Barbuda, day 2 – Low Bay

Friday 25 May: Glen woke up at 4am to check the anchor, and as he gets into the cockpit the two anchor lights of the two boats anchored next to us were gone. And the shore seemed further away… hm, what’s going on? Are we drifting away? Instruments are switched on to check our position. Nope, we haven’t moved. It seems both boats have left in the middle of the night. How very odd, do they know something that we don’t??! Well, at least we will have the bay all to ourselves in the morning, even if there is a hurricane approaching!
The light is beautiful this morning, colors seem brighter and visibility is very clear. We can see the ferry terminal and we can even see Antigua. We must try and capture the scene, so drone comes out again.
As we breakfast we see lots of turtles popping their heads out of the water. They must love it here, as there is fine grass on the bottom of the sea. Glen goes to explore the area where we have seen the most turtle heads popping out. He sees a very large turtle and a smaller one, both very shy. He also has an encounter with his friends from yesterday, the large fish taking shelter under our keel, and a very large baracuda has joined them. Quite a sight!
While Oana tops up her tan, Glen starts polishing act #2, this time inside the boat. The clock, barometer, lamps, cupboards handles, microwave; they are all nice and shiny once he completes the task.
By 1pm we are ready to move on; a bit sad to sail away from this magnificent beach and bright turquoise water. We just hope we took enough photos and videos of it, to keep our memory.
We have a gentle downwind sail westwards with only genoa, keeping as close to the shore as we can, but clearing the reefs. We pass the island’s harbour which is a very small affair, then gybe towards Palmetto Point on the SW corner of the island. On the sand dunes peninsula there we find yet another resort lying in ruins after hurricane Irma.
Once passed Palmetto, we continue west for another mile, taking a wide berth around 9-Foot Bank. Once around it, we turn back towards the western shore which is a beautiful stretch of beach, with absolutely nothing on it other than sand dunes, bushes and very few palms still standing. It stretches 10Km up the full west coast and is in-fact the longest beach in the Caribbean. The legend says at sunrise this beach looks pink, due to fine pink shells washed onto the beach. But in bright sunshine now, it looks pure white.
As we get into 4m of water we furl the genoa and very gently motor along the beach front, keeping a careful eye out for coral heads. Not the easiest task in this angle of sunlight. Behind the beach is Codrington Lagoon with the main Codrington town ( village more like) the other side of the Lagoon.
Apparently people haul their dinghy across the lowest point of the beach, then dinghy across the Lagoon to Codrington. But we are surprised to find a large gap in the beach with direct access to the lagoon. Must have been opened up by Irma’s surge. That’s a relief … our dinghy is certainly too heavy to lug across 50m of beach! We’ll visit Codrington tomorrow.
We anchor in front of what used to be the Lighthouse Hotel, which is now destroyed and abandoned. This one was very solidly built, roofs are intact and the concrete walls stood up in front of the hurricane, but being built on sand, the foundation gave in and parts of the front buildings are collapsed, sunk into the sand.
After our late lunch, we dinghy ashore to have a closer look. Lots of large signs “private property, trespassing will be prosecuted” are very conspicuous. But when did such sign stop us? As opposed to Coco Point Lodge yesterday, in Lighthouse Hotel most furnishings are still inside the rooms. Even TV on the walls.
We walk around the main building, and as we turn the corner to go around the back, we see two men working on a generator. And within seconds, two security dogs. Good thing workers were here, otherwise we would have found out just how fast we can run! We chat a bit to one of the workers, then we resume our walk along the beach. It’s great to see the place is not abandoned and that efforts are being made to re-build.
We walk along the beach several km then return to the dinghy. We clearly see the pink shells at the water edge, so the legend must be true! As we approach the property, same dogs welcome us with their barking warnings. Their owner was swimming in the sea and we manage to get to our dinghy in one piece. Once safely in, we dinghy back to the swimmer to have a chat. He is American and part of the management team, here for 15 years, and indeed they plan to build some villas further inland, behind the beach. We get some local knowledge from him with regards to the village, say our goodbyes and return to Cloudy Bay just as the sun sets.
While Oana is updating the log book, Glen carries on with the task of getting rid of acid smell, which for this evening translates into washing the bilge.
A beautiful moon lite night this evening. And every now and then we hear the distinct sound of a turtle taking its breath, then a little splash as it dives back down. We are really with nature here!