SCUBA diving around English Harbor

Today we went diving. We booked with the dive company located in Nelson’s Dockyard. The cost was $89 USD per person since we had our own gear, and without gear it is $110. He swore to us that he is the cheapest dive company on the entire island.

There were four people total, the two of us, a French Canadian, and the dive master. We did our own gear on shore, then all loaded into an 18 foot, open fiberglass boat with an outboard motor. It is the kind of boat locals use for fishing, and hadn’t been customized for diving. There were no tank holders or anything like that; you just kind of threw all your gear in a pile on the floor. This is the first time ever we have been on a dive boat where there weren’t two dive operators, one to stay with the boat and one to go under.

The first dive spot was Continue reading

Snorkeling and a Concert in English Harbor

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

Passage to English Harbor, Antigua

This morning Eric was up early. The waves had picked up considerably during the night, and our once fairly flat anchorage was now rocky as all get out. Eric was having a hard time sleeping with all the motion. We got ready quickly and pulled up anchor at 0745.

A little bit southwest of the sand bar is a long, thin strip of especially shallow water. While the water in the rest of the bay is about 15 feet deep, this strip is only 9 feet deep. We were stunned as we watched enormous waves breaking on the 9 foot strip. We mean enormous. Oddly, the Continue reading

Island Tour and Flipping the Dinghy

Continued from yesterday”¦ After we were done eating, our new friends continued to roam the town while we went back to immigration. It was once again very simple. Just one form, and no fees. This agent was also causally dressed and professional, but curt. Our new friends rejoined us as soon as we were done, ice cream cones in hand. Christi thought Eric might die of jealousy.

The town is cute. It is very small, probably all of 6 or 7 blocks in total from what we can tell. Most of the buildings are low bungalows with metal roofs. Most look to be in good shape, with none appearing especially weather beaten. You definitely get a strong sense that everyone knows everyone else, and that they view themselves as a big family.

We took a dirt road east. It looked like mostly undeveloped land to us, though we did pass a few small farms. We also passed a few shacks in the middle of nowhere. They were kind off odd anomalies since pretty much everyone on the island lives in Codrington. The taxi driver explained that these are real Rastafarians, who choose to Continue reading

Frigate Bird Mating and Checking into Barbuda

Just in case anyone is unclear, yesterday’s post was an April Fool’s joke. There is no magical algae, at least that we know of. The duty free fuel in Guadeloupe is dyed green, which was why we had to go to the special pumps. When we saw the green fuel, we knew it would be the ideal joke.

So, back to our travel log: Last night we found out there is one drawback to this anchorage. The resort uses a very loud generator that they run all night. It must drive the hotel guests mad.

This morning we were up early, preparing to go to the one and only town of Codrington to check into the country. From where we are, there are two choices to get to the village. You can either drag your dinghy across the sandbar and into the lagoon, then take yourself over to the village, located due east on the other side of the lagoon. Or you can Continue reading