We were told about this guy from a Canadian couple we met in Antigua. We thought they were kidding, but this guy has a small, wooden boat that he has covered with a “thatched” roof and then filled with fruits and vegetables. Apparently, in normal times he comes out to all the boats in their slips and delivers fruits and vegetables (for a price). When we were at the marina, he was attached to the dinghy dock, probably to keep him from spreading the ‘rona. Nice guy, a little pushy, OK fruits and vegetables, a little over-priced. He gets re-stocked daily and has a pretty decent selection. Always fun to dicker about price and talk to local businessmen, but not something I am personally looking for on a daily basis, when I can walk another 100 feet to a grocery store with the same items. The boat looks pretty rough from the outside.
Just a shot of the Rodney Bay marina from one of the buildings on shore in the marina. Nice marina, not very occupied while we were there because of the ‘rona.
Our boat is not in this shot. I believe this is the rental dock were the boats are charted by various vendors. Pretty much nobody was renting while we were there. I’m not even sure the charter companies were operating.
The restaurants at the marina were closed for much of the time we were there and just opened for limited lunch hours toward the last days of our visit.
I just couldn’t resist this boat-for-sale, literally within a stone’s throw of the marina with 100’s of expensive yachts. I know this is a local sale, and everyone has to make a living, but it was just such a juxtaposition that I had to take a pic.
We were anchored in Falmouth Harbor in the south of Antigua before our long journey down to St. Lucia and we decided to take one final trip ashore to both check out at immigration and to take some final pictures.
These are the classic pillars of English Harbor which you see in all pics of the harbor. They are actually not supposed to be just standing pillars, rather when they were functional, they held up the roof of a large sail-repair shop. On the other side of the pillars, there are remnants of ditches where you could pull boats in that carried the sails.
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.
