Back to turtles and fun stuff

Of course when i started writing this blog I never thought I would be writing about issues other than sun sea and sand fun stuff, and the recent disaster at Cocos Hotel really has messed me up. I know that sounds silly, but I can tell you that my emotions have been all over the place. I guess i am not alone and most people i speak with here are borderline obsessed with the whole ordeal. This has shaken Antigua, and I hope with the arrest and charging of the two youth yesterday we may start to feel a bit better.

On sunday we went to check on a few turtle nests at Rendezvous Bay. According to the books these nests were due to hatch out last week, so we wanted to make sure that all was well there. This photo was taken on the road a few years ago after some rains.The road down to Rendezvous was terrible and worse than it has been for a while which was strange as there had been very little rain lately. Anyway, by the time we got to the beach we were feeling all shook up. Don't attempt it unless you don't care too much about your jeep/truck or if you have back or neck problems. This is the worst ride in Antigua for sure. There were some other people just leaving as we arrived and within minutes we had the beach to ourselves.

We walked down to where I had seen a turtle track some 65 days ago when I made a stop while running the Xtreme Tour. Our boats report nestings whenever we spot tracks. Sure enough the tell tale signs of a hatching were evident at the spot. High up inside the sea grape vegetation we saw tiny broken shells which had been brought up from beneath the sand as the little hawksbill turtles scrambled out. I guess scrambled isn't the best word when talking about turtle eggs and nests, but these little guys made it all the way into the water. We dug up the nest to make sure that all had gotten out and it looked as if all were successful. Good news. What usually happens is after about 60 days of being cooped up inside little ping pong ball eggs a foot below the surface they know its time to get out. I would too. Anyway, inside those little eggs the little turtles feel the temperature drop and by instinct know its time to get out. The temp dropping indicates that it's night time and the right time for them to head to the water. You see, somehow this thing works so that they do it under the cover of darkness so as to avoid getting spotted by birds. Anyway, they wait until all the rest of their siblings have broken free of the little soft shells and they start digging for the surface. Once they come out of the nest they look for the brightest thing around and start moving towards it. Again, by instinct they know they need to move to the brightest thing which on a natural beach is always the water. On a beach with a hotel this isn't the case and many little buggers get killed by heading towards the bright shiny dining room or bar. Bright lights on beaches kill little turtles every year all over the world. This beach I guess is an endangered species too then as it is one of few that still is dark at night leaving the glistening water with all the natural reflections form the night's sky for the little turtles to follow. Once they finally make it to the water they swim for about two weeks non stop trying to get far into the Atlantic currents. I guess we can talk about what happens next for the little guys on another blog.

Back to the beach. Many times big momma hawksbill turtles like to lay their eggs under the cover of natural beach vegetation, which is why i get so upset when hotels and others clear or ''beautify'' beaches that this vegetation. Why? Well one of the best reasons for having vegetation on a beach going up to the high water mark is that it helps to stop beach erosion during high winds, unusual waves or heavy rains. If you want the sand to stay on a beach leave the natural plant life! Another important thing is that it provides shelter to an interesting beach habitat. Due to studies carried out here in Antigua by the University of Georgia, scientists found out that turtles nesting in shaded areas produce a higher percentage of male turtle offspring. I always thought it was the other way around, but no i was wrong. Higher temperatures mean more females. Cooler more shady areas more females. There are so many things making it tough for female turtles out there that it's no wonder that they are endangered. One big reason is that they are more likely to be killed than the males who never come ashore and of course since they are the ones laying eggs we need plenty of them to help the species survive.

We found 8 hatched nests along the beach which was fairly good for this time of year. Last year several nest were damaged after huge waves unearthed them. This season is looking much better so far. fingers crossed.

As a side note. I just was emailed this by a friend.

Another excellent source of info on our island's turtles is the EAG Turtle Blog.

Two charged with the cocos murder

Two boys have been charged with the Cocos Murders. The accused are Kaniel Martin who is 20, and Avie Howell who is just 17. The similarities between this murder and the other famous tourist murder from back in Jan 1995 just off Barbuda are something we need to consider here on island. Young stupid kids making huge assumptions and mistakes, and then taking lives. There is plenty more to say and debate, but i dont think my blog is the place for it. Most of Antigua and Barbuda are extremely sad and disturbed by all of this and although we are relieved that the cops have found their ''men'' if they could ever be called that, we like the family and friends of the Mullany's are still feeling pain and sadness. The police and prosecution department feel that justice will be carried out and this is great news. It can't come fast enough! I want much more though and think that change is happening in this country and there is more to come. The view from above is from Cocos and was one of many photos i took recently for a magazine cover. It's what Ben and Catherine would have been enjoying here on the island prior to their horrific deaths, and it makes me soo mad that it wasn't that simple in the end. Anyway, changes to Cocos hotel were taking place as i took the photos to make sure nothing like this happens again. All hotels on the island have made changes to their security as a result of this terrible event, and the police who had been making changes are continuing to make advances in crime fighting here on the island. Read here to see what i said originally on why i think this happened.

More arrests in Antigua on the Cocos shooting

Staff at the beautiful Cocos resort seen above as well as most of the country and all of the surviving victims in this horrible shooting are eagerly awaiting more news today after 10 people were arrested. The first proper arrests made were of two women from the Dominican Republic mid week. After questioning these women eight more were arrested on Thursday and Friday. Police are trying to get a slam dunk on this one and are trying to be extremely quiet about what's going on. Word on the street is fever pitched with numerous stories and leads being leaked left and right. Nobody is 100% sure what's going on but one story which keeps getting repeated is that the main man being suspected of being the shooter is a Jamaican who runs a barber shop near the market in St. Johns. This may be just talk, but there is no doubt that he is one of the eight arrested.

Edit 17/8/08

The barber was arrested recently on unrelated gun charges it seems. So that one was not correct.

Our papers don't come out until Monday here, but there is plenty of info in the UK media. Another thing that happens here I think is when someone is arrested on Friday they don't have to be charged until Monday. We may have to wait until Monday to find out more. I hope that as one person commented on yesterday's blog.... the mounties got their man.

Shooting arrests

In news being reported around the world two women have been arrested on charges ''related to the murders'' of two Cocos hotel guests. The honeymoon couple were staying at Cocos Hotel when one or more gunmen killed them in what seems to be a robbery gone wrong. This was the first hotel shooting in Antigua's long tourism history and the nation has been eagerly waiting for people to be brought in, charged and convicted. Nobody is breathing a sigh of relief but many are elated at the prospect of justice in this case. Some people are smelling blood too. There are many who are calling for the death penalty, an ultimate punishment which seems to have been retired from the court's arsenal over the past twenty years. When and if they charge a person or people for the murders the death penalty will surely be a huge bone of contention. The UK who has sent personnel and expertise to aid in the unsolved murders outstanding here in Antigua and Barbuda is totally against capital punishment and has suggested that their men and women will not take part in such cases that are calling for death to the convicted murderers. I spoke with a lawyer yesterday here who said that despite the Prime Minister's calls for the death penalty, it was not going to be likely as several people have been convicted over the years for other murders without being put to death.
I have been following my web tracker since the terrible shootings at Cocos and there have been many people googling all sorts of ''shooting'' and ''murder'' searches which end up at my blog. I keep seeing people typing in whatever hotel they are due to come and stay at with ''shooting'' or murder at the end of it. For example, I saw today someone google ''Galley Bay Shootings" and a few days ago it was "Shooting at St. James Club". I suppose it's good that people are trying to get info about where they are staying and it's natural for them to be worried. I just hope they get to my blogs which will show them that this Cocos shooting was the first one at a hotel and was the first murder ever within a hotel here. The police aided by the Canadians and the UK have made huge changes within the force and are going to add 200 new officers as well. Crime in Antigua is being attacked and as the Canadian Commissioner told criminals in a public address and now has proved ''its time for us to hunt you''. I do know more about these recent arrests in connection with the Cocos double murder but I can't say at this time. There is no doubt that there will be more arrests as the info the police has seems to be very good indeed. Imagine being a young woman caught with stolen goods taken from a double murder. What do you think the police are going to tell them in the secret of a dark jail cell here in Antigua on the day when the Prime Minister is calling for the death penalty to be given to people who didn't even murder. Those girls will be sh%$$*ng their pants and fingers will be pointing.

small storm passes close

This is from one of the weather sites i go to. I had been watching this weather all yesterday as the forecast track changed putting it closer to us. I am the only tour company that cancelled tours today (and we took plenty of grief from hotels, reps and guests for cancelling). What would you do if you read this and looked at all the sat and radar sites for the area showing the small storm tracking to us? Here read this:

Thursday 14 August, 2008, 8amAST - Small craft precaution, all zones. Small craft advisory pre-posted for tonight z710 (offshore Atlantic). No watches, warnings or advisories in effect at this time. Please check NWS-SJU for latest. Showers this morning moving over local area from NE. There will be more later today, tonight, tomorrow. Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert has been issued which covers our area. First visible satellite this morning shows the area of developing convection, note the 'tail' of showers extending down through Martinique. NHC's tropical weather discussion at 8am continues to fix the low S of convection, at 16N 61W. Moving NW, this will bring the low across the local area. Marine forecast this morning for zone 730 which includes much of VI and offshore Caribbean, pegs winds higher in this zone than any other. Though not yet posted, I would expect a small craft advisory in effect by tonight for all VI zones. The WSW component during the night is of particular interest to mariners for tonight's dock/anchoring:* TODAY NE 14-19 KT SEAS 3-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * TONITE N 14-19 KT SHIFTING TO THE W/SW 23-28 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 3-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * FRI S 16-21 KT SEAS 4-5 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. * FRI NT SE 11-16 KT SEAS 2-4 FT SCATT SHWRS AND ISO TSTORMS. Even if most of the precipitation passes to our north, not yet certain, depending upon the development of this system today, rare gusts in squalls up to 45kt are possible, along with dangerous cloud-to-surface lightning.

HMS Griffin plundered by Mel Fisher

While doing research for yesterdays blog i dug up some more info about HMS Griffin. If you remember this blog and this one where i spoke about Barbuda's wrecks I thought quite a bit about Mel Fisher and his time in there. Many say that he found valuable things on Barbuda's wrecks and took off before the Antigua and Barbuda government could stop him. Who knows if that was the case, but i did find one other website that had info on the Griffin. This site is selling musket shot from the original HMS Griffin. There is no doubt that Fisher's gang stole them from Barbuda. Oh well....

Sailing to Barbuda for the weekend.

As has been the family tradition for years and years, a bunch of us went over to enjoy the Carnival holiday weekend in Barbuda. Instead of doing the powerboat thing this year, I sailed over with my girlfriend. We left a bit late and got into Barbuda long after dark. On the sail across the sounds of the wind and waves sounded pleasantly familiar. It had been some time since i had enjoyed listening to wake come off the side of a boat like this. Funny the things that one can take great pleasure from. The winds were not too strong but we still managed to keep the speed at around 6.5 knots towing the tender. Using GPS we got as far as we could go on the west coast tucked in close next to the shore and just inside some reef. The stars were amazing and even though it seemed to be a bit hazy the show above us was as lovely as ever. Since it was so late I just managed a quick pasta before falling asleep up in the foreword bunk. The gentle rocking and sounds of water against the wooden hull sent me into a deep sleep very quickly.
I was up early and was surprised to see that directly in front of the boat there had been three turtle crawls and probably nests. This is peak nesting season for the hawksbill turtles and the fresh tracks were not just in front of our boat. My Dad had counted over 80 tracks on the 14 mile beach along the coast a few days earlier. I hope this many nests will help them steer clear of extinction which is a very real possibility for the sea turtles.
After some breakfast i put up the awnings and decided motor south to Palmetto Point where the Beach House hotel sits derelict in some sort of bankruptcy. The point is such a beautiful area and the views are just as good as they get on this coast. While on the way there I let out a line and managed to get hooked into a big barracuda. My girlfriend fought it for some time to get it close enough for me to handle it and release the fish. She said it was her first proper fish ever which surprised me. Hard core environmentalists don't do too much fishing i guess:) Too bad for them. hehe
From here we turned East moving into more choppy water as we cruised up past Coco Point miles up the coast, then through the reef and into Spanish Point where the water colours always amaze me. We dropped the hook in between two sets of powerboats which were rafted up inside the reef. One set was my Uncle Nick and a few of his friends and the other set was some family friends from Guadeloupe. I think Francis, the head of that group had been to high school with my Dad and uncles for a term during high school and occasionally comes to Antigua for fishing tournaments.
Uncle Nick and a few others came over to check out the boat and say hi. He said he liked how Ocean Nomad looked and spoke about getting a sailing vessel too. Afterwards we took the tender to the shore and went on a walk over the point and towards the East Coast. One of my favorite things to do in Barbuda is walking on the windward side collecting shells and interesting bits and pieces. It was late in the afternoon and we would only walk to Griffin Point which is where one of hundreds of ships were wrecked along the dangerous windward side of Barbuda. HMS Griffin hit the reef like many other boats during the colonial period and sank with all its cannons and ballast just off the shore. I found this after quite a bit of googling. Seems as though there was a more recent HMS Griffin.
"James Soaper : A Midshipman, on board HMS Griffin 1761, a 6th rate ship or frigate of 28 guns, she was lost shortly after 9 p.m., in the dark, on October 27, 1761. The ship had left Bermuda weeks earlier, had been on the high seas far away from land and, at the time she was lost on the reefs on the northeast coast of Barbuda, the captain believed (based on his reckoning)that he was more than 25 leagues off that island. "Morning : when closer to Barbuda than believed by its reckoning, Cpn. Taylor spots two suspect sails which he takes to be French privateers and starts chase. The chase goes until the night when two lights appear supposed to be the ones of the supposed French privateers. These are followed until the ship runs on the rocks, on northeastern point of Barbuda. Attempts are made to anchor, the cables part, the ship runs on the rocks and is evacuated. The captain remains alone apparently on his disintegrating ship until 4 pm on October 28. Nothing can be saved from the wreck. Three able seamen, William Cribb, Samuel Bond and Francis Amandis, have been drowned in the shipwreck"." From this site.
The point is such a lovely place as it's very close to the breakers and barrier reef which stretches all along the windward shore. You can easily see how people could get killed in the waters there though. I have snorkeled there on the wreck several times and the currents and waves remind you of the danger constantly.

We were not snorkeling here today though as we didn't have much more time in the day. I spotted a large fishing float that had just washed up and thought that maybe i could make it into a sink for the yacht. It was pretty heavy but i knew it would be used back in Antigua. That night back on the boat we grilled up a lovely dinner and watched the stars including several of the shooting kind. It's such a nice thing to be in the Caribbean in a corner where there are no artificial lights spoiling the night's sky.

We had friends in town back in Antigua who would be leaving the island in two days, so we would set sail the next morning back to Jolly Harbour. We woke up to very light winds and knew that we would be motor sailing some of the way. In fact, by the time I had put everything away and pulled the anchor the winds were hovering somewhere around 5 knots. It was going to be a hot one. Thankfully we have a good engine on the Carriacou sloop and our slack sails were helped by some diesel power. We had a few good strikes on the fishing rod but nothing got hooked this time. The winds picked up as we got closer to Antigua and I managed to turn the engine off for a while. We were in port back in Jolly Harbour at about 6 PM and I was already missing Barbuda.

First murder at a hotel in Antigua ever - Cocos

The horrible murder at Cocos this past weekend has had so many ramifications and cans or worms have been opened at every corner. I would just like to give my view on why we have arrived at this stage. These are my views after going to school, living and working here.
With the massive influx of immigrants from all over the Caribbean and from many other areas around the world changes for the better and for the worse have taken place in Antigua.
With very fast development here our work force had to be supplemented with people from abroad. While this was happening many Antiguans who had ways and means were moving to the UK, Canada and the USA in large numbers. While construction of hotels and all sorts of developments were taking place labour was always in huge demand, but when the economy slowed down and immigrant workers finished their jobs they didn't leave. Our population has increased dramatically contrary to the terribly defective census that was last done. My guess would be that we have somewhere around 140 thousand people here in Antigua instead of the 62k that that crazy census came up with. It was done at a peak time of immigration here and also before the Millennium Act was passed which gave citizenship to many of them before the last election. Anyway, our police force and all public departments (including the tax department) are working on the idea that we have 62 thousand people here on the island. This supposed drop in population happened while new villages were formed all over the island and every village was growing exponentially. There was just no way the population could drop and the only reason it dropped on the census was because all the immigrants were fearful of their status on the island. There are thousands and thousands of foreign immigrants here now who were brought in to help with the development of Antigua and mostly to do with the construction projects that have now finished. They have to work to stay alive and have entered every aspect of the Antigua and Barbuda workforce. There isn't a department or category of employment without them and this goes for jobs at the very bottom to jobs at the very top. You even see immigrants selling CDs on the side of the roads. So what? Well while all of this is happening the strain on the school system as well as every other government system has been stretched. Education and health has suffered. There are hundreds and possibly thousands of young Antiguan youth without any jobs or direction and many have fallen to the lure of drugs and then more serious crime. The average age of people arriving before magistrates on criminal charges has dropped considerably over the past 10 years. Kids are being found with drugs and weapons on a regular basis. Our entire country has big changes that need to be made and the problem is being analyzed by everyone concerned.
The horrible shooting of the honeymooners at Cocos this past weekend was the first time a deadly shooting has taken place in a hotel in Antigua. I think it was the first time a tourist was murdered in their room. I know of one other murder where husband killed his wife while on holiday years and years ago, but this Cocos thing was totally out of the ordinary and the county is in a state of shock. Many people calling in to the radio stations are calling for a swift capture of the culprits and a quick execution. I have heard many offer their services as executioner. That's how dramatic people are taking this thing. You don't attack and kill people and least of all tourists. That's the general feeling. Of course, there are some who stress that this is not a tourism issue and that it's more to do with the general public safety of all within the country. This is a smart way to think, but there is no doubt that the ramifications of violence to tourists hurt the mainstay of the economy and as a result it is perceived as being more serious. I remember while i was at Florida Tech back in 1990 there was a spate of tourist related murders and Tourism was hit very hard there. Orlando was very badly effected. Laws and procedures were quickly changed and as a result the escalation in tourist crime was hit on the head.
Here in Antigua things have gotten out of control and changes in our country's makeup have had a negative impact on crime. When i was a kid there was one murder a year and that was a big deal. Although there are many other Caribbean islands with worse murder rates than we have our increased rate is totally unacceptable and we all know this. Before this murder at Cocos the country's leaders knew things were getting out of hand and made major changes within the police force. A foreigner was employed as Chief of police for the first time since our country became independent and he and his team have been totally changing the methods and structure of the force. The changes needed are happening as i write this and I am very confident that a drop in crime will happen here shortly and that we will all be safer as a result. That being said, it will take more than just action from a better trained police force. The hotels are being stricter with their security measures and have done things over the past year to beef up their security.
I dunno guys, this killing and the others that have taken place recently in the country have had a major impact within the island and many people are terribly worried about the situation and it's ramifications. Although i think that crime is gonna be hit hard over the next few months and years, i think the effects on our daily lives and the economy will be dealt a big blow.

Thank goodness its monday.... i need a rest!

Wow, with active action packed weekends some people just are happy for Monday to roll around so that they can get some rest. This was one of those weekends. On Saturday a bunch of us continued work on Ocean Nomad putting in the last of the floor as well as doing the last bits of engine installation. In between doing that i would run over to help JD and Tony who were doing some engine maintenance on Xtreme. After calling it a day with the yacht i decided to take Xtreme out just to see if all the maintenance went well. My GF joined me for a quick sunset cruise over to Pinchin Bay. The sand there was softer than i expected and i realized that although i had been passing this beach all my life, i had never stood on it. The poor beach had been almost wiped out by the local family who owns the land there when they decided to mine sand from behind the beach. Now rocks that were once buried with sand form a barrier between the beach and the sea. It's not just a barrier for swimmers but for turtles also. This beach was one of the most popular nesting beaches on the west coast and it still has a high number of nestings. Anyway, the sunset was beautiful and the soft sand seemed to help me forget the horrid sand mining that had gone on just a few years before. Up the beach from us there were three American Oyster Catchers feeding on the rocks and in the sand. These beautiful birds are here in Antigua most of the time but in such small numbers that most people miss them. Usually I see them in pairs but today there was a third wheel.....maybe a relative. As the sun dipped under the very hazy sunset, bats from the hills began to do their aerial acrobatics in search of bugs to eat. The hills between Hawksbill and Pinchin must be a great home for all these insect eating bats. Long before it got dark stars began to jump out of the orange and purple sky. You cant keep them hidden for long even when there is haze in the sky.

We swam back to Xtreme and cruised slowly home as the moon rose over Five Islands Harbour. I thought that Friday was full moon or maybe is was that night.... either way i was exhausted from a long day and it was time to sleep.

Sunday we decided to relax all morning with a late lunch at OJ's beach bar. I was going to break my ''fit for life'' regime and eat a burger and fries today! As i bit into the fantastic home made burger i watched my friend Paul Ryan zoom past on his big SeaRay powerboat. It looked like he had the family on board, and it would be a lovely day for them......or so i thought. The weather was better than anyone could want for boating, but Paul's perfect day of boating wasn't to be. My cousin Bel who works for the paper called me 15 minutes later asking me where is Morris Bay because there was a yacht on fire there. I reminded her that its where we spent most of our Sundays while growing up. We called it Callaloo as that was the name of our Grandfather's hotel there. Anyway, when i told her i was just paying my bill she asked me to go have a look for her. She knew i had my camera. At this time i didn't know it was Paul's boat, but when we got to Cades Bay i could see the black hull beneath the flames and billowing smoke. I called uncle Nick who as the owner of North Coast Salvage company, was always in tune with boat mishaps. He told me that Paul and his family had gotten safely off the boat after it caught fire. Just before jumping in he had called the coast guard. They arrived over two hours later after the boat had come to its resting place on the North-eastern side of Cades Reef.

We watched most of the ordeal wanting and waiting to see the ocean take over from the fire. It happened finally with a sharp burst of flames and then steam. Thank God nobody was hurt.

As we arrived back in Jolly Harbour I got a call from Alan Aflak telling me that there was an injured turtle inside of the harbour. This was strange as we never see big turtles in the harbour. We went down to see what was going on and Alan took us out on his boat to see it. The poor big green turtle had obviously been hit by a big boat and had huge prop scars along its shell. It seemed to be very tired and was only using its front flippers. The wounds look like they were not recent and the turtle had probably been suffering for some time. We dragged it to the entrance of the harbour where there was a beach we could pull it up on. It was here we could see the extent of the damage and it wasn't good at all. The big green was still alive but there was no doubt that death would be coming soon. A flipper was missing and the shell was cut right through and deep into tissue close to the bottom of its shell. We made the decision to call a vet as we didn't think it would make it. Unfortunately it didn't and finally succombed to it's injuries.

With the thousands and thousands of hours that i have spend on powerboats in the Caribbean i always am amazed that I have never hit a turtle. Keeping a sharp eye open for turtles and all the other things that can be out there in our path has paid off so far. I just hope our luck continues.

We got back home exhausted just in time to receive a phone call from someone at Darkwood beach. There was a whale close to the shore swimming slowly past. A whale! In July! Immediately i thought something had to be wrong, but it was 7 pm and almost dark. This story would have to pass me by.

A new place for Antigua Tourism discussion

The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Group was launched late last week as an alternative to other under-moderated sites which were less dedicated to tourism promotion in Antigua as their main purpose. This forum or message board is a place where users can sign in and speak about tourism issues related to Antigua and Barbuda. The discussion board or forum or newsgroup as many like to call it has had incredible popularity with over 100 people signing up as members in just a few days since its start. http://www.antiguaforums.com/ is the main page and you will see that moderators from the forum membership have been assigned to keep things in order on the site. That being said just the fact that there are moderators on the site deters trolls and other naughty people from signing up. So far no moderator has had any work. I am sure that will change but it has been anyway. If you are visiting Antigua and Barbuda and want to learn more about these wonderful Caribbean islands please come to the forum and fire away those questions.

Sailing on Ocean Nomad... work still continues.

It was my girl friend's birthday recently and we decided to take some friends and family out for a cruise on the recently re-launched Ocean Nomad. The engine is in but not all hooked up with fuel tank, exhaust and bits and pieces, to JD had to ferry everyone out to the yacht using Xtreme. Anyway, there must have been about 14 of us on the yacht and she sailed very well along the coast out from Jolly Harbour towards Deep Bay. With no engine and not a single person apart from me who had sailed on her before we had to be careful. There were a few sailors on board so it was actually pretty easy. We dropped the hook very close to the Andes shipwreck so that we could all jump in and swim. JD had brought his thundercat along with the Xscream ring thing that we used at the kid's parties. A few of the big kids enjoyed going for rides while the rest of us ate and drank.

Time kinda flew and before long it was time to sail back to Jolly Harbour. There were a few squalls and with Galley Bay's point just below us we just used the jib to clear it before we hoisted the big mainsail. In Five Islands Harbour the winds kicked up pretty good and Ocean Nomad glided on with grace and speed. So much work has gone into this yacht and continues to this day. In fact, this past weekend the greenheart floorboards were put in over the top of the interior lead ballast and the engine box was finished. I think by the end of the week we will be able to get in and out of port under engine power. I dunno how my uncle sailed for all those years without an engine. Charters under the Sailing Antigua company name will probably not be started until later in the summer. To get it perfect it is taking plenty longer than i thought. Sail covers and the awning are being made at the moment by Graham at Antigua Sails, and a head will be constructed shortly. We still have not gotten a ladder either. There is an amazing amount of work that has to be done in order to ''finish'' a wooden boat to the point where she is ready for day tours and charters. The journey from the photos taken above back in Carriacou in Feb. where and when i took this boat over has been a rewarding challenge. Its still not finished!This sailing trip for my GF's birthday was the first time we went for a cruise with regular people and that in itself was a learning experience, and i was glad that it all worked out well. She even helped trim the mainsail as seen above. Nobody could ask for better crew!My mom and sister who both work with me at Adventure Antigua came with us too and enjoyed it which was very nice. All in all we had a great time and i am even more excited to have the yacht properly finished...soon! A special thanks to the ''crew'' that day as they didn't even know they were going to be crew. Also thanks to Kat and Karine for taking the photos.

Understanding Windguru and weather in Antigua

Here at Adventure Antigua weather forecasting is an essential tool used in our business. Yesterday we had a tough one with some bad weather that rolled in. We sat glued to weather maps, radar, and satellite images on the computer before we made the decision to postpone two boat trips for the day until thismorning. As someone who monitors weather every day and then has to send several boats out, i see what forecasts work and what doesn't. No site is 100% accurate, and many are total garbage. Dont ever use yahoo wather or weather.com's animated forecasts. I have never seen them say we would have a sunny day here in Antigua. The most simple forecasting site giving long range forecasts that has the highest degree of accuracy for Antigua and Barbuda is windguru. Coming from 17 years of competitive windsurfing i can tell you that there isn't a group of more addicted wind and wave junkies that windsurfers, and windguru was set up by a bunch of them. When i first heard about it i thought there was no way that these guys from Czech republic could tell me what weather i could expect in Antigua next week. All my friends were telling me that it worked so i added windguru to my favorites and started checking each day. It's been years now and they have been incredibly accurate predicting cloud cover, rain, winds, and waves. They are are also accurate at predicting wave direction and wind direction. The forecasts are so good that i think our local forecasters here should just tell people what windguru is forecasting before doing or saying anything else. So often windguru will forecast a weather event like strong winds or big rain or huge waves and we say to each other: ''Windguru has gone mad again as there are no storms forming and nothing out there''. We then have to eat our words a few days later when a storm forms a thousand miles away and things start to look like they will be right. Last year was the best though when a week before Hurricane Dean appeared it was forecast by windguru. Everyone thought that windguru had gone mad until they saw the clouds coming together on sat maps.

Anyway, i keep hearing people say they find it difficult to understand windguru. According to their site: ''WindGURU is a service specialized for forecasting weather, mostly for windsurfers and kitesurfers (but not only...). Forecasts are based on data produced by weather forecast models. Windguru is able to provide forecast for any place on planet Earth. The main reason to create this site was the idea to get the forecasts quickly and easily without wild clicking the mouse while searching for meteomaps throughout the internet.''

So it should be easy and i want you to figure it out.

Using Windguru's seven day forecasting tool:

Go to the website and using the drop down menus for the 'geographic area' locate the Caribbean. Then go to the country and select the Antigua and Barbuda one. Then below that you see a menu for 'Spot', select Antigua and press 'GO'. You will now have the most accurate forecast for Antigua there is at this point IMHO. Lets show you how to figure the info out. I cut out a bit of the main image and drew a little arrow in the top left corner pointing to the day and date which in this case is today Wednesday July 9th. You can even see the time of day as you look from left to right under the date starting from 5 am and going to the right of the image ending in 8pm.

Ok next we will speak about wind speed and wind direction which are on the line below the time of day. In the image below the red line is pointing to the colourful wind speed box on the far left which forecasted 10 knots at 5 am. By the way you can adjust it to be measured in whatever unit you want from mph to knots to kmph. I like knots and is what i understand. Here is the image:

You can see that by the end of the day it is saying that it will be 13 knots at 20 hours (8pm). Under the colourful wind speed boxes there is a line for wind direction. On the far left it is pointing from right to left using the compass directions. East is on the right and west is on the left. North is up top and south is below. In this case the winds are coming from the East on the right and blowing towards the west. The next thing is something very important for boaters and especially ones that are kept on moorings off beaches at areas where it is normally calm. Many boats here in Antigua would be safer if people would keep an eye during the winter on this part of windguru. Wave height and wave direction. Waves don't always come from the east here in Antigua. The image below shows the red arrow i drew pointing at wave size or height. As you can see at 5 am it was 2.2 meters high and over on the far right at 20 hrs they will be 1.4 meters so the waves are dropping through the day.

Under the wave height line there is the 'wave period' line which tells you how long a particular wave will take to go past a specific point in seconds. A longer wave period (higher number) means the wave is essentially thicker or wider. There is more water in that wave and more power. Higher numbers are good for surfers and bad for your moored boat or beach house in a storm. Below the wave period is the wave direction line which is so important. Here at 5 am you can see that the forecast was for waves coming from the north-east (remember east is on the right and north is up top). This will let you know if your favorite beach will be calm or not. That if you know what side of the island your beach is :)

Temperature, cloudcover and rainfall. The next red arrow i drew points to the most important part of the forecast for many tourists coming to Antigua and Barbuda. The temperature. In Antigua the temperature stays the same for most of the year so i don't ever look at this part of windguru. Here at 5 am it said it would be 28 degrees C and as you can see they say it will be the same all day. Never worry about the temp here in Antigua. Its always warm. Under the temp line is 'cloud cover percentage' which is important for those beach people who want to get loads of sun on their holiday. Today at 5 am it said over on the far left at the bottom that it would have 22% cloud cover. At mid day it would have 50% cloud cover. Under the cloud cover line there is the rainfall line which is important. People always are asking on the internet forums about how much is it raining in Antigua. Here is your answer. Today between 5 am and 8 am they forecast that .5 of a mm would fall on the island and between 8 am and 11 am .4 of a mm would fall again. It didn't happen in Jolly Harbour today but i am sure that somewhere on the island got a 30 second rainfall over the past 6 hours. OK that is how simple it is to get an accurate forecast for Antigua and Barbuda. Just follow these instructions and rest assured that its mostly sunny here in Antigua.

Going surfing.

After the thunderstorms and rain today for the second time in two months the dry island may start to look green again. I hope so because i was getting tired of the dusty dry conditions here. Anyway, hurricane Bertha missed the Caribbean totally and is of no threat to us anymore, but we may get some waves to surf today and tomorrow which have been generated by the storm some 660 miles from us. I am going to take my SUP board down south where there are reports of some 6 foot glassy swells. Will try to take some photos.

first Atlantic storm of the season

Tropical Storm Bertha is born! I have written so much about hurricanes and weather on this blog that i feel like saying these things is like deja vu. Here goes again:

Contrary to popular belief Antigua does not get hit by hurricanes every year. Antigua has been directly hit by hurricanes 6 times since 1954. Most of them happened to be in the 1990s and the media had a field day. The conditions only last for a day and sometimes hurricane force winds only lasted a few hours. Either way your chances of getting hit by a hurricane are pretty slim if you think about it. Six days of hurricane force winds over the past nineteen thousand seven hundred and ten days. Its amazing what numbers can sound like when you play with them a bit. All that being said, you have to keep checking the forecasts during hurricane season (june to november). A great place to look is http://www.stormcarib.com/ where i write from time to time too. A week ago forecasters using the most sophisticated computers and software started predicting that a storm could form just off Africa due to all the favorable conditions coming together there. So said so done. A huge bulk of cloud mass came out of the jungle and turned into a named tropical storm. Tropical Storm Bertha seen on the far right of this image:

is of no threat at all to the Caribbean but is something to talk about. Its forecast by all the super duper computer models to miss the Caribbean totally not even giving us some rain. With a small fleet of boats to look after, i am constantly checking the weather throughout hurricane season and will let you know if there is anything out there that needs looking at. Every year the forecasters for this area get better and better and i feel more and more relaxed during this season. For now, its going to be a nice calm week coming up after a so so weekend. Tomorrow is my GF's birthday and we are gonna do some sailing on Ocean Nomad. Will take some snaps. Enjoy yours.

a little fun for AA crew

Some time ago, JD decided he loved my little dinghy so much that he wanted to buy it. I gave him a good deal on it and I went without one for some time. Anyway, another guy here on the island got one of these "Thundercats" and i knew it was time for me to get another one for myself. We would use it to pull the ring thing on kids parties. Finally we were able to get out for some racing fun yesterday. Captain of Adventure Antigua's Xtreme: JD and captain of Adventure Antigua's Eco boat: Tony were going to be riding in the DUX brand thundercat while Jason, Adventure Antigua's newest deck hand would be my co-pilot. One minute into our race JD and Tony hit a gust of wind while going over our wake and had major problems. I looked behind just to see one of them in mid air as if they had just pressed the ejector seat button on a jet fighter. Of course this happened just as three other boats were passing. One of them was a Wadadli Cats boat. I can just imagine Captain Sheldon saying "yes ladies and gentlemen on our right is a flipped boat captained by JD and Tony who are two skippers from Adventure Antigua our competition." Anyway, one of the other boats helped us right JD and Tony who were very embarrassed. I took them to shore where Chris was waiting already with tools to do some work on the flooded engine. I did some quick work on the plugs, carbs and fuel system and we were at it again. Chris took some video too which i may show later depending on the language contained within. It was boys having fun on a day off during a very slow month. There is a poker run here at the end of the month before Carnival where be a Thundercat race. That will be some silly fun for sure. It can't be all work in this company, but we have to be a bit more careful. I can't lose the two best skippers in Antigua. I guess i should say best tour boat skippers because the best thundercat skipper wasn't JD. LOL

Launching the yacht for the 2nd time

As you know if you are a regular reader of this blog, i had a traditional yacht (a.k.a. "work boat") built in the Southern Caribbean island of Carriacou. The history, tradition and process that goes into building one of these amazing yachts is something which adds incredible value to them and gives them spirit and an almost life like atmosphere once aboard. Anyway, we launched the yacht in Carriacou then had to get her rigged with a mast, boom and sails and made the 300+ mile run non stop to Antigua where we slapped a thin layer of paint on her and competed in The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. Since then we have been trying to finish her to the point where we could do day tours and private charters in Antigua under the name Sailing Antigua. For the past 8 weeks there has been non stop work done on her and we are about to launch her for the second time with an engine and with all the additional lead ballast installed. We had thousands of dollars of paint carefully applied after very careful prep work including sanding the entire interior. Getting 3500 of lead was a whole story alone and i will save that for another day. The engine is in and the rudder was modified and finally is getting fastened today after plenty of stainless steel fabrication. Will take photos later today. This is just some news of what we have been up to. After we launch we still need to do some interior wood work, but keeping her out of the water isn't good for the wood and once the rudder work is done we should be able to launch tomorrow. May go for a sail this weekend and get some nice sailing shots. Will keep you informed.

St. Nicholas school field trip

It's becoming quite a major part of our business to take groups of kids out on private tours. After all the children's birthday parties we go into more educational and alternative field trips. As you saw last week, we took 6th grade from Island Academy to Barbuda on a camping trip. (photo above thanks to Thorsten who happened to be doing a Barbuda tour on the chopper)The most recent educational adventure we have done with children was with the 6th grade from St. Nicholas school. Mrs Dean has been a reader of this blog for some time and actually asked me to come and speak about environmental issues some time ago at the school. I spoke to 5th and 6th graders and was so impressed by how smart these little adults were. Anyway, we spoke about doing a trip back then and now just before grade six of 2008 say goodbye to the school they decided to come on my Eco Tour. A few parents, Ms. Dean and most of the class got on board with Wan Lovv, Tony and Ross at Dickenson Bay and did the regular eco tour. What makes this tour the best tour on Antigua in my opinion is that is was designed around childhood adventures that my family had up in the North Sound islands and that it has themes of history and ecology. For many Antiguans who do the tour the best part is discovering new places and learning loads of new info about an area in this small country that most people don't know about. Of course there is snorkeling, boating, beaching, wildlife, caving discovery and all the other things that make a good Caribbean adventure. According to reports on our Adventure Antigua facebook group the tour went very well. We hope to do more of these kids trips because there is no doubt that helping kids see how special these delicate and wondrous areas are will benefit the county as a whole in the future. We'll see. The photos were taken by Mandy Cheremeteff (one of the moms) and were shown on the facebook group. Thanks Mandy!