Commodore
March 17, 2022

Off to the island of Barbuda

We had a great sail over, we motored around the first headland so that we could put the sails up in calmer waters which all went smoothly. And then we were off! We averaged 10 knots all the way, about a 40 mile sail, with big choppy waves and a few squalls with rain. Greg and Jan also left this morning for Barbuda, but a lot earlier than us and we caught up with them around lunch time. They do the speed of our old boat, so we are chuffed to be noticing a big difference.

Leaving Antigua

We passed this tiny sandy island

We came here for Christmas 2020 with Luke and Phoebe, we explored the northern parts of the island, this time we are sticking south, which is the more popular yachting area. We decided to go behind a reef with a very narrow passage into the anchorage. Our guide book gives loads of dire warnings about only attempting this anchorage in bright sunshine so that you can easily see the coral heads. As our luck had it we were nearly out the passage when cloud and rain appeared. We were rather committed, so gingerly edged forward. All went well for a while until crunch, we had scraped some coral. Luckily we were going very slowly and were able to reverse out and choose a better route. We finally anchored where we wanted to be. We have the entire stretch of coast to ourselves, which makes it a rather magical spot. Rowan went under the boat with his new Nemo, to asses the damage which was luckily minimal, just the gel coat got scraped. He managed to dive under and put some underwater epoxy glue on the damaged areas, he is certainly honing his DIY skills.

We relaxed on board for the rest of the afternoon after that little adrenalin rush. It rained on and off, which kept everything cool and did a good job of washing the salt off the boat from our pretty bouncy crossing. We decided to go to Uncle Roddy’s restaurant for supper, it has good reviews and 4 quaint cottages for rent alongside. These are the only buildings along the entire stretch of beach, besides a house under construction. The restaurant has a wonderful balcony, it was magnificent looking out to PolePole in splendid isolation, as the light disappeared. A local lady owns the place, very entrepreneurial. We were surprised to be served by a Hungarian waiter, who seemed to hate water and anything to do with boats! The place was pretty full, obviously guests had come up from the resort area further south. We had a very good and tasty evening.

Heading off at sunset to the restaurant in Jeldi Jeldi (R gives Putin a run for his money!!)

Uncle Roddy’s restaurant

The cottages belonging to the restaurant and one of the many feral donkeys that roam the island. There is a lot of braying around, almost as noisy as peacocks