Blogs from English Harbour, Antigua, Antigua & Barbuda, Central America Caribbean

Spoiler alert ! Antigua has a lot, and I do mean a lot, of very attractive beaches. We have visited many and stopped on several, often finding a nice spot for a bite of lunch. That was the pattern yesterday for my Birthday. We headed out west to Ffryers (yes, double ‘f’) beach and had several hours in sun and shade with a very stiff breeze at our backs. Luckily this was blowing off shore. If it been the other way round we’d have been sand blasted. Then we had a late lunch at Sheer Rocks, a simply delightful spot overlooking the beach. The prices were sky high, the portions tiny (but delicious), the service pedestrian but it was lovely way to spend 90 minutes. By the time we’d finished it was time to head back ... read more

Thursday 18th December, 2014. Antigua, British Leeward Islands, West Indies A 'beach with an island in the middle' is a great way to describe this island. Antigua and its little sisters Barbuda and Redonda are the most developed of the 4 British Leeward Islands. Antigua is the largest and is roughly circular in shape and about 12 miles in diameter and has more than 350 spectacular beaches with gleaming pink-white sand backed by gently waving palms. Rainfall is low which accounts for the fact that there are no rivers. The original inhabitants around 4,000 years ago disappeared mysteriously, leaving the island uninhabited for nearly 10 centuries. By the time Christopher Columbus (CC) arrived on his second voyage in the late 15th century, the Arawak Indians were in residence, followed closely by the Caribs. Antigua was 'discovered' ... read more

After 27 hours of travelling we were pleased to arrive in South Beach Miami for a one night stopover on the way to the Carribbean. We arrived early evening at the Essex Hotel an Art Deco building one block from the beach front, we still had just enough energy to go for a walk along the beach front to admire the art deco buildings. Ron's description of South Beach "that it is the Gold Coast on steroids" was well founded. The beach front was full of restaurants, clubs and lots of young people out to party. We enjoyed listening to a jazz band while having a drink and people watching before finally retiring around midnight. Both very tired but happy to be starting our next six week adventure. The flight to St Kitts from Miami was ... read more

Having arrived in Antigua over three weeks ago, you might wonder what the place has to keep anyone here this long. Well actually the time has been spent working on rainmaker. We felt the need to give her lots of love before attempting to sail back across the Atlantic, especially as the way back will potentially be far more challenging. We've spent the time getting her hauled out to look as good as new, taking the opportunity to do some antifouling and other general maintenance. With her interior also been revamped she does look pretty good and has increased her homeliness a huge amount. As she's been out of the water we camped ourselves for a while in Harmony Hall, which was just delightful. We've also spent a bit of time in Nelson's dockyard, which is ... read more

January 2011 Happy New Year to all our friends, family and anyone else. I can finally say that on the 15th January, as the start of the new year was a bit of a nightmare. When we got back to the boat we were expecting to find our decks recaulked, the boat tidy and everything good, but in reality we found shoddy work, the boat in a shambles and noone to be seen. We went to Falmouth harbour for new years eve and had a great time, as always the atmosphere was wonderful and we danced until about 2am. The following days were spent fretting about sorting out the work on the boat and we were extremely lucky to find two really reliable carpenters, oliver and marshall who expertly repaired the work and produced perfect looking ... read more