Category Archives: Antigua and Barbuda

Beaches, View Points, Fort Berkley & Blowers

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Yesterday morning we went back to Pigeon Beach for a while, and then headed over to one of the stunningly beautiful beaches we had seen on the drive up to Jolly Harbor yesterday. We believe it is called Darkwood Beach, but we are not positive.

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Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative. It has rained a lot every day we have been here. The rain tends to be hard, but normally it doesn’t last long before the cloud passes and the skies are blue again. However, yesterday it just wouldn’t let up. Rather than brief showers, we had brief periods without showers. After making a few runs to the car to get out of the pounding rain, we finally gave up and headed back to Kosmos.

On the way back, we stopped at a place that Continue reading →

Pigeon Beach, Shirley Heights and Jolly Harbor

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John had told us he wanted to go to the beach every day. So, first thing this morning we went over to Pigeon Beach. It is the closest beach to us, located on the peninsula that separates Falmouth from English Harbors. There is a walking trail from Nelson’s Dock Yard to Pigeon Beach, but we were lazy and drove. Even though it is a short distance as the crow flies, the road to get there is hilly and windy and was actually a surprisingly long drive.

The beach is absolutely lovely, with white sand and big, shady trees growing out of the sand. There are picturesque views of Falmouth Harbor to the right, the ocean to the left, and directly across the way, verdant hills. It is actually fairly small, and there is a picnic table under a palapa (small thatched roof). A few houses dot the landscape on both sides, some quite expensive looking, but the scenery is mostly untouched, green land. There were only four other people on the beach, so we had it pretty much to ourselves.

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After about an hour, we went back to Kosmos to clean up, then set off to go sightseeing. Our first destination was Continue reading →

Taking John to St. John’s, Antigua

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Yesterday, we were quite surprised by our carpet quotes. Both owners came out personally. One company was very professional. They gave us a written quote at a reasonable rate. The other company was less professional. They quoted almost double the price and didn’t put it in writing. We also got an uneasy sense that the final bill would be more than the quote. Needless to say, we hired the more professional company. They arrived first thing this morning to start work.

It was a relief to get the carpets and upholstery done. Ever since Continue reading →

Exploring Nelson’s Dockyard & Falmouth Harbor

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Yesterday Christi slept in especially late, and when she did get up, she was moving slow. Between swimming all day and dancing all night, she had gotten more exercise than normal and she was feeling it.

We puttered around all morning, and at 1330, she finally got underwater to do the metal. On the port side, the metal had a small amount of growth, nothing major. The bottom has a fine, thin layer of grass starting to grow. She scraped the metal, then moved to the starboard side and almost had a heart attack. The metal on this side was Continue reading →

Snorkeling and a Concert in English Harbor

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Christi started the morning by scrubbing the waterline. The starboard side had little growth, but the port side had a lot of growth. The growth was fairly thin at the bow and got progressively thicker the farther back on the boat. The port aft quarter of the waterline looks like a carpet. And it didn’t want to come off. She got all the growth off the starboard side and the front half of the port side and had tackled most of the aft half before she decided to take a break. She was tired and the current was picking up. She planned to finish the water line and tackle the metal at 1600, during slack tide.

After Christi had rested for an hour, we decided to go snorkeling. There are some rocks in the southeast corner of the harbor that are supposedly a good snorkeling spot. And since we are anchored so close, it is a short swim from Kosmos.

The ground underneath the anchorage area is mostly that Posidonia grass intermixed in with another thinner, greener type of grass. Near the rocks, the grass vanishes. The rocks have no substantial growth, just small patches of coral and sponges all around. It almost looks like a vibrant reef was completely washed away in a storm and is trying to grow back, except that there is no telltale dead coral around to support our theory. What is interesting is that while the growth patches are tiny, there are lots of different kinds of species. The first photo is of yellow tube sponge. In Deshaies, they were 4 feet tall and came in both yellow and purple. The second photo is also of sponges. We are not sure what this kind is called, nor whether the two different colors are different species.

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In addition to those, we also saw Continue reading →