North Sound Marina, the boatyard where we planned to haul out our boat, is located in the northern part of Antigua. So, we spent our last three nights preparing our boat for haul-out in the calm waters at one of our favorite anchorages on Antigua. Great Bird island is known for its many birds as well as good snorkeling. We found a new place to anchor, within dingy distance of Great Bird Island, off of Rabbit Island and facing Lobster Island. We didn’t encounter much swell here and the wind was just enough to keep our boat facing it so that the waves didn’t lap the sides of our hulls. These conditions make it easier to sleep. It was beautiful in this area and the water was very clear. Only a few boats were anchored in the area so it was very peaceful. People kite board in this bay and it is fun to watch them glide across the water.

We are beginning to question the name of “Lobster Island.” Last year both Steve and I searched for lobsters around this island and this year Steve looked again. No lobsters were found. It was a good thing that we had a back-up plan for dinner.

After three nights in Falmouth Harbour, we sailed north again to Valley Church for a night. This anchorage is fairly shallow but friends showed us that we could go close up to the beach.

Next we spent our time in the Jolly Harbour marina preparing the boat to be hauled out for the season. It is hard to believe that our Caribbean adventures for this year are just about finished. There is a lot of work that we need to do to prepare the boat for going on the hard. We are only planning to stay in Antigua four days after we haul our boat out so we needed to start preparing in advance. In this picture you’ll notice that the sails are down. We packed our water toys away for the season. And, I’ve been cleaning the boat and spraying it with a vinegar and water solution in hopes of keeping the mildew at bay while we are away.

We stayed in Falmouth Harbour last year so we sort of knew our way around. This year we decided to take some walks away from the Harbour. We were pleasantly surprised with how nice some of the neighborhoods were once we got away from the Harbour. And, we found some great views of both English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour.

Our next stop was Falmouth Harbour. Some friends we had met last year were going to be there over the weekend so we made plans to get together. Falmouth Harbour is where the super yachts go. It also happened to be the Classic Sailboat Regatta. So, there were some beautiful boats in the Harbour.

We spent one night in Ayers Creek and decided to move to a different location. We didn’t have a great view where we were because we were close to a hill with mangroves on it. We could see a beach to our left with one sailboat there and decided to check it out. This turned out to be a lovely anchorage. There were three nice homes on the hill overlooking the beach. And, there were wild donkeys on the hillside. It turned out that nobody was staying on the other sailboat so we had this bay to ourselves.

After one night, we moved on and checked out Clover Leaf Bay, which was supposed to have calm waters. This bay was odd in that there was a sprawling hotel, which looked to be abandoned, on one side and mangroves on the other. We decided not to anchor here and were contemplating on heading back to Falmouth Harbour, on the south western side of Antigua. We wound our way around the reefs at the entrance to the bay and were about to head out into the open ocean. To our surprise, Rickett Harbour only had a couple of boats anchored in it and we decided to stop there. This was my favorite anchorage of the entire area, which was located just outside of Nunsuch Bay. There was a beautiful white sandy beach in front of us and snorkeling right off of our boat. We were sheltered by a reef on one side and Green Island on the other. It turns out that daytrip boats visit this bay to snorkel in its calm waters. (We decided to wait to snorkel until after they left. ) The water was a little cloudy, but we were able to see the seabed 15 feet below our boat. We were treated to three different turtles grazing on the grasses below. They were at least four feet long and one even swam up beside us. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures in this bay so you’ll have to use your imagination to envision it.

After a couple of nights anchored off of Green Island, we decided to explore the bay a little more. So, we went to the other end of the bay, near the expansive Nunsuch Bay Resort, and anchored in Ayers Creek. It was difficult to get proper holding in the creek, as the seabed was mud. The third time worked like a charm. It was very peaceful in this area and birds were chirping.

We decided to see if we could go to the Nunsuch Bay Resort for a drink. So, we hopped in our dinghy and motored to the front of the resort. They had a long barrier set up in front of the hotel to cut down on the wind waves close to shore. At the time we were not sure if we were allowed to take our dinghy around the barrier, so we headed to the back of the resort. There were some nice dinghy docks in the creek, some of which were private. Steve stayed in the dinghy while I hopped out to see if there was a restaurant that we could go to. I walked through the mangroves and inquired with the guard at “The Escape” an all-inclusive, couples-only part of the resort. He told us where Rackuni was located and received permission for us to leave our dinghy at the private dock. I returned to our dinghy to collect Steve and we were on our next adventure.

We walked past the guard again, up over the steep hill, and down to the main resort area. The resort itself was quite nice, with a couple of pools, well manicured grounds, and a lovely beach area. When we arrived at the restaurant, they were very welcoming even though we were not staying at their resort. I checked in and we sat in bar stools overlooking the bay. It was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed having a drink here.

After one night at the Valley Church anchorage, we spent a couple of nights in the Jolly Harbour marina. Last year we visited the marina so it was easy to resume a routine, as we knew where things were located. We washed the boat, had our laundry done, went grocery shopping, and disposed of our trash. We also had the opportunity to get together for drinks with some new friends that we met at the customs house.

After a couple of days, we set sail to the south-eastern part of Antigua to Nunsuch Bay. While we had visited Antigua a couple of times, we hadn’t made it to this windward bay yet and were looking forward to exploring it. It was a bit of a bumpy ride as we rounded the southern tip of the island. However, once we arrived in the bay, the waters were very calm with only wind waves. We actually had to move our boat in this anchorage because the wind died down and the boats started to swing. We determined that we were too close for comfort to a boat near us so we moved out a little further. In our first anchorage we were able to watch the kite boarders having a blast in front of our boat. It made for great entertainment.

One day we took our dinghy out to some reefs and snorkeled. The snorkeling wasn’t great here but it was nice to get into the water. Our anchorage was just to the side of the private island called “Green Island.” It was unfortunate that we couldn’t walk on the island to get some exercise.

Waiting for a good weather window paid off. Our sail between Pigeon Island, Guadeloupe and Jolly Harbour, Antigua was probably the best sail that we have had over the past two years. The winds were between 15 and 18 knots and the seas were between 3 and 5 feet. The sun shone for most of the sail and it was simply a beautiful day to cross the Guadeloupe Channel. Other boats thought so as well. There must have been at least two dozen boats making the crossing that day.

We arrived at Valley Church, a beautiful anchorage close to Jolly Harbour, around 2:30p. The health and customs office was open until 4p. So, after we were sure our anchor was set, we hopped in the dinghy to the customs house, which was painted bright yellow and had a “Q” flag flying. There was a crowd there. Apparently the health nurse had run out of the correct forms. So, we were told to return the next day.

We returned to our boat and enjoyed the afternoon in the beautiful anchorage. The next morning we arrived to the customs house at 8:30a. The nurse was supposed to arrive at 9a. We think that she might have been held up at the cruise ship dock. Anyways, she arrived around 10:15a and started processing people. By this time, there was quite a crowd. Since we had been sitting there for so long, it became quite a social gathering. This was great, as many of these people were going to enter the marina after clearing through customs, just like us.

Once the health nurse arrived, the process went quite smoothly. In Antigua, they are very particular about having all of the entry documentation correct. So, we were glad that we cleared out of customs in Deshaies to get the official stamp on our paperwork. Clearing through customs is different in every island. In this case, after a visit with the health nurse, only the captain continues with the clearing in process. Steve met several of the other captains in the queue while I chatted with many of the wives. Because this became so social, we met several different couples. It was nice to say hello to everyone in the marina.

Since we had stayed longer in Guadeloupe, and since the check-out process in Les Saintes was so informal, we decided that we needed to check out of Guadeloupe again before entering Antigua’s territory.  We know from past experience that Antigua is a little prickly about documentation when clearing in and out of their country.  The closest place from Pigeon Island to check out was Deshaies.  It was an hour and a half north of Pigeon Island by boat.  We looked into taking a bus, but the language barrier was too great.  The schedules were not posted and the woman I talked to told me that we would need to change buses along the way.  So, we gave up on the bus and took the boat there. 

The anchorage was relatively narrow with deep water.  There were some mooring balls, but someone posted on Facebook the week before that their mooring had broken while they were attached.  We found a spot to anchor in 40 feet of water.  We put out almost all of our chain.  The other thing about this mooring is that winds whip through the bay at 40 knots every once in a while and the boats swing around their anchors.  Because this was the first good weather window in about 10 days, there were a LOT of boats in this anchorage and we knew that more were coming since it was only lunch time.  We went into the Pelican store and found the customs computer in the back.  We cleared out and then walked back to the dinghy dock.  Town itself looked darling, with a pedestrian zone and boutique shops lined up along the street.  There was a nice promenade area in front of the dock.  The building looked like they were well cared for and the streets were relatively clean.  We would have liked to have explored this town more.  Instead, we used up the last of our Euros in the Patisserie and headed back to the boat.  The anchorage was so tight that boats were resting above other people’s anchors.  In order to leave, dinghies were pushing boats aside so that people could lift their anchors.  Because of the water depth, boats had to put out a lot of anchor chain, leaving what seemed to be big holes where another boat could fit.  Captain Steve wanted nothing to do with this and was afraid that our boat might get hit.  So, we grabbed a quick sandwich onboard and sailed back to the Pigeon Island anchorage for one last night.  This meant a 6a departure the next day.  However, it also meant that we could sleep throughout the night and not worry about our boat getting hit.

We took our dinghy and tied it to shore one day and walked towards the resort area of Pigeon Island.  This area is not all that built up and the entire area looked run down.  There was garbage along the streets.  And, the beach was black sand, making it look dingier than a pretty, sugar-white sand beach.  There was a restaurant on the beach there along with some souvenir shops.