, we didn't imagine the story could possibly change so dramatically. Our island is a funny one...I guess most small towns are like this too. The first thing that started happening was that people began to call me and my friends asking if it was true that one of my boats had sunk. Somehow this juicy rumor was spreading quickly around the rock, which is one of the reasons I wrote about it on the blog. If people want to find out the real story all they have to do is speak to the crew. Francis is on 268 764 2681. Tony is 268 726 7692 or even easier come to the blog.
Someone called me to inform me that adult who was actually trying to help the kids and ended up nearly drowning, called in to the local radio station to say that the incident wasn't any big deal and nobody was in any grave danger. He admitted that he did get some help from Tony and Francis, but that it was never a matter of life and death. I was on my way to meet the crew when I heard this and was eager to get the full detailed report from the boys. It was even more dramatic than I thought. I won't go on and on about it but will add a few points that I didn't mention yesterday. First, is that while taking one of the kids off the bottom, Tony was also grabbed by another kid who started pulling him under. Tony managed to grab one of the fender's lines that he had thrown in and was able to save the two kids and himself by kicking to the shore. Tony said that by the time he got to the shore and put the drowning girl on her side, he was totally exhausted. He said he nearly passed out himself. Another thing he said was that when the girl who was laying motionless down below made it to the surface, her eyes were rolling back into her head. While he pulled her unconscious body to the shore she kept vomiting. On the shore she brought up more and more before starting to come to. The teachers behind him tried to position her on her back but because of Tony's recent training he insisted that she stay on her side to bring up all the water. He said "I wanted to do everything Jonathan's way". That is Jonathan from ABSAR who had just given him the first aid training. Tony, Louis, Francis and the guests all agreed that no matter what three of the kids would have perished and possibly the others as well including the adult who was being dragged under before the fenders were thrown to him.
Anyway, this same man who was possibly saved by the fender that Tony threw in, was in fact the person organizing the trip. Like I said his account of what happened is dramatically different and minimizes the efforts of Tony and Francis. He made several calls to the radio station, wrote an article in the paper and was even a guest on the radio today. Nell and I spoke with some of the guests from the tour yesterday and we all still agree that Tony and Francis are heroes and those kids and all the adults involved are super lucky. It’s a terrible thing that happened and the organizer and the teachers who were there including the ministry of education (who knew about it) all need to rethink this entire episode very carefully.
The organizer is a guy called Eugene Humphreys and his heart is in the right place. His passion is similar to mine which is showing people the beautiful places that Antigua has to offer. Specifically he wants to show the residents of Antigua how beautiful the off shore islands are since they are all threatened by development. The threat of development is something that you hear each time you do our tours as well. I think that he has done a great service to the people of Antigua and I am pledging money towards the purchase of a small boat for him. That being said I am disappointed that he felt the need to publicly diminish the heroic efforts of Francis and Tony. I guess I can see his point of view or see at least his motivation to do some quick damage control. Anyway, I hope this doesn't put a stop to his efforts which by the way seem to be totally philanthropic. People need to see these off shore islands and understand why we need to keep them from becoming a huge development. Anyway, like many of the radio station callers were saying......all is well that ends well. Thank God nobody was badly hurt. We all need to learn from this episode and move forward wiser and more prepared. Here is a pic of the windward side of the narrows. You can see the incredibly important flats and red mangrove plants. The pic was taken from a boat sitting in the channel on the other side of the flats which are only about 5 inches deep on average. As the flats end the water quickly drops off to about 12 feet in the middle.

Stop the press!!!! Adventure Antigua crew saves lives!

I will get back to the history of sugar and more about our adventure to and from Barbados after today’s news blog about a life even that happened today.

Even before it happened I was thinking about writing about how happy I was with Tony and Francis for their extra efforts last night and today. We had big problems this week again with two things on the eco boat. One was an engine water cooling pipe that burst way back behind the engine. It was impossible to get to without taking the entire engine out. We didn't want to cancel trips so Tony somehow like a great contortionist, managed to squeeze himself in the most terrible position while the engine was still hot in order to stop the water leak. We were there until past 8 pm last night. That was on the left engine. The right engine was fine but had "spun" a prop with all the extra work it was doing. Francis jumped into the nasty Jolly Harbour marina water with tools this morning and managed to change the damaged prop for one that was given to us (free of charge) by the saintly people A1 Marine. He had to hold his breath for ages in the murky water holding heavy tools to get the job done. Neither he nor Tony moaned a bit. They knew these things had to be done in order for the tour to function properly and jumped into action without a question.
That was before the start of the tour today.
At about 11 am today I get a call from Jonathan Cornelius of ABSAR (Antigua and Barbuda Sea and Air Rescue) who is telling me he's just heard my boat calling the coast guard to request medical support. Jonathan said he couldn't hear properly but thought he heard something about "taking on water". Could the unimaginable be happening? How? I immediately got on the phone with Tony who as skipper is required to have his phone on him while at the helm. No reply! I tried three more times before I got through. I asked desperately what the hell was going on.
Tony, almost out of breath, starts telling me that he and Francis had just saved 6 school children and one adult. They just pulled up into the mangrove habitat between Guiana Island and the mainland where there is a small channel that is commonly known as The Narrows. As they arrived, they came upon a chaotic and horrific situation. There were 7 people drowning right in the middle of The Narrows. The water there is between 6 and 12 feet deep and the channel between the island and mainland is about 70 feet wide. Apparently a school group of about 30 kids with between 3-5 adults had been trying to get from the mainland to the island using a kayak. It would appear that not one of the group knew how to swim properly. This fact may be hard for people outside of Antigua to believe, but I assure you that this is the norm here in Antigua. Only a fraction of our population knows how to swim outside of shoulder depth. Sad but true.
Anyway, they speed up to the immediate area, and Tony grabs the boat fenders and jumps off the boat. There is one child almost lifeless on the bottom 8 feet below and two others beneath the surface going down. Three others are flailing on the surface with a helpless adult. All of them appeared to be in the process of drowning. Because Tony had left the fenders on the surface for the people who hadn't yet sunk below, he was able to swim down and clutch onto the almost lifeless girl. As soon as she made the surface she began to vomit water as Tony took her to the mainland. Francis had already left Louis at the helm of the boat and had joined Tony in the water. He also took a child from below the surface. I think Tony made it back for the other and together with Francis managed to help get all seven to the shore. One of the Eco Tour guests actually jumped in to help as well. We had a full boat of guests while all of this was happening. In the bacchanal, Louis had the good thinking to throw an anchor to keep the boat close allowing him to keep the engines out of gear.
Tony tells me that he was totally blown away with the body's ability to hang on to life. He was sure that one of the girls was going to die......but she managed to involuntary throw up all that sea water in order to survive.
After getting back on the boat, Francis called the coast guard to let them know of the situation. One of the adults had a car on the mainland side and assured our crew that they were ok and could go along on their tour. I had called back Jonathan at ABSAR and told him that from the report Tony had given me, I thought an ambulance was a good idea even though everyone seemed to be stable.
There are several crazy things to add to this story which just make you wonder.
The first thing to consider is that I hired Jonathan from ABSAR to do a proper marine first aid course for my crew all day this last Saturday and all day on Monday. Some of the crew had done it before and some were new to first aid and sea rescue. One of the things he told them during the two days of instruction was that if they ever had to jump in the water to save someone in trouble, they should not go empty handed. "Take something that floats...like a fender or life ring or jackets". Louis tells me that if Tony hadn't taken the fenders when he first hit the water then there is no way that all of them would have been saved.
The second thing that is strange is that if Tony and Francis hadn't gotten the boat working properly by putting in the extra effort then we wouldn’t have come all the way that far into The Narrows. We hadn't been there this week at all until today!
One last thing that is strange is that the disaster just happened to be unfolding at the exact moment that my boat turned the corner into The Narrows.
I think this episode needs to spur some kind of positive action in several different areas. First I think the guys need some kind of hero award. I will speak to the Prime Minister's Office about that. Another thing that I would like to put some energy into is some sort of Swimming Trust Fund. The kids of this country should be able to swim. This is crazy. I think if the kids did swim the island would be a better place. Anyway, this is something for me and others to think about. In the meantime this is just a bit of news that involves some of my great crew.

antigua to barbados - 285 nautical miles to go

As I said in the last blog a week ago, I was going on a sailing adventure to Barbados with Xabier Ross of Wadadli Cats. He invited Francis who works with me as well as the kitesurfing Star and our friend, Andre Phillip. The purpose of the trip was just pure adventure. We had all been invited to attend the first ever "Beach Culture World Tour" event in Barbados organized by their famous windsurfer and ambassador, Brian Talma . He invited old and new professional watersports people from around the world to come down to Barbados and take part in his unique event. I originally met Brian in Korea where we competed against each other during the 1988 Olympics. Since then we have stayed in touch and met each other at other windsurfing locations around the world. Andre had actually worked for him in Barbados teaching windsurfing just before he took up kitesurfing back in Antigua.
Anyway, Xabier had recently gotten his new 48 foot Gunboat which he had been dreaming about for years and wanted to do some Caribbean cruising. This was a perfect opportunity for him to test it out in a more relaxing environment. The boat is lovely and made from state of the art space age materials specifically for speed, safety and comfort. We set sail after lunch on Thursday with plans to sail through the night upwind of the islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent.

Unfortunately the winds were a little South for us and we couldn't reach down as fast as we wanted to. We ended up having to put in a tack to make it around the windward side of Guadeloupe after sunset.

The skies that night were amazing. In fact, during our entire trip, the skies were bright and filled with millions of stars. Its so nice being away from artificial lights at night and when we were 1/2 way between Antigua and Barbados the sky was pure heaven;)
We sailed through the night and most of the next day unable to get the speeds we had hoped for if we had better wind direction. Another thing you see when you are at sea at night is phosphorescence which is a plankton generated light source luminating the sea as you cut through it. The bright green sparkles are soo interesting and refreshing to look at in the dark night.
Speaking of dark night, it is always exceedingly dangerous to be at sea during the night and we all kept ourselves inside the yacht until the morning. IT is generally accepted that if you fall over at night you will not be found.

We finally arrived in Barbados at about 7 pm on the Friday just in time for the big weekly party at the famous Harbour Lights. After some interesting customs and immigrations procedures we made it to the party action. After being on a boat for several hours you tend to sway when you get ashore and I am convinced that all the swaying we were doing that night had nothing to do with the cheap bajan rum. haha
Anyway, I will post more about our trip tomorrow.

Sugar Part 2

One thing i didn't mention was a massive change in Europe called "The Industrial Revolution" which helped sugar to be produced quickly in a more effective process. Coupled with greater mechanism was the additional help of slavery. Of course the sugar industry would never have been what it was without African slaves, and for that matter entire countries wouldn't have been as wealthy as they are today. The first slaves in the Caribbean were native Arawak and Carib Indians. In an astonishing move, the Pope gave Christopher Columbus permission to enslave these "savages" as long as they would be taught about Christianity. Many resisted in the terrible conditions and in within 75 years all Arawak Indians were killed off. Imagine that!!! The total and complete genocide of millions of native Amerindians was complete by 1575. The Carib people were traditionally stronger and more aggressive and it is alleged that these people were even cannibals which is where the word Caribbean came from. (IT took me a while to find proof of this but here it is http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/culdesac/USVI/usvi.html)
These Caribs resisted being enslaved so hard that in the end the few that were left were left alone on some of the islands to the south. To this day there are still indigenous Carib people living in Dominica. Indigenous is a word that is used often in Antigua these days with a different meaning, but i won't get into that here.
The first Africans arriving in the Caribbean were imported like cargo in horrible conditions by the Portuguese some time around the start of the 17th century. The first British ships bringing African slaves to the "New World" left Africa in 1662 with the first British slave captain John Hawkins, but the first African slaves arriving on British ships arrived in Barbados in 1700. The British slave trade with most of the ships being based in Liverpool went on until it was banned in 1808. It wasn't until 1827 that Britain banned all foreign slave trading with its colonies, and even declared it piracy punishable by death. Within 6 years the Emancipation act was passed banning all slavery in the British Empire within 5 years. It actually was stopped a year later in 1834. There were many reasons leading to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire including the efforts of many activists with the most famous being William Wilberforce. Coupled with the passionate fighting of these abolitionists was the fact that sugar was now being produced competitively outside of the Caribbean using the sugar beet.
Anyway, the sugar industry didn't die when slavery was abolished as had been proposed by the anti-abolitionists. In fact sugar did hold these islands together for another 130 years. It was only stopped last year in St. Kitts which was one of the first two British sugar islands.
These sped up history of sugar is so abbreviated that i hope people will understand that i am not trying to smooth it over. There is a wealth of info on the net and in our schools here about it. This is just a blog and i am only just scraping the surface. In my next blog entry which i hope to write tomorrow, i will speak about why these islands recently and finally moved away from sugar cane. It’s all interesting to me and i hope you will be encouraged to read more about it online. IF you feel that you would like to add more or comment, then please do so. This is worth discussion.
I am off to Barbados on a Gunboat with Xabier, the owner of Wadadli Cats, Francis and Andre who i blogged about earlier. See ya later.

Sugar Part 1

A bit of history for you today..........

Antigua, named and claimed by the Spanish, was actually inhabited periodically by amerindian people from about 2000 BC up until shortly before the Spanish arrived. Although the Spanish claimed ownership of the island, they never made any settlement whatsoever and it wasn't until nearly 150 years later that the British finally settled here. One of the things that steered the European people away from settling here was the fact that we had no streams, rivers or springs, and for a colony to prosper, a healthy supply of water was needed.
The islands nearby didn't have that problem and between 1500 and 1650 many of them became colonized by French, Dutch and even the British for various agricultural and mineral uses. Without the trade Caribbean in sugar, cotton and tobacco many wealthy countries today would not be considered "first world". Of course with the immense wealth that was being generated here from the Caribbean, there were disputes over various settlements, islands and trading routes as well and they all had to be protected. Port Royal in Jamaica, which was the main British Naval base, was too far from these Eastern Caribbean islands and their trading routes back in the mid 17th century, and the British needed somewhere closer in order to base their fleet. Antigua and its famous protected "hurricane holes" on the south of Antigua became very attractive to the Brits and the Nelson's Dockyard as it is known today replaced Port Royal as the main British naval base for the eastern side of British West Inides.
With a strong naval base, colonists felt secure enough to try agriculture, and with the introduction of African slaves to the area round about the same time the colony quickly grew to catch up St. Kitts and Barbados. Sugar was at the time becoming a drug like addiction in all of Europe and Britain was no different. Antigua's semi-dry climate seemed to work well for sugar cane, and large areas of land were cleared for plantations. Each plantation would have one or more wind mills. We'll speak more about sugar tomorrow.

Say hi to Junior

Junior has been working with us since just before Christmas and has proven to be a great guy on the boat. Junior's real name is way to long to repeat or even write down, so i wll just say that you should ask him to tell you what it is if you see him on one of the tours. He works on either boat depending on the day and seems to manage both very well. His roots are in antigua, but he's been living abroad since he was a little kid. Fist he lived in the USA and then he moved to the UK where he's been until recently. I didn't know him before but have known his brother "Blackie" for years and years from Dickenson Bay and The Beach. Blackie approached us to see if we needed any more crew around about the time that we were saying goodbye to Adam and Leslie, so it worked out well. Junior is a mild mannered young man who's passion seems to be reading, modeling, singing and school. He has two degrees too!

Anyway, he's working with us for the near future saving money to put towards fixing up a property he inherited in St. Johns. He's focussed and friendly and i think he will do well in life.

My other crew tease him a bit (as is the norm with our guys after work) about his posh accent which is a bit funny to hear coming from an Antiguan. Anyway, this is a pic taken by Lizzie who was on the boar for a 65th birthday party charter for her friend Anne Philpott with Louis, JD and Junior. I will speak about Louis soon in another blog entry, but say hi to Junior if you are on a tour with him. Ask him about his singing too. lol he he he

Saw my first whales for the season.

Yes, i saw whales yesterday for the first time this season on the way back up from St. Martin. I had been asked to fly down to St. Martin to collect a small boat for one of my Mechanics. Marine Power Services has done many favors for me over the past few years and collecting a boat for them wasn't a problem for me. According to Windguru the winds were forecast to be light and therefore the seas would be calm too. I was up for a little adventure anyway and the trip sounded like a some fun. I have sailed and powered from there to Antigua many times and the 100 miles can be pretty tough in bad weather, so i wanted to make sure that we had calm seas.
I called Liat "the caribbean airline" to check on flights and they had space on their 4:30 flight on Saturday. By chance on Saturday morning i spoke with the owner of Caribbean Real Estate who told me that he was on his way to St. Martin at mid day and had space for me if i wanted. Cool....a free flight in a nice place. Tomas Miller who is the son of the MPS owners came along with me and we ended up leaving Antigua at about one pm on the Caribbean Real Estate plane bound for St. Martin. The weather was amazing and as we took off from Antigua we could see Barbuda off to the North, Guadeloupe way in the South, Montserrat in the South West, St. Kitts and Nevis to the West. Antigua and its waters looked so beautiful in this perfect clear weather and the 45 minute flight down to St. Martin was lovely. We went straight to the massive marina where the boat was being kept. It was actually a tender (dinghy) for a huge yacht called Midlandia and was a little old looking for them. At about 20 feet long with no shade the trip back to Antigua wasn't going to be totally easy but as long as we had good weather it was doable. We asked on of Midlandia's crew what range the tender had and astonishingly they didn't know. These tenders are just topped up every day and they don't care about how much fuel they burn. This wasn't good because we needed to be sure that we had enough fuel. We spoke to the first mate who said that he thought we would need about 80 gallons of fuel which i thought was considerably more than enough. Off we went to buy supplies which included life jackets, a flare, 6 five gallon fuel cans and other bits and pieces. I also had brought along my EPIRB which my brother and i used on our Xtreme trip from Miami to Antigua.
We decided to leave the next morning (Sunday), and to go have a nice dinner and enjoy the famous St. Martin nightlife first. Anyway, Sunday morning came and we painfully got ready to take off on our 100 mile trip into the sea back to Antigua. As we collected the boat we realized that we had made a miscalculation on our fuel. All the fuel estimation had been done in liters and we should have purchased another two 5 gallon cans to make the total fuel on board 80 gallons. All the stores were not shut and we couldn't get more fuel. I made a few calls to Antigua before we set off and planned to stop in at Gustavia, St. Barts which was 14 miles up from where we started at Simpson Bay, St. Martin. We could then use the fuel cans to refuel the main tanks which would give us and exact fuel flow consumption rate. We did this and calculated as i had expected that we would have enough to do about 130 miles....enough fuel.
The trip was fairly easy with a few bumps here and there which made us limit our speed to between 15 and 20 knots. On the way we stopped several times to top up the main tanks just to make sure that our consumption was steady and accurate. About 60 miles up we ran into a massive school of frenzied feeding tuna. We could see a tennis court patch the water turn white with frantic splashing and tunas jumping through tiny bait fish. A few miles after that i saw some humpback whales spouting as exhaled on the surface. It was the first time i had seen them for the year and i have been anticipating seeing them. Always a nice feeling to see them back here. Almost all the way up we had countless numbers of flying fish leaping out of the dark blue water and gliding away from us. As the sun set the silver, dark green and blue colours on these amazing fish lit up as they glided off to our sides.

About 30 miles off Antigua, the island came into view and another ten miles later as i was looking back at Nevis in the setting sun, i saw a whale breach. I told Tom too keep and eye out and immediately we saw the baby try to breach too. The mom jumped several more times in the distance as we zoomed past. We didn't have time to stop as i knew we would be getting in just as it got dark. Antigua's coastline was so beautiful at sunset and even though we had been on land at lunchtime it was nice to get into port safe and sound. If you are coming to Antigua before May, then you will have to keep an eye out for the humpbacks which will be in these waters until then. These three photos were all taken in 2006 but will give you an idea of what i am speaking about. Enjoy!