OK, a pretty generic shot of the boat, but I’m sure this was from the Valley Church Beach.

Oh, and I do remember that we were here on Sydney’s birthday (Feb. 20) because I made a little “Happy Birthday” video as her present.

This is just south of Jolly Harbor on the west coast of Antigua. Many books tell you not to come in here because there are too many shallow areas and moving sandbars. Also, apparently you get large breaking waves on the shallows when there are swells coming in. But, our Canadian friends at the marina said this was their favorite anchorage and that they knew it so well they could come in after dark.

With a little trepidation, we though we would venture in because we needed a place to stay for a couple of days and didn’t feel like going to any of the other anchorages. It was very sparsely populated with boats, probably due to all the warnings and that it is just too shallow for monohulls with their deeper keels. But there weren’t many coral heads, it was mostly a sand bottom, and I like places that aren’t crowded. I don’t remember the exact depth, but it was probably around 7 feet (2 feet under the keel), barely clear enough that you could see bottom, so it was slow going into the anchorage. Our friends insisted that it was 8 feet all the way to the beach, so they would anchor close enough to the beach that they could easily swim in. I wasn’t that brave, so I found a place a little further out and put down the anchor.

I think we stayed here 2 nights and generally had a good stay. Beautiful empty beach, some resorts further to the south on the bluff, a “high-end tenting on the beach” thing going on a little to the north, and nice water. All-in-all a good anchorage for us. I’m sure we’ll stay here again.

And, by the way, while I found it labelled on Google maps after the fact, it didn’t show up as Valley Church beach in our sailing guide maps, so I wasn’t even sure where it was when we first looking. I knew where Valley Church was because we had walked past Valley Church on the road. I also knew there was a beach down the road from Valley Church because, again, we walked to it (from the road). But the books didn’t identify the beach and were pretty clear about the dangers involved in anchoring.

On the day we rented a car, we drove east to the shore, across the center of the island and then returned along the south and west coasts. Across the center is a long, windy (“windy” as in to wind around, not the blowing air kind of “windy”) trek through sparsely populated areas. Also, there are not a lot of gas stations, so we needed to keep a close watch on the gas gauge.

Devil’s Bridge National Park is on the east coast, taking the full fury of waves coming across the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean. So it gets pounded pretty hard, thus the hardcore rock formations.

Another shot of Devil’s Bridge. As usual in these situations, if the waves hit the rocks just right “geysers” come up through “blow holes” carved out from the rocks. (It is very hard to time a pic with the perfect wave/geyser combination.)

We anchored downwind of Lobster Island in the NE corner of Antigua. Beautiful area. Because we were fairly close to the island, it was a little swirly and the boat wasn’t staying in one place. After a couple of days I got used to the pattern and we stayed here for several days. We had a retired, European couple next to us that met and became pretty friendly with. The guy would go kite surfing while his wife would chase him in the dinghy.

I was told there were lobsters in the water so spent a couple of days snorkeling for them. Never saw one. Apparently, you have to know what you’re looking for – I obviously didn’t.

Fantastic area. Hell’s gate is just beyond the island, as is Great Bird Island. We’ve been here before when we had a charter boat. It is a popular area, although it can be hard to find a place to anchor because there are many known coral heads that a just below the surface that you have to be careful with.

While we were anchored off Lobster Island in NE Antigua, we could take the dinghy to surrounding islands and snorkeling sites to explore. Much of the water is shallow and has coral heads that you can’t take your boat into, so taking a dinghy is the only way. Since this is the East side, it gets the full brunt of waves coming from the Atlantic. There is also a shelf around Antigua and where it gets shallow, you will get the Atlantic waves breaking on the shallow water. So one day we took the dinghy out to that area of the shelf to check out Hell’s Gate. This is the farthest East rock formation that is taking the brunt of the Atlantic. We didn’t want to get too close because it can be dangerous and it was fairly wavy and windy already. But I did want to get a pic. Also, we anchored the dinghy in a place that didn’t look like it had coral and hopped overboard. Some fantastic snorkeling if you can handle the waves.

Hard to get any better than this.

This beach is pretty idyllic – clear water, nice beach, not a lot of people, nothing on the island (except birds) and snorkeling from shore if you feel like it. (Sometimes you will see people (tenders from larger boats), bringing parties over here for lunch.)

We hiked to the top. Very easy and short hike up. Beautiful 360-degree view and can see out to the great Atlantic with all of its fury as well. You can barely see our boat behind Lobster Island if you look carefully (and know what you’re looking for).

Towards the Atlantic.