Jumby Bay Island

Monday 24 December, from Hermitage Bay to Jumby Bay Island: We are back in paradise, but security fouls our Christmas Eve plans!

A very peaceful night anchored in Hermitage Bay with the gentle rocking and the cooling Caribbean breeze flowing through the boat. We almost needed a bed cover on last night! We wake up to a rather cloudy sky and a little more wind than usual. But a quick look at the weather forecast, and it all looks good. Same as usual.

While it’s still cooler outside, Glen potters a bit on the deck, removing the masking tape from under the gunwale on the outside of the boat. It’s pretty clear now that we are not going to varnish the gunwale… at least not just yet, so best get the tape off while we still can.
And while at it, he gets distracted by the hand rails. In the yard, he epoxied in the new 3/8” plugs, but didn’t sand them down yet. It will be a job for when we next find ourselves in the mood of boat maintenance. The sanding-test is a bit disappointing, as 3/8” plugs are a tad smaller than the 10mm holes. So while they seemed to be a tight fit, there is a clear dark circle of epoxy around each plug. What we wanted to achieve were line free plugs. Hm… but they are not coming out again. Not now at least.

After breakfast we have the bay all to ourselves, as the other boat leaves. And we enjoy the peace, the view, and most importantly we are now reading pilot books instead of user manuals or products technical sheets for once. This is life. We are back to navigation mode, thinking and discussing where we go next.

Mid-morning we are ready to lift the anchor and continue our journey around Antigua to Long Island. Across the bay, there is a large white ship. Yesterday we couldn’t decide if it looks more like a white war ship or an ugly pleasure super-yacht. It also has a white helicopter on deck and an oversized lifting arm. With our curiosity sparked, we motor close to it when we leave. Hm, maybe it is a research or survey boat of some sort. There is no sundeck and no sign it could be a pleasure boat, but the crew does seem to have that super-yacht crew look. Odd. We will have to look it up: Intrepid, British registered in George Town.

The wind is 12-18 kts today. A very nice breeze to keep us cool under the bimini. What this wind also does is blow downwind lots of yellow butterflies, taking them out to sea. Poor things, their wings are beating hard but there’s no way they can fly against this wind to return to land. If they are smart, maybe they will just save their energy and the wind will take them to safety in Montserrat!

We motor today, so that we can stay as close to the shore as depth would allow us. We enjoy exploring close to the coast of the islands like this, when we have the chance. There are lots of small white beaches along this section. Some idyllic, completely undeveloped. Some hosting small scale resorts. But all very pretty and inviting.

In Deep Bay, just south of the entrance to St.John’s the capital, there is a 19th century cargo ship wreck just below the surface. Looks good to snorkel on our way back. At its head there is a popular beach, tripper boats bring tourists here. Beautiful properties on the hill side to the right, and a fort on top of the hill to the left of the beach.
As we pass the bay into St. John’s we spot not 1, not 2, but 3 huge cruise liners docked there. Each one towering over the town, dwarfing it. The street must have about 10,000 people descended upon them. Glad we are not there today!

In Dickerson’s Bay, just north of St. John’s we venture as close as depth allows us to view the Sandals Resort and busy beach. Slightly more people on the beach than last time we were there by hire car, last May. There is lots of development in this bay and on the hill side.
Looking from south to north along this west coastline, Dickenson is the last beach on the leeward side, sheltered from the big trade winds swell and from the sargasso seaweed. And as we continue to motor around to the north tip, the coast line becomes rugged, with few small coves which make secluded beaches. But all untenable to anchor in due to the Atlantic swell that is around this side of the island.

Along the north coast we notice that the depth on our chart plotter is quite off from what our depth log is reading. So proceed with caution as needed.
The entire length of this coast has lots of developments – small resorts, houses, apartments blocks. Maybe it is so because they get the sea breeze all year round and close to the main town.

Coming into Long Island, Glen takes the helm and hand steers. It looks tricky to get into Jumby Bay among reefs and shallows. We don’t want to touch bottom again, not after we epoxied and painted the keel twice in the last two months. And having said that, we do see 2.7m on the log…full throttle in reverse!
There are 3 more boats anchored here: a charter catamaran, a British RYA training course monohull and what looks like a liveaboard.

We anchor in 3m of turquoise water, with unobstructed view to the beach after the catamaran left. It feels like we have anchored in a postcard.
Glen immediately jumps in the water, for his usual cool off activity: check the anchor. Water temperature is a lovely 27degC, wonderful.
As I prepare lunch, Glen proceeds with what seems to have becomes our daily routine: check fridges temperature, and pipes. They seem to be doing ok. We were wondering on their state now that we’ve moved through waves for a bit. I guess it also helps that the keel cooler pipes are no longer sitting in the engine room, which is getting very hot when we are motoring.

After lunch we make ourselves presentable (dress code) and venture ashore for a walk on the beach and sunset drinks. As we head for the jetty, a security guard is already walking towards us. Hm, we are going to have the usual speech “guests only”. But we know better, as we did our research on the internet yesterday and it was mentioned on several sources that crew of visiting yachts are welcome ashore as long as they respect the dress code.
Indeed, he shoos us off, saying we can only go up to the waterline and nowhere beyond. But he suggests we should call a number and make a reservation. So we do call, on the spot, as we do want to book for Christmas lunch tomorrow. Glen tries his best to persuade the receptionist, and then her British manager that we are clean, presentable, civilized, and just want a drink this evening and lunch tomorrow. But they are firm as a rock: “we do normally accept people from yachts but today we have 100% occupancy over Christmas and we can’t take any visitors”. Then what happened to the fact that all beaches are public in Antigua? “Nope, you are not allowed to walk on the beach either.”

We failed! This is one of those very rare occasions when we actually fail to enter in a resort. We must be losing our touch.
And, ‘tis the season of goodwill too! Hmmm Scrooges 🙂 We were hoping for a nice Christmas lunch in a special setting – not just a run-down restaurant in Jolly Harbour!
The only good thing about Christmas Eve with nowhere to go is that we didn’t spend any money today! Bloody 5* resorts that don’t want our money, pfff!
Since we can’t walk on the beach, we dinghy along it. And around the corner, where we spotted some amazing houses. Some of them look completely shut. Not a soul about. Christmas Eve and such properties are not used…what a shame.

Back at Cloudy Bay we need to regroup. We flip through the pilot book and look on google maps to see what other resorts may want our cash! And ones where we can safely anchor and get ashore easily. Too late to move anchorage now, we’ll do that tomorrow morning. But we need to have a plan where we go next. Won’t it be a laugh if we end up returning to Jolly Harbour, to its deserted collection of bars and restaurants? 🙂
Precisely to avoid that situation, we actually sit and make some calls to several resorts to book a Christmas lunch. Several had the same line “we are at 100% capacity, can’t accommodate visiting yachties”. But eventually one beach club, Coconut Grove, seems open for business, and we are booked. We have a plan! No idea how it will be like, but at least we can beach the dinghy safely and have our Christmas meal cooked by somebody else!

So we have a peacefully quiet Christmas Eve evening on our anchor, being gently rocked and admiring the view over to the very nicely lit resort. And we play Christmas songs and drink rum punches to keep us in the seasonal mood 🙂