Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua was a raucous, 80 mile, overnight beat from St. Barts.

With an easterly wind that blew from 15 to 25 knots, our speed ranged from
4.5 to 8 knots as we pounded into 6 to 8 foot seas. One of us, who shall
remain anonymous, thought he'd be macho and forego his "patch"; let's just
leave it at that, although it's a mistake that "the fishfeeder" (as we now call
him) probably won't repeat.

We anchored in English Harbor on the southern coast of the island, which,
together with Falmouth harbor right next door to the west, compose the hub of
yachting in Antigua. English Harbor is home to Nelson's Dockyard, a British
ship repair yard dating back to the early 1700's that has been renovated as a
yacht anchorage and national park site, with services, a museum, shops and
restaurants. English Harbor is an outstanding "hurricane hole" and easily
defended, and therefore became Britain's main naval station in the
Caribbean. Britain's favorite naval hero Admiral Nelson himself was stationed
here in 1784 as a lieutenant, under the command of Admiral Sir Richard
Hughes, and later assumed command of the facility.
Ironically, while the dockyard was eventually named in his honor, Nelson disliked Antigua intensely; though he did marry a
rich widow from neighboring Nevis, he did not get along with the Antiguan governor or locals since he insisted on strictly
enforcing Britain's ban on trade with the new United States, and he could not wait to be transferred out, reportedly leaving
his wife behind but taking her chequebook with him.

(In an interesting sidebar, when Nelson was first stationed here his commander, Sir Richard Hughes, had recently blinded
himself in one eye while chasing, with his fork, a cockroach that had had the temerity to interrupt his dinner. It's clear that
back then, unlike today, family ties, money and influence were more important to achieving high political and military rank
than were common sense, sobriety and competence. Oh ... wait ...)

The two islands of Antigua and Barbuda compose an independent country with a really cool flag. Most of its 80,000 people
live on Antigua; Barbuda, about half as large as Antigua, has a population of only 1500. This disparity dates from the days
when the slave-driven Antiguan sugar economy thrived. Barbuda was unfit to grow sugar, so the Codrington family, major
planters on Antigua, leased Barbuda in its entirety from the crown for the exorbitant rent of one sheep per annum, then
stationed a few lightly-supervised slaves there to grow root crops and livestock to feed the (presumably) more
closely-supervised slaves on the plantations. Today, the descendants own the entire island communally (there is no
privately-held property) and strongly resist any attempts at further development.
Steve's painstaking attempt at a panoramic view of English Harbor
Views of Neslon's Dockyard
Wanna buy a rowboat for cheap? ...
these 2-person boats had just
completed a Transatlantic race, the
winning crew finishing in a shade over
63 days.
The bakery, where we bought meat and chicken
pasties every day for "breakfast" at noon
We hiked up to Fort Berkeley, high above the narrow entrance to
English Harbor, which once could bring 29 cannon to bear to
defend the port; along with Fort Shirley high on the opposite
point, a chain that could be deployed across the harbor mouth,
and the fact that the prevailing winds tended to blow square
riggers away from the harbor made this a virtually impregnable
base for the British fleet
Looking down on the English Harbor
anchorage, Dakota Rose in the center
Only one lonely cannon left behind in the fort; the rest were
sunk vertically into concrete in the dockyard as bollards
From Fort Berkeley we hiked across the point
to Falmouth Harbor, home to the Antigua Yacht
Club and the local mega-yacht hangout
Look at how shiny  Mike's
getting that stainless steel!
Entertaining
the
anchorage
Hiking up to Shirley Heights, on the opposite point from
Fort Berkeley, for a Sunday evening of steel bands, reggae
and barbecue (in the background are English Harbor and
Falmouth Harbor) ...
... only to find it crowded with corpulent
cruise ship passengers who'd eschewed
the climb to arrive by bus
More of the dockyard
We rode the bus into the capital, St. John's,
for an afternoon of wandering. At $5 EC
(Eastern Caribbean Dollars), or $2 US, the
bus was a bargain, and it's great to be back
in a country where our money is strong
compared to the local currency
The public fruit market
After a few days in English Harbor we spent two nights in
Deep Harbor, in the northwest, before setting out for
Barbuda. Like most harbors in Antigua, this one was
heavily defended by an overlooking fort which, in the old
days, wouldn't have countenanced an incursion by pirates
- or probably even noisy cruise ship merrymakers - aboard
the day excursion boat Black Swan! We snorkeled the
wreck of the Andes, an iron hulled barque that sank in 20
feet of water in 1905 when its cargo of pitch from Trinidad
started smoking from the friction of sloshing during the
voyage. Because of their hazardous cargo they weren't
allowed into St. John's harbor, so they dropped anchor
here. Upon opening the hatches to assess the situation, air
rushed in and the cargo burst into flames, burning the
wooden decks and warping the iron hull plates, sinking her
quickly. At low tide one of her broken masts and her bow
stick out above the water, right in the middle of the bay.
Returning to English Harbor, Antigua from Barbuda we see Fort
Berkeley from the sea ... with cannons in all of those slots it
would have been an intimidating site for an invading fleet battling
upwind into the harbor
Across the harbor mouth from the
fort are the Pillars of Hercules
A brief note on pronunciation ... "Antigua" is pronounced
without a "w" sound where the "u" is; and "Barbuda" seems
to be pronounced by the locals with  "y" ... "Barbyooda"
On our sail north to Barbuda our trusty autopilot, after
thousands of miles of faithful service, gave up the ghost with a
grinding wail of gnashing and stripping [plastic!] gears. Upon
our return to Antigua we pulled the drive motor and carried it
into The Signal Locker, here in English Harbor, for repair. So, as
long as we're stuck here, waiting for a replacement gearset to
be shipped in from Raymarine in the States, we decided to rent
a car for the day and circumnavigate the island.

(OK, we know, using the verb "stuck" to describe our
predicament, staying a few extra days in Antigua, may not be
totally appropriate; not on a par with, say, being "stuck" in
O'Hare Airport due to a blizzard)

In Antigua, as in the BVI, cars drive on the left (i.e., "wrong")
side of the road. Unlike in the BVI, however, most of the cars
here actually have the steering wheel on the right (i.e. "wrong")
hand side. Not wanting to overload his synapses too much,
Steve stuck with a good, old, American style, left (i.e., "right")
hand drive Jeep.
The southern third of the island is mountainous and covered
with rain forest. Fig Tree Drive, through the mountains, is the
most scenic route on Antigua. (By the way, a "fig" down
here is not a fig at all, but rather a small, very plump strain of
banana.) We stopped at the Fig Tree Art Gallery.
The landscape of Antigua abounds in three things: beaches
and ruins of forts and sugar mills. The ruins date from the
17th and 18th centuries, when Antigua was the most heavily
defended island in the Caribbean and one of the most
intensively exploited for sugar. We stopped at Betty's Hope, a
partially-restored and preserved plantation once owned by
the Codrington family. We're not sure who Betty was but,
after reading descriptions of life back then, we're confident
that she wasn't one of their slaves!
The windmills
used to crush the
juice from the
cane. At the
height of the
sugar economy
there were 160
mills on the
island; about 90
ruins remain.

If Raymarine
made sugar mill
gears (below),
they'd
undoubtedly be
plastic!
In an homage to our good friend and cricket lover, Peter
McRae, we've included these shots of The Sir Vivian
Richards Stadium, host of the 2007 Cricket World Cup (yes,
there apparently is such a thing and, judging by the size of
the stadium, a fair number of people are actually interested
in buying tickets to watch it). With the tediousness of that
sport's play, all are hoping that the final match will conclude
some time later this year and the surrounding area can be
turned back into grazing land for wild goats. So much for
SuperCricket Sunday!
We stopped for lunch at a small beach shack called Bill's (Samuel
L. Jackson) Hamburgers, on Half Moon Bay (below). Bill did
resemble the actor as seen in Pulp Fiction but without the jheri
curls. We wanted to take his picture but were told that we'd have
to contact his agent in Hollywood. When we asked for a menu we
were told "We serve hamburgers. No fries, no chips, no cheese.
Just hamburgers. We charge $7 EC" (less than $3 US). Grilled
over a wood fire and served on a toasted bun with fresh lettuce,
garden tomato, grilled onion, Russian dressing and ketchup ...
well, Mike scarfed down two, even though he's not normally a big
fan of "cowhide," as he terms it!