Barbuda

(Originally published in 2012)

After spending three weeks hanging out in Simpson Bay Lagoon and cruising the local attractions in St. Martin, we decided it was time to be moving on down toward Antigua, where we had a date with our friends Chris and MaryLiz of Wandering Albatross to sail in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. We were eager to make a stop at the island of Barbuda (not to be confused with Bermuda or Barbados) on the way. We had read reports in the cruising pubs of the beautiful, pristine beaches and the complete isolation of the Barbuda coastline and, after the crowds of St. Martin, we were eager for some downtime, some snorkeling, and some more beautiful beaches. Barbuda is a part of the nation that is known as Antigua and Barbuda, two larger islands located near the southern end of the Leeward Island chain in the Lesser Antilles.

As was our habit by now, we started our trip by staging from Simpson Bay Lagoon on out into Simpson Bay proper a couple of days prior to our intended departure. This got us through the bridge and settled in where we could easily up anchor and take off at our leisure for the island of St. Barthélemy, known more commonly as St. Barts. When ready, we took a laidback 20 mile daysail on a southeasterly course across the St. Barthélemy channel and picked up a mooring in the well protected bay, Anse de Colombier, located on the western end of the island. We found this bay to be a very popular yet pleasant and relaxing location to spend some time where we spent a day preparing for an early morning/late night departure for the island of Barbuda, located some 70 miles to windward in an east-southeasterly direction from St. Barts.

The weather forecast sounded okay with what sounded like a reasonable weather window for an upwind trip and we had high hopes of a pleasant, flat, easy daysail across the gap. At about 3 AM, in spite of what appeared to be a dark and cloudy night, we dropped our mooring and headed around the southerly leg of the bay and motored easterly across the south shore of St. Barts, then out across the open water toward Barbuda. As morning broke the breeze began to pick up more than expected and we started to feel that unpleasant sensation of pounding into the prevailing seas. The ride was reminiscent of our trip across the Gulf Stream when we motored from Miami across to Bimini in the Bahamas. The sky was overcast and it was one of those rare days when the Caribbean offered up rain and unsettled weather which made the trip much more of a chore than we had hoped. By early afternoon we could see on our chart that we were approaching Barbuda but the low-lying island selfishly took its time in revealing itself on the horizon. As the day progressed, the weather gradually improved as the clouds thinned out and whatever system we had encountered gradually exited the area. We approached the western shore of Barbuda, nothing but clean white sand visible for miles to the north and south along the leeward shore, and dropped the hook a hundred yards off the stretch known as Eleven Mile Beach. We had arrived. Ironically, as was the case in our Gulf Stream crossing to Bimini, the following day dawned clear and bright without a hint of an easterly breeze and several other boats arrived in the afternoon, having had the completely uneventful and pleasant crossing that we had eluded us.

We thoroughly enjoyed the isolation of the anchorage we had chosen. We were anchored a couple hundred yards from our friends Chuck and Terri aboard their catamaran Maker’s Match. A number of other boats had also anchored not far away but only stayed for a day or two before moving on, leaving us and Maker’s Match alone to enjoy the solitude. The island is about fifteen miles north to south and averages considerably less than ten miles wide. Codrington Lagoon takes up a substantial part of the northern end of the island and is home to large Frigate Bird sanctuary. The Frigate Birds are a large bird seen commonly throughout the Caribbean and are easily recognized with their long swallow-like tails. We were anchored off shore with a relatively narrow strip of land between the lagoon and us. One day we decided to get together and carry, roll, and slide the hard-bottomed dinghy from Maker’s Match up and over the top of the steep sand dune that separated us from the lagoon. After an hour or more of the four of us portaging the dinghy, we managed to get it launched in the lagoon and we motored across to Codrington, the only sizable town on the island and home to the majority of the island’s 1,500 or so inhabitants. We wandered around the town, visited the post office, and stopped into a local “restaurant,” located in what appeared to be room of somebody’s private residence, where we sampled some of the local, typically Caribbean, fare.

After a week or so anchored off eleven mile beach, we decided to up anchor and head further south along the shoreline a few miles where we anchored near Coco Point. We spent only a few days at this anchorage where we strolled the beach and walked past the famous K-Club, an upscale, exclusive resort that had been frequented by Princess Diana when the royal boys were young. It had since that time fallen into significant disrepair and did not seem to be actively in business when we were there. However another resort south of the K-Club appeared to be functioning and looked like an interesting place to take a vacation.

After Coco Point we decided to visit one more stop on our way toward Antigua. We upped anchor and headed around the southern tip of the island into the coral surroundings of Grosvenor Bay where we anchored for another few days and made a number of snorkeling excursions in our dinghy as we explored large reefs of elkhorn coral and some areas of large coral heads in twenty feet or so of pristine, clear Caribbean water. The protection was excellent from the prevailing surf and swell and the trade wind breezes were exquisite, while the snorkeling trips were some of the best we had had.

Finally, it was time for us to leave Barbuda behind, so we pulled our anchor, threaded our way out of Grosvenor Bay and headed south along with Maker’s Match, sailing on a broad reach, our vessels just a mile or so apart on the thirty mile open water sail. It was a spectacularly beautiful Caribbean sail culminating in a stop off the Sandal’s Resort on Dickenson Bay in Antigua and back to the hustle and bustle of civilization, Caribbean style.