JHR Caribbean Real Estate Regatta final day.

Yesterday was day two of the JHR Caribbean Regatta put on by the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club and from very early in the morning the winds sounded like they would be better for Ocean Nomad. The day before had been very frustrating with extremely light and shifty winds. When the crew and I left Jolly Harbour we could see the white caps coming down from Jolly Beach. It was blowing a good 14-18 knots before the start and we sailed around to get everyone on board ready for battle. There were going to be three races and we had to win all three in order to beat Alexis Andrew's "Genesis" which was the other 40 foot Carriacou sloop in the classic yacht class.

Race one started just after 11 am and we were out front from the start. Alexis managed to catch us on the down wind leg and the lead changed a few times during the race. We ended up getting some very good lifts upwind and managed to beat them convincingly. Race two was interesting with us almost getting an "over early" at the start just hitting the line exactly on time. Some of the crew thought we jumped the gun but the race committee called "all clear" on the VHF radio and on we went. The lead changed a few times, but we were ahead for most of the race and ended up winning. We now had beaten Genesis three times to their two against us, and there was one more race to go. We started very well again but the winds had died considerably and our pointing ability was suffering. Genesis lead for most of the race, but it was neck and neck until the last leg when the winds got light again and they pulled away to win their third race matching our results. We were all extremely happy with a draw. It had been Jason's first race and he was delighted. It had only been my second regatta as skipper on a Carriacou sloop and to finish tied with the veteran crew on Genesis was good enough for me to be happy as well. The photos were taken by my GF. Thanks babe!

Wind don't blow like it used to blew

Race one of the Jolly Harbour Regatta was held yesterday in extremely light and shifty conditions with a rain cloud hanging over the area for most of the day. Team www.sailing-antigua.com was ready.Conditions were extremely frustrating because wind shifts were happening constantly and gusts would just appear and disappear. Luck and skill were involved as is the case usually in these conditions with luck not coming our way enough. Our competition was the other 40 foot Carriacou sloop Genesis and the racing was more like match racing than fleet racing. What was most frustrating was seeing Genesis just four boat lengths away from us sailing nicely in a patch of wind while we sat stalled in a glassy patch of no wind. It was neck and neck most of the way with us performing better when the winds were higher and them performing when it got very light. We had 7 guys on board a full tank of fuel and a full water tank. Genesis had three guys on board, no water tank and a much smaller engine and fuel tank. Weight is good when it's windy, but in the very light conditions we were at a slight disadvantage. All excuses aside, we finished first in one race and behind them in two races. It was all extremely close with lead changes throughout, so concentration was at a peak all day. I was very tired by the end, and i am sure that the other guys were just as "spent".

Winds are forecast to be higher today so we are hoping for conditions to be better for us. Will let you know. Chris and JD took Xtreme out to see the racing with my mom and Mykl, but the weather didn't cooperate. These photos were taken by Chris.

Jolly Harbour Sailing Regatta Day one

Before 8 am the winds are very light hovering somewhere around 10 knots. Yesterday I motored our Carriacou sloop Ocean Nomad

over to the brand new and very fancy B Dock in Jolly Harbour. Charles Kenlock came over to congratulate me for being the first boat to ever throw lines on to his new dock. Adventure Antigua's day sailing boat was looking fantastic! Later in the afternoon Genesis came alongside with her skipper Alexis Andrews and his family. It was good to see the two 40 foot Carriacou sloops together again and interesting to look at the slight differences too. Anyway, there should be 5 races today in Five Islands Harbour and outside Jolly Harbour and the two sloops will be match racing the whole time. We are in the Cruising Class with just three classics with all the other cruisers. The faster Racing Class boats will be starting behind us but doing the same course. Our crew will be sporting our new T-shirts. It should be fun. Party at foredeck and castaways later.

A little day sailing.

With day charters and tours just about to start on Ocean Nomad which is Adventure Antigua's newest project we are doing quite a bit of sailing to figure out what works best. Classic Yacht Sailing is the name of the tour that we will offer to the hotels and will be a mix of day sailing, snorkeling, sailing education, history and ecology. Our tours and trips are usually designed to be slightly different than what's on offer and we are trying to design the tour with all that in mind at the moment.
This past weekend we decided to go sailing with some friends on the approximate route that we would take on a proper tour. It was very windy and quite rough out in the open which made for good practice and good fun. Speaking of practice, there is a regatta this weekend which we will be taking part in. We have all the crew in place and did some proper training yesterday too. Anyway, the video is a collection of movies we did on our mellow cruise on Sunday. Hope you enjoy. The music is from the Album Blue Lines by Massive Attack.

Lord and Lady Bollocks

So while having a drink at what is now a traditional TGIF after work session at Foredeck in Jolly Harbour, some of the Adventure Antigua crew told me about the funniest story I have heard come from the boats in a while. There was a group of six British people on the Xtreme Circumnav and the rest of the guests were mostly from the USA. Anyway, Cpt. JD takes the guests up the North side of Antigua into the Sound passing all the little islands including hells gate seen here from a photo taken on the Eco Tour

and then moves through the myriad of coral reef dodging shallow spots over towards Stingray City. Just like normal, JD and the crew organize drinks for everyone there before giving a snorkeling lesson/refresher course. Then JD introduces the guys from the park who give their briefings before everyone goes into the waters for the first snorkeling session of the day... this time with the rays and other fish inside the park.



Anyway, while setting up drinks one of the Brits said to another "My Lord, what would you like to drink?" With that simple question JD says that one of the Americans up front nearly dropped her drink. He said he saw her eyes almost pop out of her head. Later while they were getting ready to get into the water the lady asked one of the Brits if it was true that he was a Lord. Without any hesitation the man said, "why yes madam. I am Lord Bollocks". JD said that the lady looked so amazed and quickly turned to the gentleman's wife and asked if she that meant she was a "Lady". The wife says "yes i am Lady Bollocks". JD nearly wet himself but didn't know what to do about the situation. The Brits were clearly having a good laugh at the expense of one of his guests. Anyway, the tour went on and not much was said more on the topic thankfully.

At lunch one of the other American guests asked "Lord Bollocks" if he lived in a huge house. Without flinching or smiling at all, "Lord Bollocks" said that he lived in at "Bollocks Castle" with a great many servants. Some of the guests asked the Lords if they could take photos of them and they agreed to pose for the pics.
For those of you who don't know, "bollocks" is an old English word for testicles. Check the wiki definition which sums it up pretty well.

I am not sure what I would have done on that tour if I were skipper. That was pretty mean of the Lord and Lady (and the other Brits on board), but the American lady seemed very impressed and happy to have met some British "royalty". You can imagine the story back at the ship that night. In a way there was no harm done because nobody seemed to figure it out, but that doesn't make it right. Should JD have taken the Brits aside and told them to stop? I dunno. Anyway, to all Americans reading this please be aware of the meaning of bollocks so that you may never fall for this one! AND to the Brits reading this: please stop making fun of people!!!!! VERY NAUGHTY!!!
Here is the Xtreme vid for those who haven't seen it:

Sushi in Antigua

Up until now there have been several places to enjoy sushi in Antigua with Sandals resort being one of them, The Beach Restaurant being another and a few other places which kinda make an effort at sushi specials from time to time. This has changed now.
My sister Nell who manages much of the island wide marketing as well as bookings has always been interested in being a chef. Back in the late 90s she went to the UK to do some sort of cordon bleu course I think. Coming from Antigua, that wasn't her kinda style but it did give her the experience she needed to better pursue other areas. Growing up here we did manage to enjoy a huge variety of fresh seafood and in those days getting it wasn't difficult. When away in Florida at college, Nell discovered sushi for the first time and fell in love with it's simple yet exquisite nature. She prepared sushi for us quite a few times over the years and had always wanted to learn more. Finally a few years ago she took some time off from booking tours with us and went to the California Sushi Academy to learn how to do it properly. These pics show her at school there (i stole them from her facebook page): The boss and owner looks like the kind of guy you don't want to mess with. Chef Ramsey wouldn't stand a chance!
A good thing she did well!!
Since she returned to Antgua she has been doing sushi catering while still working for Adventure Antigua.
Recently an old school friend asked Nell to come to the cafe he was running to see if she'd like to try a sushi night there once a week. Moka Cafe is at the top of Redcliffe Quay in St. Johns and is in the top floor of an old colonial style building. Since they started sushi night it has been very busy. Each week tables are booked solid. In fact we had to wait three weeks to get our seating. Anyway, they have a menu with a selection of about 6 different rolls to pick from as well as a few sashimi items too. The sushi is made in front of the dining room as your order comes in, and you can go have a look how the rolls are made. As you know, sushi done properly is a beautiful thing. The results were fantastic and we all ate far too much to the point where we could hardly walk. Anyway, with drinks the bill for four of us came to US $135 which we thought was excellent value. You should go check it out for sure!

Another animal rescue

If you remember reading about the flooding in Omar you will remember that Jolly Harbour and Piggotts had some of the worst in very isolated areas that essentially ended up being huge drains. In Jolly Harbour we saw two helicopters get washed away from where they were anchored. We saw coolers, a boat and storage boxes a pig and a very large SUV all get washed into the sea. My company truck seen here could only go so far and I couldn't get home for three hours. I didn't see Piggotts, but my cousin Annabel reporting for the Daily Observer managed to get some photos of the area while driving around. You can see from these images how badly flooded a section in that village got. Judging from how much junk managed to get pushed into the sea in Jolly Harbour, I can only imagine how much got pushed into Fitches Creek and Parham during that storm. The topic of this blog is animal rescue and we are not talking about a fur seal or sea lion like the ones in this other blog. And other than what i have said about the pig in Jolly Harbour I can only add that my friend Dino managed to help get it out of the harbour using a kayak seen here. This blog is about a little dog.
Last week my good friend Stevie Mendes, who helped me bring the sloop from Carriacou last April, was out with a friend on a little boston whaler speed boat doing a little fishing and exploring. They came to a little island called Rat Island just outside Parham Harbour and for some strange reason they decided to go ashore. On it they found an extremely hungry dog that in my opinion had been there for 4 weeks slowly starving to death. Hurricane Omar missed Antigua but we managed to get flooding from one of the feeder bands that came off the storm. My theory is that in all the flooding loads of stuff got washed into the sea including this dog. Rat Island is just outside the bay where much of the Piggotts flooding poured into the sea at a place the old charts called Winthorps Foot Creek. The dog managed to swim to the island where it had been for four weeks hoping that one of the passing boats would pick it up. Stevie and Gareth were on a very small boat and decided to come back for it later with a bigger boat. They called Chris who works for me and asked him if he'd help them later. Chris had a bigger boat and went down to the area once the tours had finished to help. The got to the island in the dark and at first couldn't find the poor creature. With flash lights they finally managed to find her under a rocky ledge. Chris said the dog could hardly move and was afraid as well. They had brought some food and water and lured it to come out of its hiding place. Eventually Chris wrapped it in a towell he took along and put her in the boat. He told me he would be calling The Antigua Humane Society and PAWS the next morning so that they could take the dog. I thought that's what had happened, but found out today that Chris had decided to keep her. Guili is her name now and she couldn't be with a better person. That's the animal rescue story for today. Many animals in storms don't end up as lucky as this dog. These dogs were seen trying to find shelter after the storm in St. Johns. There always are a bunch of strays running around after storms.I understand that over 11,000 chickens perished in the storm here as well as several horses and quite a few pigs. Flooding seems to be the most deadly thing in storms and even though this was the second time in living memory that we have had such floods we need to be more prepared next time. I hope to have a photo of Chris with guili soon, but you can see Chris in this part of our crew's bio. Like i said in that section, Chris is always willing to go the extra mile to help someone or something.
(all the images here in today's blog were taken by Annabel Fuller except the pig ones which were taken by Lisa Reynolds)

Antigua Tourism Week

This week is the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Week and to start off with they had a symposium last night at the Chinese built Multi-Purpose Center with a variety of speakers including the Minister of Tourism, Harold Lovell who gave a opening speech on the status of the tourism industry. There were also a speech by Adel Blair who is the acting chief within the Environment Division (which by the way falls under Harold Lovell's ministry). Her speech was on Sustainable Development which was kind of strange to hear after Harold spoke about all the development that would be coming to Antigua over the next few years including some that are due to happen in extremely delicate ecological areas. She highlighted the need for change within the government on it's stance on sand mining, the building of jetties and groynes, the cutting of mangroves, the dumping of waste and so on. Many of the things that i have written in this blog over the past two years were spoken about by her as well and i have to tell you that i found it brave of her. People like Adele must get so angry when she sees the UPP government ignoring intelligent advice from the Ministry of Environment. The ALP were just as bad but the strange thing about this one is that they say they are going to adhere to "sustainable development" practices and do the complete opposite.
Another excellent speaker was Hilary Modeste who is a highly educated and impressive speaker from St. Lucia who is on the island currently working for Jolly Beach Hotel as their main marketing man. He has an incredible resume and I think that he has much to offer the people of Antigua and Barbuda with his life long experience in tourism development at the highest level. Jolly Beach is lucky to have him on board. I just found this little piece on him at a recent travel market in the UK. It's mostly about Jolly Beach and doesn't show how impressive a speaker he is, but at least you know who i am speaking about.

His speech was about the need to match marketing with product value so that a consistent message about the brand can be achieved. IT was almost a lecture, but he did give some great info and spoke about some problems we have here in Antigua and how they compare to similar situations in St. Lucia where he was director of tourism and also the person behind their Jazz Festival.
There were also speakers on finance and crime.
One thing that stood out to me as a person in the activities sector (or complimentary services as some called it) was the fact that three of the speakers there including Harold Lovell spoke about the need for us in Antigua to have more "attractions". Lovell said that St. Martin had double the number of attractions that we had here. The panelists asked if we didn't have any entrepreneurs here and asked why people were not more imaginative. They also spoke about coming up with regulations that would ensure that some there was some consistency in the running of tours and other attractions. I listened and found it hard not to get frustrated. The Antigua and Barbuda Excursions Alliance which i was a member of, tried for over a year to get our concerns recognized by the Ministry of Tourism. So many of the things that they speak about on these Tourism meetings deal with things we tried to raise with the Ministry. We got absolutely nowhere and after being pushed around and around with people within the ministry who had been told to look after us we got frustrated and gave up trying to work as a group. When the discussion side of the symposium came up I had to get something off my chest. I said that in fact we have as many "attractions" as St. Martin did. I wanted to say that according to our members we had too many excursions but didn't have the time. The market here on the island is saturated with things to do and see and many of them never get a chance for other reasons which we tried to speak with the Ministry about. The running and marketing of excursions and "attractions" in Antigua is an extremely complex situation that is not easy to understand. At the moment the average Antiguan is at a competitive disadvantage than to someone who arrives from abroad to start an excursion company. There are many loop holes and barriers that Antiguan companies face in this sector which foreign companies don't. It was frustrating to hear the uninformed Minister preach about what we should do after not hearing our problems. We would love to diversify and add more excursions and attractions but Antiguans would stand a better chance if they were coming from the UK to do so. I think i showed my frustration which was a mistake, but hopefully Mr. Lovell and others will understand that Antiguan excursion operators and Antiguans who would like to be excursion operators are facing difficult times and want to be able to be listened to as a group. We are still waiting to be helped on any of our core issues. This was the original letter given to Mr. Lovell when the UPP won the election back in 2004 (we never got a meeting with him):

Antigua Barbuda Excursions Alliance


Mr. Harold E. Lovell
The Ministry of Tourism
Antigua and Barbuda

Dear Sir:

On behalf of the newly formed Antigua Barbuda Excursions Alliance, we, the elected Board of representatives, would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your recent appointment as Minister of Tourism.
We are confident that you and your team will create positive inroads into the development of the Tourism Product of Antigua and Barbuda, and we all feel that this new government will make massive improvements to the mechanics of the Product with you at the helm. It is with this in mind that we as excursion operators came together recently and started this alliance. The ABEA is a non profit company set up to give our members a louder unified voice in an effort to make our part of the Tourism Product shine in a way that is has never done. We wish to have a meeting with you at your earliest convenience.
On behalf of our members, we would like to discus the following common issues with you:
1. Fair representation of our tours to the tourists in this country.
2. Protection for indigenous operators.
3. Duty Free concessions and Tax structure.
4. Environmental protection of our key sites.
5. Member privilege.
6. Transportation
7. Rules and Regulations for operators.

Once again we are delighted that you are at the helm, and we are sure that we can all exceed the expectations of our visitors and stakeholders. Enclosed you will find a list of our members. We look forward to meeting with you.
Sincerely,
Eli Fuller, Nick Cheremeteff, Eustace Armstrong, Conrad Labarrie, Laurance Gonsalves

Antigua Barbuda Excursions Alliance

A youtube video of the Sea Lion disaster unfolding.

If you want more info on how this Sea Lion managed to get to be on a main road in Antigua then goto this link after seeing the video found on youtube taken by plugs20.

Say hi to Jason

Jason has been working with Adventure Antigua since May when he came aboard to help finish Ocean Nomad. He calls it his baby and he has been the most dedicated person in getting her to the stage that she is at now. Seen here yesterday, Jason is finally at the stage where he can go sailing on her with me instead of spend his days sanding, painting, cutting, scraping and any other number of things we have had to do over the past 6 months. I remember when we were cutting almost 5 thousand pounds of lead to use at the boats internal ballast during the first days he was with the company. The lead came from a huge sailing yacht that had been destroyed in a fire. It was probably one of the worst jobs anyone working with us has ever had to do. Cutting lead with a chainsaw in the hot Antiguan sunshine without any shade isn't easy. We had to weigh every piece too. One of the things we tried to do was cut the pieces as big as possible so that we could limit the amount of chainsaw work we did. Some pieces were as big as 90 kilos or just under 200 lbs which is nearly twice as much as Jason weighs. Jason is not a very big guy at all but like Tony he is way stronger than he looks. During all that lead cutting and lead lifting he didn't complain a bit. In fact, the lead wasn't the only nasty job. We also had to paint a tar like substance all over the interior of the boat after sanding all the mildew off the wood. That was Jason's first week and he's been working hard every since. Sitting back and sailing now is a joy for him and he's very excited to be the first mate on this boat. Look for him this winter if you are on the boat with us. For more info on the boat you can goto http://www.sailing-antigua.com/This was another photo from yesterday's sailing session:

Noah's Park - the Sea Lion disaster.

When Mykl received a call on her mobile midday on Sunday she was surprised to see the 911 digits appearing on her phone’s screen. They had kept her number on file as being someone who could deal with Turtle related problems and I suppose general environmental questions that they couldn’t answer. The dispatcher told mykl that there was a “seal” on the road at Darkwood Beach and asked her to come down and give some assistance to the police. Mykl Clovis is an Environmental Awareness Group advisor and runs their turtle program as well.
Anyway, in an amazing bit of fate she had received an email from an environmental group in one of the other islands last week which told a story of a marine “park” disaster. During the passing of Hurricane Omar large waves broke the concrete barrier of the US $16 million dollar facility called Marine world. This passage was taken from a St. Kitts website:

“Marine World St. Kitts – Currently under construction on South Friar’s Bay Beach on the island’s southern peninsula, Marine World boasts 4 acres of world class facilities. It will feature a stingray lagoon, dolphin encounters including swimming with dolphins, an educational hut where visitors can learn about marine life, a beach bar and grill and a nature trail and aviary with tropical birds, butterflies and even a few local green vervet monkeys. The park will also showcase other interaction-friendly marine creatures such as sea lions and nurse sharks. In addition, Marine World St. Kitts will offer watersports that are carefully selected in order not to disturb the marine life. To provide the best possible environment for the dolphins, the park will have a marine biologist on site, large dolphin areas, constant filtration of seawater and maximum utilization of natural surroundings. Total cost of the project is approximately $16 million. Construction is expected to be complete for a summer 2006 opening.”

Thankfully the zoo didn’t have dolphins at the time as they would have surely perished. Captive dolphins lose the ability to feed for themselves as did (alien species) sea lions in this case.
Anyway, with this info Mykl tried four numbers listed for the St. Kitts zoo all of which didn’t seem to be working. We jumped in my truck and headed down to the scene and what a scene it was. It was like something out of a weird nightmare unfolding before us. Right in the middle of the main “highway” in the corner of the road there was a massive crowd of people and police. Cars were left parked all over the road and in the middle of all the chaos was a very emaciated sea lion. I think several people who had helped save a wild seal that had washed up a few years ago were trying to get it into a tub and into the back of a truck. The sea lion wasn’t playing that game though and despite several people and police officers trying to contain it the lion managed to get over the concrete wall coming down on the rocky beach side. The Tamarind Hills development which is tearing up the hillside and adjacent shoreline wasn’t the ideal place for a sea lion to come up. People were screaming commands left and right trying to control the crowd and prevent people or the animal from getting hurt. Several officers were trying to get the road unblocked too, but despite their valiant efforts the situation was out of control. “Put the animal back in the water” shouted one guy, then another, and another. “Take it to the ice factory” shouted others. Concerned people had brought bags and bags of ice for the animal and bottles of fresh water were being poured on it. Imagine being in the Caribbean for 6 months, getting lost, not eating anything for a month then finally washing up on a beach and getting ice water thrown all over your face and body.
On the way to the beach I called Mrs. Kelsick who is a good friend’s mom. She is originally from St. Kitts and I knew her brother was involved in government there. He may have even been minister of tourism at one time. Anyway, she said she would have him call me. Of course there was no phone reception below the hill where the sea lion chaos was unfolding. With all the people screaming and yelling and the animal in obvious distress I knew something had to be done quickly to contain the situation. I asked a friend who manages Sugar Ridge’s landscaping if he knew where we could get some fencing wire and some poles. Sure enough he was the man. Melrose and I jumped back in my truck and managed somehow to escape the area bound for his house. On the way there Marine World General Manager, Peter Noah, finally called me from St. Kitts. He had gotten my message from the Kelsicks and said that he and his team would be in a plane and on their way to Antigua within an hour. He said that they would be sending a 60 foot boat that evening as well. He told me that we didn’t need to fence it and all we needed to do was to leave the animal alone until he got there. YA RIGHT!
When I left the beach just minutes before a fleet of Sunday jet skies and boats had arrived and joined in the spectacle. I made the decision that if we didn’t get the animal safely contained then something worse was going to happen. I also imagined that if it decided that Antigua's sea lion hospitality wasn’t that great, then it would probably swim out to sea again it may be lost for good. The poor creature looked so thin tired. It was a 65 mile swim to Antigua and right into the waves. Imagine doing that with no way of feeding yourself.
Since I couldn’t get through to Mykl back at the beach I figured I would just call 911 to pass on the info. I have to tell you that the 911 people here are fantastic these days. What an amazing change that has taken place there. The lady there asked what was the nature of my emergency and I quickly explained that I had info about the sea lion to pass on to the officers there. She immediately patched me through to the Bolans Police Station who then patched me through to the officer in charge at Darkwood Beach. Corporal Taylor in between yelling commands told me that the sea lion had gone back into the water. I told him that the Marine World people were on their way and had asked that the animal be left alone. I told the officer that we were bringing the wire back to fence it on the beach if it came ashore again in an effort to bring some control to a situation that would get out of control once again. He agreed and told me to hurry.
We got back 20 minutes later and almost everyone had gone. The sea lion had followed a jet ski slowly going towards the next beach just around the corner. Ffreyes beach was where we went too and up on the North side just below Dennis’ Restaurant was the sea lion. As we arrived five or six jet skies were at the water’s edge almost like killer whales looking for some fresh meat. To be fair I think one of them had actually guided it to the beach. Approaching from the south side of the beach was a growing crowd almost looking like a mob, and mykl and I tried to let them know that they had to give the animal room. With the help of three or four guys we quickly erected the fence more to keep people away from the animal than anything else and in my opinion it was safer there than it had been since the waves had broken down it’s last place of captivity.
Four sea lions and four fur seals had escaped during that storm on October 16th and had been spotted over a 250 mile span in the northern Caribbean. Only one of the fur seals had been recovered and this was the third sea lion that had been found. Helicopters boats and planes had all taken part in the recovery of these precious animals. I use the word precious for a reason. These are more cash cows than sea lions and the 16 million dollar facility will be the main cruise tourism attraction on the twin island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. There are hundreds of reasons why marine mammels shouldn’t be kept in captivity and this disaster was one of the main arguments against our own Dolphin Fantasies which kept dolphins over at Runaway beach some years ago. The Caribbean gets hurricanes and this type of disaster is almost a sure bet. These sea lions were captured off Uruguay about a year ago and sent to St. Kitts back in April. They have been fed frozen north American fish since then and have no idea how to catch fish in these waters which is why the animals lost so much weight. When it left St. Kitts it weighed about 230 lbs and was still growing. We thought it weighed about 180 now. No food for four weeks.
Before Peter Noah left St. Kitts he asked me to find a place to keep the animal overnight where they could administer treatment to it. I made a few trips to jolly harbour and dozens of phone calls to try to find a suitable place. One of my friends offered his gated deck which I had a look at and thought would possibly be ok.
When the Marine world people arrived just after sunset they poured out of the taxi and rushed right past us to the enclosure. Very shortly afterwards Peter, who I introduced myself to, started getting slightly agitated calling shots left and right to his people and others. Several Antigua Fisheries officials had been on the scene since very early on and had been waiting for Peter and his crew so that they could offer help. The police had been there all the time as well trying to keep people from getting too close to the make shift enclosure. So many people had volunteered help. Dennis had given us four or five buckets which several boys had been using to get water from the sea in order to keep the sea lion moist. We didn’t know if this was the right thing to do but since it was fenced we decided we should keep it wet. Melrose had left one of his employees to help and look after the fence too. Peter and his marine world trainers didn’t seem to appreciate all the help that had been afforded and as soon as he came the helpful attitude of all around seemed to diminish. Several hours of feeding and medication passed while we tried to find a suitable place to keep the animal. Peter had dismissed the deck almost as a joke. The Fisheries officers said that they may have a room that could work and went off with Peter to check on it. An hour later the sea lion was netted and put in the back of my truck bound this time for the Japanese built fisheries plant. (the story behind that plant is a whole other story!)
Finally at minutes to 9 pm the trainers and the vet were safely looking after their animal and we were free to go. The police hadn't had a drink since the morning. We were all over it. I picked up the fence poles and wire with Melrose’s guy and dropped it off at his house and the adventure was done.
There can be no doubt that seeing a sea lion is an amazing experience, but the cost and risks to the intelligent animals associated with having them in a park are far too high for me to enjoy the glimpse. Yesterday the boat arrived to take the precious sea lion back to the zoo which will be it’s home until the next hurricane.
Some say we shouldn’t have let the zoo keepers just come for their animal like they did, but what was the alternative. The marine mammal doc that came along with them said that if the sea lion had come up on US territory then they wouldn’t have been able to do what they had done here. I hope that people here on the island can see why having a dolphin park here is such a bad idea. As I said earlier, there are so many reasons why we shouldn’t have such a park here that I don’t even have enough time to write them all down. A good start is always this site though which talks about captive vs. free marine mammals.

When they lifted the sea lion into the back of my truck i told Peter that i'd like him to know that i was one of many here on the island who campaigned against the captive dolphin program here. He tried not to show his surprise and said something strange. He said "I can assure you that I will never bring dolphins to Antigua". I dunno why I think it was strange, but the way he said it just sounded weird. It's still unsettling to me.
There were several people who had asked Peter for money for helping out and he had asked me to come to see him the next day about sorting out that kinda stuff. A part of me wanted Peter and his park to pay big time for their mistakes and I told him that they had plenty to answer to, but really all i wanted was for this animal to be taken safely out of Antigua. Riding in the front of the truck with me the night before was their vetrenarian. He told me that one of his main areas of expertise was injured sea turtle rehab. I told him about Mykl's turtle project as well as the Jumby Bay project and said that I'd like to have his contact details. When Mykl and I met them in the morning the Sea Lion was doing much better and had been eating all night. They had been pumping fluids and medication into him and he was ready to be transported back to St. Kitts. Peter wanted to preach some of his Jim Jones type marine zoo propaganda to me and asked me to sit with him for a moment while Mykl and the Doc talked turtle. Peter wrongly assumed that like most of the people he speaks with, I was ill informed. He started out by saying that he knew I had problems with the moral issue of marine mammals in captivity but that these sea lions were rescued from a cull in Uruguay. "The fishermen there kill thousands there every year and these ones escaped being killed". I immideately shot back "You mean like the dolphins rescued by dolphin parks from Taiji?" See this link. Again he was lost for words and said that Taiji had cleaned up it's act. I didn't bother go further on this one as i knew different. A good friend spent plenty of time there recently and saw the slaughters first hand. We didn't speak much more on the issue of marine mammal parks probably because he understood very well at that point that I wouldn't drink the cool aid. Just then the sea lion peeked its head up to the glass seperating us from it's holding area within the fisheries complex. He looked so much more happy than he had been the day before. I guess like most things happiness is relative. Peter said that he wanted to be fair to those who helped out and wanted to know how much I needed for all the trouble that i went to including running around with my truck. I told him i needed nothing for myself, but that i would think that EC $600 (US $230) would be a good gesture to pay the two boys who kept the sea lion wet with buckets of water, and the two guys who supplied the fence and stayed with it until 9 the night before. He was delighted to pay this meager amount. As the Doc had said earlier that if it had been a US territory they wouldn't have gotten the animal back. When he said that he should at least pay for my fuel. I told him that if he needed to feel good about this fiasco he could donate something to the Antigua Sea Turtle Project. He and the doc agreed that this was a great idea. The doc said "what about one of our 8 foot tanks..... they could use this for injured turtle rehab". Peter nearly choked and said "you want me to give them a tank!??". I chuckled while Mykl and the two men ironed the details. I hope they stick to it. She was the reason the animal got "rescued" by them in the first place.
Mykl and I got home and curiosity got the better of me. I had to find info on the thousands of sea lions that were killed each year in Uruguay. Despite an hour of intense googling I couldn't find any truth to Peter's story. I am not calling him a liar, but I just didn't find the info. What i did find was this link saying that this company could catch you one and ship it to you without any problems. They boasted that they hadn't had one get killed yet. Nowhere did it say they were rescued Sea Lions. I aslo found this link where in the "status" section they totally debunk Peter's claim.
This was the article that Mykl first was sent last week. It's a good thing that she read it because nobody else here seemed to know anything about the "seal" as they called it.
If you have read this long rambling blog I hope you will join me and the many others who will work hard together to stop captive marine mammals from being kept here. Recently I heard that a dolphin park approached the government about setting up shop once again here. This time they wanted to do it in Cades Bay. We must stop them!
The photos to this blog are coming soon.

Work on our second yacht starts again.

Many of you know if you have been following this blog for a year or longer that back in November 07 we decided to commission the construction of a Carriacou Sloop. We at Adventure Antigua made this decision for a number of reasons which included the following.
1- to diversify away from higher "footprint" type tours.
2- to maintain return clients' interest in our company.
3- to keep ourselves interested and motivated.
4- to offer guests something new and not done in Antigua.
5- to have another area of recreation when there are no tours.
6- to get back into sailing and racing on days off.

The list of reasons we decided to get a Caribbean wooden sailing vessel goes on and on. It had to be different though and getting a sailing vessel which was not just the typical fiberglass (plastic) boat that you see commonly these days was critical. They are fun too, but a traditionally built wooden boat had, history, life and character even before you put crew on board.
I have written so much about Carriacou Sloops on this blog and you can use the little box above to find out more.
I paid our first deposit to Alwyn Enoe back in November last year and shortly afterwards he made a model according to what we had agreed would be the perfect boat for my needs. After this was done he and his sons went into the "bush" as they call the Grenada jungle to select several white cedar trees which they would use to make the skeleton of the new sloop. By mid February they were cutting and shaping the timbers on their home island of Carriacou. Very shortly after that i was contacted by the owner of a boat who had started and stopped building another boat down the beach. He made a deal with me to take over the building of his boat and work immediately stopped on my boat so that we could have Ocean Nomad ready to sail in time for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in mid April. It was a mad rush and the slide show here shows some of that work. Since that regatta in April we have been doing work on Ocean Nomad to get her ready enough to do charters and tours here in Antigua. We are pretty much finished finally. This summer work started back up on my original boat and once the bronze fastenings (nails, nuts, washers and bolts) had arrived the frames were attached to the greenheart keel. My good friend Alexis Andrews who did the fantastic two volume book Carriacou Sloops took some video last week of the boat as you can now call her on the beach in Carriacou. You can see his video at the end of this presentation:

Last tournament of the year

This saturday 15th November is the last fishing tournament of the year in Antigua. It's the 5th year that "The Best In The West" tournament has been put on by my uncle Nick at his house in Jolly Harbour known as "Docs Dock". For more info click here.
I just posted a very long report and video from the last tournament we did over in Montserrat. Click here for that one too.
The weather is still looking rough for this weekend so wish us luck on the weather and the fish catching!

back in the land.

Have been off island for the yearly holiday out of the Caribbean. London and Amsterdam provided plenty to do and see. I'm back now and will be writing properly once again. We have quite a bit to chat about too. The latest is the crazy idea to name our largest hill Mount Obama. It's a shame for many reasons in my opinion and I will dedicate another day to that saga. For now I'd like to share a cool site i came across today. This photo diary was done by some of our guests who visited Antigua while on a cruise ship. Thanks for the great photos and descriptions: http://www.bundlings.com/ecaribbean07.htm

The Montserrat Fishing Tournament 2008

The weather forecast had been looking great all week long with winds speeds of about 9 knots expected for Saturday's fishing event. The Montserrat Tourism Authority had invited us down to take part in their event. This would be our third tournament there. Tony and Serge who usually work on the Adventure Antigua Eco Tour were coming on Xtreme with me as well as all of the other crew who joined us for the Nevis event bar Big John who was MIA in the UK.
We were planning to make a good adventure of it, but heard that becausae of increased volcanic activity, tours of the island were limited. We then saw the forecast change to include ground swell and increased winds. Little Bay in Montserrat isn't that great of a port when the weather is "rolling" which made overnighting less appealing to me. We changed plans slightly to just fish, clear in and do the weigh in, and then come back home.
Friday afternoon we met up at Customs and Immigration in Jolly Harbour to clear out. My young crew always eager to get an early start decided to meet up at the boat at 3:30 am! Crazy i know, but we did have to travel 20 miles to get to the fishing area and lines were allowed in the water at 5 am however dark it was. Luckily we found later that the lines in was actually 5:30 am. Anoher 30 minutes sleep!
It was dark when i got to the boat to find all the crew waiting for me ready and rearing to go. With nav lights and engines on we slowly cruised out of the harbour while setting up the rest of our bits and pieces for the journey down to Redonda.
Just before we powered up onto a plane, Uncle Nick and His crew passed us with "Nicole". We were going to fish the same area to start off with.
There is something very exciting about going fast at sea at night on a boat. 20 knots feels like 40 and 30 like 60 with just nav lights and your intruments inturrupting the blackness. I love it unless it's wet and going downwind to Redonda we kept dry while guili baited up at the back of the boat. Using the red forehead light to iluminate his baits guili didn't distract me and I steered down the waves. The first shimmers of light began to appear behind us.
Before we could see them we could feel the ground swell and the chop. IT was going to be a bumpy morning once we started fishing and we knew that it wasn't going to be anything like the original "fishermans" forecast we had seen on WindGuru the week before.
We got down to the drop off at about 5:45 am and there was plenty of light even though the sun hadn't come up just to the south of Antigua. Lines went out with the crew performing like a nascar pit crew. Th Adventure Antigua boats do sight seeing and snorkeling tours around Antigua and Barbuda and are not designed for fishing. We jus fish on our days off and when the fish are biting. Fishing properly is difficult because we don't have outriggers and because we have seats and all that shaded cover in the way. To do it well you have to fish with guys who have done it many times before and who practice. Serge was the only crew who hadn't fished Xtreme before so he kinda helped when asked to start with. Before Nicole got to the edge we were fishing and ready for action. Almost immediately we started having problems with our Furuno depth recorder. It was very difficult to see the bottom contours on the screen with the bottom dissapearing faster than i knew the real edge down 300 feet below was doing. Something was wrong, but we would have to try and make do. We fished the area that in the Nevis tournament had produced some good action with no results. Nothing either when we went further south along the drop off looking for wahoo. Nicole was having the same lack of action. We fished and fished catching and releasing a few barries along the way. The depth recorder was driving me mad too and after a few crossed lines and a few near misses with the planer I was ready to call it a day. IT wasn't even 10 am though. Just then i had a scratchy call from Nicole who we had left back on the East side to say that he had found a spot with some action. I thought he said "come north" so we pulld in the lines and went under the lee of the massive rock (Redonda) and continued north without seeing Nicole. It was so incredibly choppy over there that we were now getting wet too. With no bites, no sign of Nicole, the depth recorder not working and the choppy conditions I was hating it. I stopped the boat and asked who of the crew was gonna go over the side and check the transom mounted transducer which is the thing that sends the echo down to the bottom giving our depth recorder it's functionality. As usual, it was Tony, the strongest guy in Antigua who was ready to jump over first. Remember the waters here are deep and totally inhospitable. We had seen a big bull shark at this same spot four years ago and anything near Redonda is just spooky. Tony went over and reported that the wire holding the ducer in place had worked free which is why it was only working intermittantly. The big problem now was that with the 6 foot waves we were getting tossed around in, Tony was having a super hard time trying to fix the ducer. In the end he jammed a bit of plastic in the hinge hoping to keep it in place. We started fishing again heading to the North west which is where Nicole had acutally found the fish. They were 6 miles from us and had just landed two wahoo and lost another. Within no time the recorder stopped working once more which quickly dampened the mood once again. The reason the recorder is so important is that wahoo hang out on the edge where the continental shelf drops off into the deep. They feed on fish that congrigate on upwelling currents that are typical on steep drop offs. If you are fishing too far on from the edge either in the deep or in the shallows you luck is usually not as good. I was having a very hard time keeping on the edge. The GPS maps are not accurate enough yet to use effectively for fishing. Tony told me to stop the boat and he tried again. Once again this didn't work and finally i decided to have a go. Behind the boat under the engine bracket the transducer just flopped up and down with the boat as the big waves tossed us all about. It was impossible to hold on with one hand even with your legs braced against the engines. I tried hard to wedge the bit of plastic in between the hinge of the ducer while getting slammed hard into the engine. Looking back i think it was pretty dangerous for Tony and I to have been back there in those waves under the engines. One thing's for sure though... it was pointless as we didn't manage to fix a thing. If i fished slowly the ducer worked enough that i could follow the edge, but this was pretty useless as wahoo likes to attack fast moving lures. Finally, I decided that we'd go in to the lee of Redonda where we could try again to fix the transducer in the calm waters. Under the steep cliffs of the strange rocky island, Guili used wire to try and fix it once again. The rest of the crew jumped over with snorkeling gear to have a look. The waters there were very clear and even from up above i could see the vibrant colour below. Within five minutes we were ready to go once again, but this time i decided to go straight to the Montserrat edge to fish. On the way there we could see three other boats under speed going in the same direction. The day was coming to and end and this was our last attempt to find some fish. We started fishing on the northern most side of the volcanic island and fished slowly east following Nicole up in the distance which had been one of the boats we had seen. From all reports, the fishing had been very slow with not much action having been found. This wasn't much concilation to us though and we all hoped things would change.
According to the rules we could fish until 330 pm when we had to be back in the Montserrat port of Little Bay. It was getting close to 3 pm and we still hadn't found anything. Nicole had given up and was going in over the shallows. In the distance we could see Soufriere Volcano venting with it's precarious dome high into the clouds. This is the most studied volcano on earth and also one of the most active. It's pyroclastic flows have been known to travel up to 200 miles per hour incinerating anything in it's path. The beautiful mountain looked quite peaceful and beautiful at this time though. With time ticking away i decided to throw in the towel on the wahoo fight with 40 minutes to go. I told the gang we would fish over the shallows in the hope of picking up a kingfish. They get quite big and love to feed in more shallow waters than wahoo. As soon as i told them we were looking for kingfish we had a very strong bite on our planer line. Steffy was on the rod and hooked up within no time and despite the incredibly slow day the crew all sprang into action clearing lines and preparing to catch this fish. It faught like a wahoo with jerks of raw power. As it got within 30 feet we could see it was a wahoo indeed and when it saw the boat it took off with another blistering run. Steff faught it back and this time it came in deep. Wahoos shake their heads violently to try and get the hooks out and way down below with it's colourful bands showing I saw the hoo shake a classic hook shake and swim away free. The crew couldn't believe we had lost this fish, but i didn't have time for lamenting. "Lines out" i shouted. We had another 25 minutes. Using my GPS i ran right over the area where we had the stike and within no time we had another big strike. It got off almost immediately, so we kept fishing. A few minutes later we had another one on. This time steffy brought it to the boat and the fish got close enough for me to gaff it. Finally we had a nice fish on board and it was time to go in. We powered up and winthin no time we were in Little Bay and ready to clear in with customs and immigration. After quickly clearing in we went on to the fishing party to have some of the famous "goat water" that Montserrat is known for. Goat water is a delicious goat soup and went down well while prizes were given out. We missed the women's prize by a few pounds this time. The winning boat only had 5 fish so it had been a very bad day for fishing. We had some drinks and an early dinner and decided it was time to go back home. Jolly Harbour was just under 30 miles away and the sun was setting. Nicole had left thirty minutes before and we contacted them just before leaving to say we'd be on our way. The sun was setting as we came out from underneath the volcanic cliffs and entered the Atlantic. Although it was fairly choppy we were going right into the wind and no spray came into the boat. We were able to maintain a good 20 knots most of the way until we got closer and were able to go faster. Going quick at night is always a thrilling adventure and by the time we got back to the Jolly Harbour we were all pretty tired. It took us just under an hour, but we had left port a long 14 hours before. We have one more tournament to go this year which happens saturday November 15th in Jolly Harbour. There are more fish biting now which is great but the forecast says it will be pretty rough. Been waking up pretty early the last few mornings with a little jet lag from my UK trip and did this vid of our Montserrat tournament adventure:

More on Carriacou Sloops

While our first Carriacou sloop is almost ready for day charter and tours www.antiguaclassicyacht.com, we are also proud that our second boat is on its way. The main skeleton of the vessel has been set up and I will be going down to check up on her early in November. As you will know if you have been following my blogs this year, Alexis Andrews has given me plenty of help on our traditional wooden boat projects. Here is a video slide show he did for his book on Carriacou Sloops. Enjoy!

some sailing photos from yesterday

Guili and I took Xtreme out to take some photos of our Carriacou sloop Ocean Nomad.

We will be doing day charters and day sailing tours next month with her and needed a few more pics. You can see the "ocean nomad" slide show here.
The plan was to do a little deep sea fishing afterwards too, but the photo session was more successful.

After the photos we went out and ended up with only a cuda and a tuna. We lost a few other bites, but fishing wasn't good. The good news is i now know where NOT to go in tomorrow's fishing tournament put on my the good people of Montserrat. Will have a report when i get back.

Why all the fuss about Stanford 20 20 20?

SIR Allen Stanford moved with his small banking business to Antigua after it is alleged that he was asked to leave Montserrat some time back in 1990. Read more here. Between 1990 and today his business has had huge growth on Antigua and many say internationally. There are many both here in Antigua and abroad that have suggested that he and his business have operated in ways that have lifted eyebrows. Bloomberg news wrote a pretty hard article on him. Have a look here.
Nowhere has had more discussion about his business, political, ethical and environmental policies than here in Antigua. Half the people love him and half the people want him gone. There isn't a more visible "love - hate" relationship than you will find here with the people of Antigua and Allen Stanford. Well those last two statements are not totally correct actually because things have changed recently. They would have been prior to The Stanford 20 20. What the hell is the Stanford 2020? The best explanation is found on a website that was made for a small town in Colorado. Ft. Collins was where he made his game visible at every corner in an effort to teach some Americans about the second biggest sport on the planet. If you would like to learn about cricket and want to learn about the 2020 form of the sport go to this website, wait a minute, and then click on the "cricket 101" tab. The Stanford machine is a marketing powerhouse and they do an amazing job at whatever they do. Stanford 20 20 is a series of shortened cricket matches put on by Mr. Stanford here in Antigua where teams from across the Caribbean come to compete for huge sums of cash. It's a very fast paced game that fans can enjoy after work while spending very little money to enjoy the match within his Stanford Cricket Grounds.
As I said, Cricket is the second biggest sport on the planet and for some reason there has never been that much money in cricket with football, basketball, American football, baseball, automobile racing and others seeming to have more money in their professional leagues. Stanford and others have recently decided to change this.
Of course there are many reasons that Stanford has decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on cricket and I don't think anyone knows what the main one is. If I had to guess, it would be to make sure he is untouchable in the Caribbean. I know that sounds crazy but people all across the Caribbean love what he has done with Cricket and he has become very influential as a result throughout the region. Before 20 20 Allen Stanford could have been run off by a prime minister who felt slighted. I don't care who you are in Antigua now... there is no way you are going to move Stanford.
That being said, Mr. Stanford doesn’t always get a green light. The UPP and its leader Baldwin Spencer campaigned against Stanford and his plan to develop an environmentally delicate area off the North coast. They marched and picketed against it and even spoke about the particular area in their manifesto seen here... saying that they would make the area a park if they were voted into power. Check page 34 of their 2004 manifesto. Of course we know what happened when they did get into power. The words "green light" were actually used by the UPP to give Allen Stanford the permission to go ahead with his plans to develop an area they said they would set aside as park. I guess that's politics for you, but his influence is more powerful than any other person on the island. I wrote a little about Stanford's other off shore island development and warned about what could happen if he got his hands on Guiana Island on an old article here. This green light turned red last year after a political fopar by Stanford embarrassed the PM terribly. The PM and a few of the top brass then crucified Mr. Stanford in a very silly way thru the media and said that there was no way he'd get to do his multi billion dollar project in the North Sound. One of Mr. Stanford's employees told me that they would just have to wait until the next election and do it with the next party. Either way the cricket hysteria that the Stanford 20 20 has ignited will pave the way for what will be seen as an unshakeable power here in Antigua which will continue to spread it's tentacles across the Caribbean and internationally. There have been numerous articles about his spreading influence recently.
Although it sounds like I am being a bit rough on Mr. Stanford by airing all of this, I don't think that the motives for his huge investment in cricket whatever they may be outweigh the benefits for Cricket and our islands. The media coverage has been fantastic. Cricket is the only thing that seems to bind Caribbean nations, and since I was a little child its molecular bond throughout the region has weakened with basketball and other things taking away from the game. Stanford has energized old cricketing fanatics and has made fanatics out of kids and others who never knew anything about the sport. There is a unique brand of pride that a Stanford 2020 fan radiates that I can't describe, but know that it's pretty cool. It's given people something to get excited about. Up until now the games have been very affordable for Antiguan families with oftentimes no cover charge at all to get in. This Stanford 20 20 for $20 million seems to be catering to the English and the international cricketing community more than to the locals which is expected I guess, but I think some may feel a little left out. I am not sure about that though. Tickets didn't go on sale until the last minute and are way way way more expensive than people expected they would be. We will find out soon enough. To find out more about the Stanford Super Series which starts this weekend here in Antigua check the official website here. Whatever happens I am sure that the pride in West Indian cricket will return to the sport and when all is said and done... the sport will owe plenty to Mr. Stanford.

cool little video of sailing to Cades Reef

A few blog entries ago I gave an update on our Carriacou Sloop, the Ocean Nomad. You can see that particular blog here.
Anyway, apart from the some of images that i showed of the sloop at Cades Reef, we also took some video of that day. My girlfriend put them together in a cool little movie. Hope you enjoy:
Remember for more info on day sailing here in Antigua you can go to our site http://www.sailing-antigua.com/ or http://www.adventureantigua.com/ and you can also do searches within this blog for more on Carriacou Sloops and sailing.

Back to normal after Omar

For most of the island it's business as usual on Antigua after we had all that rain from one of Hurricane Omar's Feeder bands. I still can get over how much rain we had in such a short time. Anyway, like i said in yesterday's blog, there were several areas on the island that were flooded. We didn't have hurricane force winds so the wind damage wasn't an issue. We went boating on Adventure Antigua's Xtreme yesterday between Hawksbill Hotel and Carlisle Bay and took a little video to show you how nice it is once again. There was a few beaches that had bad erosion and some that ended up with more sand. The worst thing i saw was the huge amount of sea weed on Jolly Harbour Beach. Yuk! This seaweed acts as a natural buffer in storms and is very important to minimise the damage done by waves. I think it's time to clean it up now. I just hope they don't scoop up too much sand with it as resorts usually do when cleaning up their beaches. We didn't go into the North Sound and there are reports of some waste oil that has been washed into the sea from the Crabs Industrial area possibly from Antigua Public Utilities Authority, Antigua Power Company, or from the new Waste Oil refining plant.
Here is the quick and dirty video. TURN OFF THE VOLUME (i forgot to):