Deep Bay, Fort James, & Exploring the Northern Coast of Antigua

Today we explored the northernmost regions of the island. The first place we went to was the beach at Deep Bay. You may remember that we attempted to anchor in Deep Bay when we first arrived from Barbuda. We remembered it was beautiful and thought it would be a nice beach to go back to. Getting to Deep Bay was a little hairy. We went to St. John’s, then headed west. In general, the roads in Antigua aren’t well maintained, but the road west was worse than usual. Near the bay, we turned off on a small side road that was nothing but a giant pothole. We think we Continue reading

Beaches, View Points, Fort Berkley & Blowers

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

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

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

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