Antigua, day 5 – east coast

Sunday 20 May: All blinds shut and alarm off. We sleep till 8:30. Bliss!
After research on Jolly Harbour it seems we cannot anchor there. At least, not within the Harbour. So we decide to move out of Nelson’s Dockyard Marina, anchor back in Falmouth Bay and hire a car for the rest of the day.
Although Nelson’s is very pretty we are next to Eros who is getting her masts revarniahed. It seems not only are we getting the scrapings from Eros’ old varnish but also drips of her new varnish too. So we have got to move anyway.
We have a minor drama when lifting the anchor: while cleaning the muddy chain at the same time as trying to put the dinghy back on the davits, Cloudy Bay slips back into Eros’ bowsprit. Luckily we manage to gun her forward just in time before any damage is done. Eros’ crew dash to the bow to see what is happening. We feel like shouting “touchet” …. revenge for the varnish!
Once anchored back in exactly the same spot in Falmouth Bay we head off in the hire car. We decide to explore the east of the island today and west tomorrow. Unlike other islands, Antigua has many pretty bays on its windward coast.
The first we come to is St.James Bay and Resort. Although it’s not visibly full of the sargasso weed, the water is quite brown with its rotting effects. In another all inclusive resort in Nonsuch Bay there are tractors on the beach trying to clear huge volumes of weed. And so the patten repeats itself in every bay we see along the east coast.
It must be devastating to the tourist business here. And, if you are planning a holiday in the Caribbean you would want to be certain your resort was not effected. Not only is it horrible to look at, makes the water brown and full of flies, but it also stinks to high heaven!
Antigua has no volcanic mountains and so there is very little rain nor rain forest. We note just how extremely dry it all is. Even the palms look like they are wilting. No tropical feel to this island. It looks more like central Spain.
It also looks like few expats live here, the population is mostly local. Plus lots of all-inclusive resorts with large barbed fences around them and gates barring any outside influence, clearly some security fears. Back to a polarized population, in stark contrast to the French islands where there seemed to be total integration.
In the last bay we visit, Parham Harbor, we see masts in the distance, next to the island’s power station. We go to investigate. We blab our way into the yacht yard and drive around in the car. It’s clearly a very modern yacht storage and repair facility and it’s absolutely swamped with half destroyed charter cats and yachts from Sunsail and Moorings.
There must be over 200 of them here, each with major damage. Probably brought over from the BVIs following the hurricane last year. What a mammoth task it must have been just to get them here, because certainly none of them would float. Must have all been brought on a barge or ship. Several of the cats are actually upside down on the yard. We guess they were picked up from BVI like that and shipped the same way. It’s Sunday so there is absolutely no one in this massive yard of wounded yachts. It’s actually rather spooky and a little upsetting to see each of these $1/2million yachts basically destroyed.
As we return, we decide that English Harbour and Nelson’s Dockyard are the only really pretty parts of this island, from what we have seen so far. Of course, if you come from a dreary winter in Europe an all-inclusive resort probably feels amazing, but it ranks low on our estimate compared to other islands. Let’s see what the west side has to offer tomorrow.
Once near to Falmouth Bay we head up to Shirley Heights which is part of the Nelson’s Dockyard National Park. It is the restored lookout post from the same period. On Sunday evenings they have a steel band and BBQ. We arrive to find lots of minibuses in the car park. Inside it’s pretty crowded. Clearly the venue is high on the list of excursions from the resorts. And prices are marked accordingly. It’s $20 just to get in! But the 14 piece steel band is quite good and the sunset view down over Falmouth and English Harbours quite something.
The band stops at 7pm so we head to English Harbour village for our Sunday roast which we’ve been looking forward to all day. But at the restaurant there is no “Sunday Roast”. Boss was not in today and kitchen didn’t know how to cook it without guidance! So we settle for a pizza next door. Not bad, but we still have droolings for roast beef.
In the evening we are back on Cloudy Bay….. and starting to read reports of the first tropical storm that is approaching. Gulp! Time for a sharp exit maybe!