Hurricane Dean misses Antigua.....

Well hurricane winds missed antigua and although i thought we wouldn't get much of anything, we ended up getting some very large swell on the East and South coasts with winds generally out of the east between 25 and 35 mph all day. Several people recorded higher gusts but in general it never was consistantly more than 35 mph. We had several heavy showers until about 4:30 when the rains seemed to kick into overdrive. It is raining cats and dogs outside at the moment but as you can see from the image below, the main core of the storm has passed. Hurricane Dean missed Antigua but over 150 miles to our south St. Lucia seemed to have gotten hit pretty hard. MArtinique and Dominica seemed to get quite a bit of Dean's wrath too. You can read reports on http://www.stormcarib.com/ and i am sure there will be updates from the isalnds hardest hit and still in Dean's path over the next few days. The forecast shows a track towards the Dominican Republic's south coast, Haiti and directly for Jamaica. I hope it weakens but at the moment its been undergoing rapid growth and strengthening. I don't think Antigua had any damage from Dean at all except possibly some beach erosion. I drove around this morning and took a few photos. This one was Curtain Bluf's outer reef above Cades.

This link shows a sequence at Half moon bay. http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiguan/1150715774/ Next to that photo there are others from my drive. All good action and there seemed to be many people driving around looking for angry weather.

This afternoon i windsurfed with Ty who works with on our boats from time to time and with Xabier the owner of Wadadli Cats. The winds were pretty strong but it was loads of fun and we got some pretty cool jumps. My knee was very quickly protesting, but this kind of action only comes once in a blue moon and i had to get out there. Speaking about how seldom

we get crazy windsurfing conditions.....i always find it strange when people say that they thought we get this kinda stuff every year. Antigua has been directly hit by hurricanes 6 times since 1954 i think, and rarely gets these sort of conditions when they pass close by (150 miles). I dont think there was any damage and i know for a fact many people enjoyed the action here however strange that may be. We were lucky not to get hit, but the strong gusty winds made excellent windsurfing and some cool surfing for stevie and the gang. It should be warm and sunny by the end of the weekend. Speak later.

50 miles back to Antigua from North Beach

This blog sponsored by www.jhrcaribbean.com On our last morning in Barbuda was started properly with French toast and bacon on “Blue Rapid” with my dad and Sarah and their crew Kenny Kentish. After b’fast we got Xtreme ready for the trip back to Antigua. My uncle Jim and his crew who had been staying in the North Beach apartments with the mosquitoes and sand flies were getting packed up to leave as well. Altogether on the beach is was he and Alan Hart and his two kids as well as Steve Mearns. My good buddy, Roddy from Acquafilms.com, was staying on the beach as well with Stevie and my cousin Annabel who were in tents.
At first I was asked if I could take Steve Mearns back as he wasn’t feeling too well. This translated into “he didn’t feel like getting pounded for miles and miles in uncle Jim’s smaller boat”. That was fine though as it was just Mykl and I on Xtreme. Then Dad decided that he was staying another night for sure and asked if I could take Kenny. Again no problem at all as long as he didn’t mind getting a good wetting. These hot shot lawyers are not used to being as wet as us sea dogs, but I am sure the after a weekend camping in Barbuda Kenny was up for anything. Steve Mendes then decided to stay another night with his wife Robin and asked if I could take his other crew, Stevie, Bell and Roddy. Like I said, Xtreme could handle it no prob so I went around collecting everyone and all their camping stuff and by 11 am we were all ready to go….all seven of us. My plan was to hug the shore all the way towards Palmetto Point where the Beach House resort is and then head straight across, but the winds were way up there and I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. Let’s get there first I told myself. On the way to Palmetto, we counted 54 fresh turtle nests on the 14 miles of beach we just covered which was very cool indeed. We are in the peak of nesting season for the Hawksbill turtles. The waves looked awful out past palmetto and I made the decision to go up the coast a bit towards the Coco Point Lodge as this would give us a better angle in the sea back to Antigua’s Diamond Channel.

Also, most of my newly acquired passengers would much prefer a little more adventure before the crappy trip back home.
Coco Point hotel in Barbuda is closed during the summer months and we were able to sneak right up to their most beautiful point and relax for a bit while having some lunch.

Uncle Jim came up shortly afterwards and so did the other two boats that were staying the extra night at Spanish point further up the coast.

The waters were just too beautiful to leave like that so Roddy, Mykl, Stevie and Bell went for a quick snorkel just before we set off.

I took photos and within 30 minutes we were going out the reef into the Atlantic Channel. It was extremely rough but the better angle allowed us to maintain 25 knots the whole way home. Stevie sat up front by himself where is was a bit more bumpy and ended up falling asleep. Every other person on the boat was soaked with all the spray the high winds were jacking up. We were home in no time. As I pulled up to the dock in Jolly Harbour the GPS said we had done 118 miles that weekend and they were all worth the effort and drama. As usual it was a good carnival camping session but now it was time to get back to work.

close call with Xtreme while camping in barbuda

This blog is sponsored by www.jhrcaribbean.com From the last proper blog i wrote: "We decided to start walking back to the boat after seeing how massive this squall appeared to be. We were going to be in for a strong one and as the winds started to howl I began to worry about my camera….and more importantly the boat 90 minutes away."

OK so finally I get back to the story. OMG last week got a little crazy towards the end as this one is looking like it may too. Anyway, back to the story:
We walked back in the crazy winds and rain that just wouldn’t let up. Luckily for us the wind direction changed to come more out of the North, so we had winds pushing against our backs making the walk faster and quicker towards the boat which we could see getting tossed around like a green salad. The anchor lines were taught and were under great strain as the boat bounced up and down just a few meters from the beach. If one pulled then I was sure the other would too and in seconds the boat would be on the beach. Actually now that the wind direction had changed the boat was pointing towards the rocks along the shore. Mykl went first so that I could hold the camera bag above the choppy waves and pass it to her. I was so worried about the boat that I left my shirt, hat and sun glasses on the beach with our beachcombing prizes. As soon as I was on the boat I fired up the engines and moved closer to the anchors. Mykl took in the slack anchor lines and when we were next to the anchors I ran up to pull them into the boat. In a flash the strong winds pushed us dangerously close to the beach before I got back to the controls. Anyway, I slowly powered out to the lee of the barrier reef and re-set the anchors there. There was no way I could navigate back around to Spanish Point in these conditions as the narrow channel was closing out with huge waves and another rain squall was just about to hit too. I knew we were safe behind the reef and far enough from the shore, so we just decided to wait it out in the cabin with my trusty portable DVD player. What else could we do?
As the terrible movie (License to Wed) finished the winds seemed to ease as well. Upwind it looked like there could be more on the way as it all looked very dark. My mom confirmed that the satellite imagery for the islands on the internet looked like there was a chance we would get more, so after calling her we opted to make a move through the channel in the barrier reef. The seas were big and we narrowly made it past the breakers into deeper water before we turned back to the safety of our camping spot from the night before. We got back, set anchors, and put the kettle on to boil. All would be good once we had our starbucks mugs full of nice hot tea. The sunset was wonderful with all the crazy cloud that seemed to be dissipating.

That night we had no more trouble with rain and were able to have some lovely T-Bone steaks on the back of the boat. IT was the end of out meat and we would have catch fish of some sort the next day.
We were up early the next morning and in no time were ready to make a move back to the beach where Xtreme nearly came to rest to collect my sunglasses and the rest of our stuff. What a different place it looked like now!

Anyway, we didn’t stay long and once out the channel again we turned north towards a special fishing spot I knew about five miles away. We put the three rods out to “soak” and nothing happened for some time. Just when we were about to give up we had a double hookup. Mykl fought her fish on the back seat and I fought mine from the port side. Hers came up first and after I put my rod in the holder I tried to get the fish off the hook. The electric blues from the Little Tunnie were dazzling and as we marveled at its beauty the fish managed to free itself and shot off into the dark blue depths. Mine was still on and I didn’t make the mistake of being seduced by its colours this time. In fact the poor fish didn’t have a chance once I had it within grabbing range. We didn’t have to worry about eating canned tuna……we had the real stuff in the boat now. While all this action was taking place we didn’t notice the squall that had quickly crept up upon us. We were not in a good place at all as we were outside some of the most treacherous reef in the entire Caribbean which has been claiming boats for hundreds of years. Nobody ever gets through this section of reef unless they have good light and that was going to disappear pretty quickly if we didn’t act fast. I knew of a tiny channel at a place called Hog Hole and after speaking on the VHF radio to my Dad and Steve Mendes who were just pulling up there on the inside of the reef, I gunned the engines towards the channel. I slowed down once we got into the channel and immediately saw a pod of spotted dolphins. They had been surfing the waves in the channel and I would have loved to stay and watch them but it was way too dangerous with the squall only minutes away. With reef and breaking waves on either side of the boat we crept in carefully making it behind the last bit of reef right as the winds started to pick up. We rushed over to the other boat and dropped the anchor in the sand behind the reef as the rain started to fall. I was in the water with my snorkeling gear before I could get wet from the rains. If you are ever snorkeling when it rains be sure to swim down a bit and look back up at the surface. I took a pic while it was happening but even this doesn’t do it justice.

Stevie’s boat had been full of campers who were all now in the water snorkeling. I guess the winds and waves had gotten up in the squall making the waters close to the barrier reef very cloudy with tiny bubbles. We did manage to see three stingrays and two spotted eagle rays as well as quite a few small fish.

IT was nice and colourful once the sun covered us again.

Roddy and Stevie caught a few snappers for their lunch and they all left Mykl and I there. We would meet up with them later in the afternoon at their camping spot.

Once we had finished snorkeling and finished lunch while at anchor as seen above, we slowly cruised down the coast inside the barrier reef fishing and spotting rays and turtles. It was a lovely cruise.

Up ahead we could see the other boat pulling two of their divers who were looking for conch. I had seen some nice ones when were in the water earlier and had thought about keeping one for an appetizer. These guys were taking some for their dinner. Steve Mendes makes lovely meals with conch and later we couldn’t possible turn down the dinner invitation with that in mind. Before sunset, we all rafted up together with Steve’s “Megalops” on the left side, Dad’s “Blue Rapid”, in the middle and Xtreme on the right. We were in a good anchorage outside the entrance to Barbuda’s wonderful lagoon, and after most of the guys went off fishing, Mykl and I decided to go on a kayaking mission into the “creek mouth” as it is known. The mangrove habitat there is like none other in the Eastern Caribbean and it was lovely paddling through this wondrous habitat. If you have ever been on our eco tour then you will know what this area looks like. The mangrove narrows at Guiana Island look very similar. I took this photo in the "creek mouth" on another camping trip i did with my uncle Nick and Dr Charles.

We got back just before it got dark and just in time for a massive and deliciously tasty conch pasta. It was our last night in Barbuda and the calm gentle conditions that had been forecast never materialized. It looked like it would be a rough ride back home the next day. Will talk about that tomorrow. As a side note…..if you are here on island or coming here this week keep checking http://www.weathercarib.com/ for info on the approaching tropical weather.

important weather info

Hi there! I am sorry for not blogging over the last few days. I have been working on Xtreme and getting completely wasted tired. Tonight i will write more about my barbuda trip and post tomorrow morning for sure. In the meantime have a look at something i just posted on an antiguan message board:

This little post is meant as a little bit of proactive info so that people dont freak out when someone irresponsible on CNN or something starts ranting about aproaching weather. A few days ago before there was even a dot on the satellites, www.windguru.com started forecasting a big storm coming our way on Friday a week later. Most people thought it was a computer glitch as windguru uses many sophisticated computer models to generate its forecasts. Anyway, since then a tropical wave has developed "nicely" into a impressive low and it looks as though it may get to the next level (tropical depression) within a day or so. Most computer models suggest that it may develop stronger into a named storm after that. They also suggest that it will be steered towards the central caribbean. There are two extremely important things that we need to keep in mind. First, is that these computer models change every six hours after taking into account millions of variables which could all end up changing the forecast dramatically this far away. This means that Friday is a long way away and many things can change. We may not even get a shower. The second thing to remember is when preparing for tropical weather season we need to understand that a worst case outcome is possible and that we should take precautions and moniter the weather sites for good info. I will make sure that i keep you up to date on what is going on if you don't want to do it yourself. I am sure that many people will be speaking about weather over the next few months which is pretty normal. An excellent weather site showing whats going on from many different angles is www.weathercarib.com We have been hit by 6 hurricanes since 1954 so the odds are against a direct hit, but keep an eye on the site above just in case. www.antiguaisland.blogspot.com

Antigua to Barbuda

This blog is sponsored by Caribbean Real Estate JHR Caribbean.
Our Barbuda camping trip started a little later than first planned and we were the last boat to leave Antigua on Saturday afternoon. My dad and his crew as well as his neighbor, Steve Mendes and his crew both left after lunch, but we didn’t set off out of Jolly Harbour until after 4 pm. On this trip I wanted to do a bit of a tour of Barbuda instead of camping all in one area as we have been doing for the past few years. My uncle Nick (Dr. Fuller) had arrived in Barbuda a few days earlier on his boat “Nicole” with Captain Derek Biel from the fishing boat “Obsession” as his crew. They were anchored up at the beautiful Spanish Point doing some fishing. Before we arrived Richard King and his wife anchored up there as well on “Kingdom”. We thought that Spanish Point would be a good starting place for our camping session so upon leaving Jolly Harbour I set the GPS chart plotter’s course for that point. As soon as we came around the point into Five Islands Harbour, I saw a huge cloud up in the North-East which wasn’t the best thing to see when you are making a crossing that late in the day. Anyway, we were going to make a go of it. I cruised up a little higher along the coast to try and get a good angle towards Spanish Point and we ended up cutting through the Boons barrier reef offshore Blue Waters Hotel. We were going meet head on with the squall in no time and the winds were already licking up the sea throwing angry spray at us as if meant to cause discomfort. Although the sea was getting very choppy, the winds hadn’t been around long enough to make it really rough. I knew with winds this strong it was sure to get rough pretty quickly so I pushed on as quickly as I could doing speeds around 25 knots on average. The rains stung when they arrived but Mykl and I already had our wind breakers on so it wasn’t as bad as I have felt many times on this trip years ago. For the entire trip across we were engulfed in squally conditions and eager to get into the peaceful protection of Spanish Point. It didn’t take that long and pretty soon we were coming down along the breakers into the channel and then behind the barrier reef which protects what the Barbudans call White Bay. As soon as we were anchored up I was ready for getting wet the proper way. I launched one of the Kayaks we had taken with us, and paddled out to the barrier reef with my mask and snorkel. IT was sunset and the fish were exceptionally excited which is usually the case during “the magic hour”. Being out there on the reef that late with all the action happening is as exciting as it is spooky. When I got back to the boat it was time for a shower and some tea. The sky had cleared up and the stars were starting to burst out into view like they can only do in the wilderness. People who don’t get far away from artificial lights never see the sky as the rest of us do on occasions like this. I always am quite awe struck to see this many stars, and find it quite relaxing which is the intended affect one looks for when out camping i guess. Dinner made on the grill seems to always taste so good, and that night it was marinated fresh chicken breast with grilled sweet peppers of various colours. We had snacked a bit too much before dinner and all we could handle was the peppers and chicken. Sleep came fast and intense that night, and I almost didn’t have time to enjoy the gentle sound of water lapping at the boat’s hull.
The next morning I was woken by the Devil!
“Devil”, pronounced “DebbeLL” is a close family friend and lifelong fisherman in Barbuda. His real name is Vernon Joseph and some other time I will have to write about this amazing man. He was taking my uncle and Derek out diving which is what he has been doing since they invented tanks. He scuba dives for fish, conch and lobster commercially by himself outside the barrier reefs in the Atlantic. Every PADI type rule is broken by him every day but there is probably not a better diver anywhere in these islands. He also is one of the fittest sixty something year olds that you will find. After saying “good morning” he and his new crew were off into and out of the channel towards the Atlantic bound for one of his secret dive spots. We had some b’fast and decided to make a move around the east coast towards a cut in the barrier that I know about.

All forecasts described nice calm weather which would mean a nice anchorage inside the reef on the windward side.

IT would be a perfect for beachcombing, fishing, snorkeling and exploring, and all looked like things would be perfect that morning. Once we arrived at the best spot for anchoring just off the beach I decided to set two anchors instead of just one.

After all, we planned on going for a long walk along the deserted beach and wanted to leave the boat safe by itself. Walks on these windward facing deserted beaches are always very enjoyable to me for a number of reasons. Obviously having a beach to oneself is great wherever you are, but the interesting things you see make for a great long walk.

In one of my blogs I wrote about all the flotsam and jetsam that we find here and although we saw loads of other stuff we didn’t manage to find any messages this time.

Garbage on the beach can be very interesting if you know or try to know how it got there.

After a good 90 minutes or so we decided to stop for some lunch which we had packed.

We sat on a huge log that had recently drifted up and it was then that we noticed a massive squall quickly approaching. Summer squalls are frequent in August and usually don’t last long. They approach quickly raising the winds up above 25 knots usually. Once the incredibly heavy rains have chased everyone off the beach the squall passes on leaving lovely sunshine and calm winds in its wake.

We decided to start walking back to the boat after seeing how massive this squall appeared to be. We were going to be in for a strong one and as the winds started to howl I began to worry about my camera….and more importantly the boat 90 minutes away.

Antigua Carnival weekend coming up

Blog sponsored by the good people at: Once again its Carnival here in Antigua and the island is buzzing with activity. IT is actually the 50th year of Carnival in Antigua and instead of being a week long activity…it seems to be going on for 2 weeks this year. Unlike my good friend who run’s http://www.saucytrini.blogspot.com/, I am not Carnival crazy. I did go to quite a few when I was a teen and several when I was in my 20s but I don’t think I ever was in love with carnival in Antigua. Crowds are just not for me usually, and I think that it the main problem. Anyway, I am obviously in the minority with that feeling as can be seen in town at the moment. So far many of the shows have already taken place and there is a new but not young calypso king (who was a tour operator in between his many calypso crowns: Short Shirt) as well as many other winners. We have had a massive influx of Antiguans returning home from their residences abroad and it all looks and sounds like Carnival is being a massive success. Carnival isn’t just about talent shows, concerts, steel bands, parades and parties, it is also a time for many people to take holidays from the island. We get several public holidays and it’s usually a very long weekend off work which my family has used for many years to go camping. Carnival weekend camping trips are a major tradition in my family and we usually pack up the fishing and camping gear into the boats and make the ride across to Barbuda. There we find a secluded spot to set up as base camp. Finding a secluded beach isn’t too hard even these days with more boats on the water than ever. The fishing isn’t usually as good as it is during the long Easter camping weekend, but the water is warmer and clearer so we spend more time snorkeling than fishing. There are many wrecks and interesting things to see in the waters there and generally the weekend is filled with adventure. Adventure Antigua has tours most of this week, but Friday seems to be free on Xtreme. If I can get permission from Nell, my sister, I am going to take Xtreme to Barbuda for the weekend. I did a little practice camping session this past Sunday and have to tell you that it was lovely. I purchased a new little marine camping stove and got a chance to properly test it out in Five Islands harbour during the full moon. We had spent the afternoon counting turtle nests and excavating a recently hatched nest up at Rendezvous bay and cruised down at sunset/moonrise towards Five Islands. On the way we passed Ffreys Bay where there was having a massive concert for Carnival, but that didn't take us away from the sunset.

Apart from the lights at Hermitage Hotel, we were alone in Five Islands Harbour and the moonlight was dazzling. In fact it was so bright that we could see the many Moon Jellyfish in the waters below. Depending on the currents and bays, moon jellyfish congregate in large numbers at this time of year and we had found one of those spots. A bit of midnight skinny dipping would have been a big mistake and a real pain in the ass.

Anyway, the grilled red and yellow peppers with baked potatoes went down beautifully with some medium rare rib eye steaks. Sitting up on the bow with our meal and the moonlight it was hard to imagine a better place to be in the world. The faint booming from the St. Johns sound systems didn’t persuade me that I was missing out. The early morning tea before the eco boat passed us on its way to Hermitage bay was awesome too. The thing works!

Let’s hope that the weather in the Atlantic behaves itself for both carnival revelers and campers alike though. http://www.weathercarib.com/ is keeping an eye on a strong tropical wave to the east of the islands.
I will just leave you with a nice email we received yesterday. We get many lovely emails form many lovely people, but I felt the joy in this one.


From: r1minnie@xxxxxx.com [mailto:r1minnie@xxxxx.com] Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 2:13 PMTo: info@antiguaadventures.comSubject: Thank You Eli Eco Tour!

Hi,I am finally back home in NY after a long week of vacationing. I wanted to take the time to personally thank the entire staff for taking care of me and my other half during our time in Antigua. I didn't think I could climb Bird Island or Hells Gate Island but I can safely say we both made it and back. The guys on the boat were terrific and helped me especially Tony with the snorkeling. Being the first timers of snorkeling, he gave us practice lessons and even helped us out once we were in deep water. The lunch and drinks were delicious. If I decide to do another cruise and Antigua is on that itinerary, I will definitely make it a point to look you up and take another tour, the extreme tour with you. I was a little hesitant on private tours, but I have to say the Eco Tour was the highlight of our trip. I felt like I got my money's worth and more taking your tour.Thanks again for everything and look forward to seeing you again on another trip to Antigua.Take CareInes & Damian

Friends nearly lost at Sea

This blog is sponsored by Caribbean Real Estate Run by Derek seen here in the company plane which is part of the story below.

What a crazy afternoon I had yesterday. The afternoon before, captain Red, who does sailing on private yachts, happened to pass my apartment just as Captain Glen from Creole Cruises pulled up. Glen needed to get one of my phones as he had lost his somehow. I keep a small stock of mobile phones for my crew as they keep destroying them, and Glen came by in need. Anyway we got to talking and Red mentioned that he may about to be hired by Kokomo catamaran to be the skipper of their new boat which had just been launched in St. Vincent. Anyway, he mentioned to Glen and me that apart from the monstrous delays in building the boat there was now a delay in bringing the boat back. He said the boat had been launched on Saturday and was supposed to come straight to Antigua. That was Tuesday evening and there had been no sign of the boat. He also told us that Festus Isaac, the manager of Jolly Harbour Marina, was the one bringing the boat back with a small crew. It’s usually a pretty easy sail usually reaching across below the islands. The longest you would have to be in the open sea is about 50 miles on the last leg from Guadeloupe. Anyway, we finished our beer and said goodnight. Yesterday I had business to do in town and just got back into Jolly Harbour when I got a call from Derek, the owner of Caribbean Real Estate which is the company that sponsored our fishing Team as well as this blog. They own a small plane and employ Bruce who happens to be Festus Isaac’s son. Derek told me that nobody had seen or heard from Festus since he left St. Vincent on Saturday afternoon. Derek who was in Miami heard about this from his pilot Bruce and gave him permission to use the plane to go look for his father. Derek wanted me to go since I knew about boats and the passages. What he didn’t know was that I had been involved with another search for a missing friend who was on the same route many years before. I immediately hoped we would have better results. On our last search we spent two days in a plane scanning the ocean looking for Inigo Ross and his lovely girlfriend. They had left St.Vincent on a hobie cat bound for St Lucia and had equipment failure. The St. Vincent Coast guard dropped the ball and didn’t notify the St. Lucia Coast guard. We only heard about it in Antigua after they had been drifting over night. Even though we had a good idea of where and when they started drifting we never found a thing. Looking at the rough sea below was extremely stressful and depressing. We tried various heights and search patterns and saw some bits and pieces of unrelated flotsam, a few families of dolphins and even schools of flying fish, but in the end we returned home without success. IT was awful and losing Inigo Ross who was the co-founder of Wadadli Cats was a huge blow to me and the island. He was a hero to many.
This time I was very worried once again because we had no idea when they ran into trouble and even worse we had no idea where to start looking. Even the computer searching models that ABSAR had couldn’t really help us. I grabbed Jordan from JHR Caribbean who speaks French in case we needed to speak with any authorities in the French Islands and took off to the airport. Festus’ son Bruce is actually the co-pilot as Martin is the main man behind the helm. I had grabbed a hand held VHF radio from Jolly Harbour Marina. All the employees there were in shock. Everyone loves Festus and we were all very worried. The first people to be concerned about the late arrival were actually Festus’ family. The owner and manager of Kokomo didn’t seem or appear to think that anything was wrong. Bruce was quite frustrated over the phone as you would imagine. I made about 20 phone calls trying to get as much info before we got into the plane. The boat had never had proper sea trials. They didn’t have a life raft. They didn’t have a dinghy. They didn’t have life jackets. They didn’t have an EPIRB which I spoke about on my big crossing blog. They didn’t have a satellite phone. They guys on board didn’t have visas to enter the French islands in between (Martinique and Guadeloupe). They didn’t have roaming on their cellular phones. The picture wasn’t looking pretty at all, but I told Bruce that the last two facts could be very positive reasons why we hadn’t heard from them. If they had run into a little trouble and ducked into one of the islands where they couldn’t use their mobiles and couldn’t clear customs and immigration, then maybe they just couldn’t get in touch. I told him that they were probably just off shore limping back into Antiguan waters as we spoke. I was hoping this would be true. The fuel was finally topped up and we boarded the aircraft. We didn’t get proper clearance so the plan was actually to return to Antigua that night whatever the result. If we had to look more we would leave Antigua early the next morning. While they were doing their last checks and speaking with the tower I sent a text to my crew, family and girlfriend to say that I would be returning later that night. I was waiting for the last of the texts to be delivered when a call from the Manager of Kokomo. As I answered it, Bruce was instructed to tell me to turn off my phone. Interference was coming through on their headphones as they were speaking with the tower. It didn’t matter……..Her words were clear to me: “They have been found!”
I grabbed Bruce as he turned to tell me off and have him the good news. It’s a good thing I had been a little naughty with my phone otherwise we would have been out there searching in the Caribbean Sea until dark seeing nothing but haze and unforgiving waters.

Up until now, I don’t have the story but obviously something went very wrong for them to end up in Saba over four days after they left port. I am so happy that this story had a happy ending. I don’t need to say what lessons should have been learned here as it’s pretty obvious from the facts above. This was a near disaster and I think there needs to be a day when all boats going off-shore are required to carry EPIRBS. I don’t leave home without mine.

Antigua Sea turtle study

I am very proud and happy to say that Adventure Antigua’s two boats are now part of a very important endangered species study. Mykl Clovis, who has a Masters Degree in Environmental Coastal Planning, is helping the Antiguan Environmental Awareness Group do an island wide turtle study. The Environmental Awareness Group Sea Turtle Conservation project is now just two months old. The goal is to find out what kind of turtles nest here, how many nest here, where the nesting is taking place and to create awareness about these amazing creatures. So far she has 17 dedicated volunteers roaming beaches across the island at all hours trying to collect data. It’s truly amazing, but apart from the extensive scientific data collected over on Pasture Bay on Jumby Bay’s Long Island (which we speak about on the eco tour), there is no info about Antigua’s turtle populations or their nesting habits. As I said in a previous blog entry, these endangered species are extremely important in many ways. This project, co-sponsored by the UK’s Fauna and Flora Flagship Species Fund, aims to help species that have ecological and cultural importance. This is perfect as our turtles have extremely important cultural significance. Like I said in the other blog, they are on our passports and our money and very important to our tourism product as well.
Tony on the Eco Tour and JD on the Xtreme tour are now responsible for checking several beaches along the coast and on the tours each day for turtle crawls and nests. Both boats keep an eye on Pinchin Beach, Hawksbill’s nude beach, and “Shafflers” beach as they both pass close to these. On certain days they collect from other beaches like Yeptons and Deep Bay and will collect data from there if they see crawls. The Eco boat will also collect data from Bird Island’s two beaches and Xtreme will get info on two of Green Island’s beaches as well as from Rendezvous Bay. So far this week, the boys have reported 3 fresh nests which is exciting. Mykl is already getting some fantastic data from her other volunteers which is quickly describing which beaches are critically important for turtle nesting. One such beach is Darkwood Beach on Antigua’s South-west coast. Here Jepson Prince is one of the volunteers. He has been employed at Jumby Bay for years and has always taken a keen interest in their own turtle project taking part in quite a bit of their important study. With his home town being Crab Hill, he has always been interested in the nesting that takes place there and had a wealth of knowledge about nesting in the area even before the project started. He is 100% dedicated to Antiguan sea turtles. Wouldnt it be nice to see Jumby Bay send him off island on some sort of scholarship? He and other volunteers have had many turtles come up to nest over the past month, but unfortunately there has been a poacher taking eggs when they weren’t there. Two weeks ago there was a report of this same poacher actually killing a turtle. The volunteers went looking for the remains of the once majestic creature and were terribly upset to find its undignified resting place in the bush behind the beach.

This prehistoric creature only comes up onto the beach once every few years after it reaches maturity will not be returning again. Only female turtles come ashore and they can only nest on beaches. To get to maturity and to this beach, she's had to pass almost insurmountable odds and it’s just so sad that one person has put a stop to it all.

Depending on which study you read and where the study was conducted you may see that only 1 in 3000 or as bad as 1 in 10000 eggs reach maturity. She may never have an offspring that is able to nest. Maturity in general is somewhere between 20 and 40 years depending on many different factors.

Of course it is totally illegal to kill these endangered animals or even to touch their eggs but unfortunately there are still a few people here doing the damage. There are millions of factors which do harm to the turtles, and in Antigua poachers are not the biggest problem. The worst problem is that our people don’t understand how all the factors come together to wipe out our important indigenous animals and plants. These animals were here before us and unfortunately will be wiped out very quickly unless change is made. Creating awareness of the issues and problems as well as the positive things will help. Studies like this one will end up being a very important tool in the fight to protect the ever disappearing habitat too. After all it is habitat destruction which is more of a problem here in Antigua than poachers. Key nesting beaches are on the move towards development and great care needs to be taken when making the plans. Anyway, for now this is a great push to gain info and to educate our island about the sea turtles that were here long before the ancient amerindians lived here. Keep an eye open for crawls while you are here on the island or on a boat trip. Call the turtle hotline on (+1 268) 773 8448 and leave a message if you see a nesting or someone troubling a nest. As with most things to do with "saving the environment" EACH OF US CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

200 miles from the BVI to Antigua

This Antigua Blog is sponsored by Caribbean Real Estate:

After the prize giving at the HIHO windsurfing adventure we went back to the boats for a few hours sleep. The plan was to get up and out very early the next morning. Coming back on the boat to St Martin was Jean-Marc and Ricardi, the two from St Barts and my crew, Tony and JD. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy because the winds were up again fairly strong. Our last stop in the BVI before we hit the Atlantic was at the very top of the Eustatia Sound on the North-East side of Virgin Gorda. It is lovely up there and a nice place to stop for a breakfast with the gang. Unfortunately most of the people on board managed to lose it somehow before we got back to St. Martin. It was rough and if you are not used to being in the open Atlantic on a rough day for 5 hours solid then it can be a challenge. The boat took a beating and I don’t think any of our trip could be described as being fun. IT was incredibly hazy as well and we didn’t see St. Martin until we got a few miles off. I guess this part was fun for the guys who had been sick as they all got very excited for the first time since we left the BVI hours before. We got in too late to clear customs and immigration, but released our residents from the boat anyway. (Not legal I guess) I held on to their passports to clear in early the next morning. St Martin can be a pretty relaxed port and many boats don’t ever bother to clear in or out when visiting the Dutch side. I did things almost by the book by clearing in and out the next morning. It got incredibly rough and we made the decision to wait an extra day before we did the last 90+ miles back to Jolly Harbour, and the home of Adventure Antigua. We had quite a few boat bits and pieces to buy there and spent the day shopping and of course having the obligatory stop at a fast food joint. We don’t have either McDonalds or Burger King in Antigua yet thank God and many Antiguans make a stop at one of these places when traveling abroad. After all the nice food we had in the BVI, Burger King just wasn’t as good as it usually was. After some more crazy St. Martin traffic and some more rushed shopping we were tired and ready for an easy dinner and some sleep. We went to the Green House bar where we could check the weather from my laptop and have a relaxed dinner. Yes this is me with +1 specs on! JD snapped this pic of me and tony checking the weather. I now have to use glasses to use my laptop. Tony and JD were drunk with tiredness.

IT had been a great trip for us and it was very nice to just be chilling with the core crew on the last night. As you can see, Tony felt the same:

We managed to escape St Martin the next morning without having any more fast food, and the best thing about it was that the winds had gone down. We went straight up to St Barts to have some lunch that we had gotten before we left St Martin. We were not allowed to clear into St Barts so just held on to a mooring on the national park outside their main harbour. Antiguans can’t go to any of the French Islands without a European visa, but we still managed to have a nice lunch offshore there. I also jumped over to see how nice the snorkeling was at their park. Mom I didn’t wait 30 minutes after eating either……hehe
The snorkeling was nice, but had plenty of current. I think it was better suited for scuba too as it was mostly very deep. After getting a good sting on my face I stayed just a bit longer to see a cuda and some jacks and the type of jelly that stung me and I was out. IT was a strange jellyfish that I had never seen before and the sting was nasty although it only lasted for about 5 minutes. Once back on board we started cruising back to Jolly. It wasn’t too bad and JD and Tony went and stood up on the bow for most of the ride home. Half way there JD shouted “Dolphins” and I then saw about a dozen Atlantic Spotted Dolphins playing around the bow. I did this little video with our new small camera.

We did quick time to Antigua and got in well before Customs, Immigration and the Port Authority were due to close. They had told me when we were leaving that they now closed after 6 pm, but in true Antiguan style the only person at the office in Jolly Harbour was Customs. This was just after 5 pm and he stayed the whole hour doing nothing at all. I asked him if there were forms that I could fill in, but he insisted that I couldn’t do anything until the other offices opened up the next morning. The next morning we waited for them to open and as expected it was customs this time who was late……almost an hour. Anyway, the new shift was all very nice and got us cleared into Antigua and Barbuda without much trouble. Tony and JD had to leave me as they were working on the other boat. We had had enough play time and now had to be back at work. IT had been quite an adventure and we were almost immediately thinking about where our next one would be.

the final of the HIHO windsurging regatta

The final day of racing at the HIHO windsurfing regatta started with almost no wind. This wasn’t good as I needed to get rid of my DNS (did not start) by finishing a fifth race. With 5 races the organizers discard your worst result and add up the rest. In my class, The One Design (Techno class) I had 3 first place finishes and a 50th for not starting a race. Without a final race I would place somewhere around 15th overall. This wasn’t good at all and I hoped the wind was gonna pick up. One of the people hoping it wouldn’t was my good friend and part of our Adventure Antigua crew from St. Martin, Jean Mark. Without the “throw out” or fifth race he was sitting in first place overall. We went up to Sandy Cay which is a little sandy island in the lee of Tortola to get ready for a race.

I didn’t regret sitting out the race and would leave it up to the wind god to decide what would happen that day. IT was so beautiful up there and we rigged up the sails slowly and relaxed peacefully in the shade.

I could feel Tony getting upset that this was our last full day in the BVI. It had been a trip of a lifetime for him so far and although JD had been missing Antigua’s two biggest parties of the year The White Fete and the Blue Jeans Fete, he was also enjoying the time in the BVI. I took this pic of them playing in Sir Richard Branson's swimming pool.

Rusty, the race director wanted desperately to have a 5th race and would even have a sixth if the winds were strong enough. He decided to send us out to try and do a race before lunch. It was very light and not enough to get up moving with any speeds. After the start we limped up to the windward mark…..it was going to be a hot long boring race around Sandy Cay despite how beautiful it all was.

Sitting in about 8th place at the windward mark, I wasn’t surprised to see the abandonment flag flying from a chase boat and turned around to head back to the shore. We had lunch before I could eat that last mouthful the winds picked up out of nowhere. I would never have guessed the winds would have come back and Rusty who wasn’t as surprised quickly sent us back out to the start line. It could be a tricky race because after you had gotten around the choppy windward side of the island and raced across towards Sandy Spit, you had to navigate back under the lee side between anchored yachts and find your way to the finish on the opposite side of the island.

I had a so so start and immediately had to look at Ricardi and Nat Ford up ahead. I managed to stay close to them until the gusty and fluky leeward side of the island. Nat who was ahead of me went low to try and search for better winds away from the yachts, but I decided to stay as close as possible to the island hoping for some of the coast bending effects of the winds there. I managed to find some lucky gusts and all of a sudden appeared out from underneath the island way ahead. Funny how luck can be some times…...or was it the wind god? One of my Dad’s buddies says to me sometimes “it’s because you are a first born…..luck travels with you”. I dunno about that, but winning that final race meant that I had not only won my division in HIHO but had won the event overall too beating the open division as well. This wasn’t what I had expected to do and not at all what I had set out from Antigua to do. I thought I would be able to do a few races and would treat this trip as more of an adventure with my close friends than as a competitive windsurfing regatta. It ended up being both. Being able to race without major knee pain and still be competitive was a blessing and I felt more than just luck.

But walking up to the finish flag I did feel that luck had been on my side as well…..what were the chances?

Later that night at the prize giving sitting at a table with the rest of the awesome Antigua/St Martin crew .......

I felt overwhelmed…….. Lucky and blessed!

Life is short and sometimes you have to take chances and risks. The knee pain which came a week later and I am feeling now……is and was worth it. I am sure Mr. Justin Cobb may not be happy next time he sees my knee but he’ll understand.