Week 40: Barbuda (122nm)

We finished our time in Antigua on a high note watching England’s triumph over Ireland in the Six Nations before sailing the 30nm leg north to its little sister, the magical island of Barbuda, with our friends on Seahawk. Pristine coral, amazing fish, crystal clear water, stunning white sand – our experience there was a list of superlatives, and included my favourite day on the boat so far!

Captain’s Log

Feb 2^nd: The embarrassment of England’s performance in the cricket was brilliantly tempered by our rugby team trouncing Ireland in the Six Nations, which we had a delightful time watching alongside a surprising number of fellow countrymen in St. John’s only sports bar. M’s brother arrived, bringing Seahawk’s contingent to four, and we all went to stock up on copious numbers of avocado (among other things) at the amazing local veg market. After a slightly wild goose chase to get us checked out from Antigua, Serenity was ready for our trip off the beaten path up to Barbuda.

Feb 3^rd: Serenity and Seahawk pulled up anchors by 7am and had fishing lines in the water by 7:30. Between us we caught four barracuda, though sadly these aren’t safe to eat this far north (because of the risk of ciguatera). I stood on the boom to navigate the reef by eye as we worked our way into Spanish Point on the southeast corner of the island. We parked up in beautifully clear, turquoise water for lunch and several snorkelling sessions surrounded by stingrays and colourful fish. Topped off a gorgeous day with drinks under the best stars we’ve seen since the Atlantic.

Feb 4^th: Goal of the day: get us some lobsters! But first: epoxy (how all the best days start?). The full Seahawk and Serenity crews ventured out to the main reef for a snorkel and ultimately successful lobster hunt (!!), followed by an epic beach barbeque complete with jerk chicken and a Caribbean sunset so good it could have been a painting. One of the best days we’ve had on the boat was capped off with banana loaf and a competitive game of Catan. Not one we’ll soon forget!! (see below for the full story)

Feb 5^th: A sleepy morning and then a sedate sail around to 11-Mile Beach on the west coast of Barbuda. Nothing caught on the lines, but we’d had so much lobster the day before we weren’t disappointed. Seahawk went to explore an abandoned hotel but were driven off by a wild pack of dogs, so everyone retreated to the boats for sundowners, where we were subsequently chased indoors by strange swarms of flying ants. An eagle ray was spotted jumping nearby, so the dinghies were duly hoisted for the night to protect from intruders. I think the wildlife got the better of us today!

Feb 6^th: We waved off Seahawk, who were headed back to Antigua so their visitors could catch flights home. A strong southerly wind blew up, making for a choppy, uncomfortable morning in our anchorage, but luckily it died down by afternoon and we were back to blissful, calm waters. We relaxed and did a few boat jobs while repeatedly marvelling at the exceptional aqua / turquoise colour of the water and the striking pink sand of the beach.

Feb 7^th: We found a break in the sand bar that allowed access into Barbuda’s huge lagoon, and dinghied across it to Codrington, where nearly all the island’s 1,500 residents live. The devastation to this place by hurricane Irma was heart-breaking – even though its more than a year on, over half the buildings were still in ruins; but the famous wild horses and donkeys had survived and added some welcome charm to the town. In the afternoon, I tried to go on a tour of the frigate bird sanctuary with our neighbours on the boat Trud, but the pack of wild dogs showed up at the pick-up spot and we had to abandon. We made up for it with a nice evening getting to know Hans and Pia, who hail from Sweden and had bags of great stories from their many years of cruising.

Feb 8^th: Worked our way through a morning of boat jobs to prepare Serenity for the crossing to St. Martin, our first overnight passage since the Atlantic. My rig check unfortunately revealed a small, hairline crack in one of the forestay fittings (not an immediate drama, though requires prompt replacement), but on the bright side got some great pictures from the top of the mast. Later I FINALLY managed to fix the leak in the aft head. We upped anchor about 5pm to head off on our passage, which began with fickle winds but lovely stars.

Feb 9^th: The wind filled in overnight and we were able to sail the second half of the way to St. Martin. We discovered the bridge on the French side of the island still isn’t working after the hurricane (meaning no access to the well sheltered lagoon), so planned to anchor in Marigot instead. On our final approach, a huge storm piled in, the wind building quickly from 15 to 35 knots and the visibility dropping to barely 20 metres. Alec bravely stayed on deck to command the boat, while I huddled downstairs, watching for other boats on the AIS and making cups of tea. After half an hour the storm finally let up so we could anchor and Alec could dry off. Many well-deserved naps ensued!

Story of the week – A perfect day

The day of our lobster hunt and barbeque off Spanish Point in Barbuda was as pretty damn near perfect as they come. It dawned a beautiful, sunshiny day, with just a light breeze – perfect conditions to explore. But first, I wanted to mix up a batch of epoxy, you know, to start the day off right? Sam and I had been talking about various epoxy related projects we’d been wanting to do, and as the minimum volume I can mix up is 100ml (way more than I ever need) we’d decided to split a batch. We figured if we got it out of the way in the morning, our projects would be dry by the afternoon. Not even 9am and we’d already had a productive day!

Alec took the opportunity to test out some new fishing techniques from our book. He discovered that jacks (a type of small fish we often find swimming around Serenity in our anchorages) are incredibly easy to catch with a hand line right off the back of the boat. They aren’t good to eat, but make great live bait, so Alec did a few trials. No luck catching anything bigger, but lots learned and a fun way to warm up for the rest of our day 😊.

Post-epoxy, Alec and I scoped out a good spot on the reef, and then the full crews of Seahawk (including M’s sister Helena and brother Alex) and Serenity headed out for an explore and lobster hunt. Alec brought his free diving gear, and Sam had built a lobster catching device with some leftover dowel and fishing line. Think a loop of line on the end of a stick that you can pull on to tighten. The idea is you get the loop over the lobster’s tail and the pull the line tight to grab it. This would also double as our lobster tickling stick – yes, the official technique to tease a lobster out of its hiding spot under a ledge is to “tickle” it out!

We anchored the dinghies just behind the reef and set off to explore our surroundings. What a beautiful spot! Despite last year’s hurricane, which must have pounded this reef, the coral was vibrant and there were an endless number of beautiful, interesting fish. We’d picked a good spot, where there were lots of little ledges which looked right on the money for lobster hiding spots. Despite numerous dives, our tickling efforts didn’t turn up any of our spiny quarry, but we nonetheless had a wonderful time admiring the coral and fish – hands down the best we’ve seen in the Caribbean!

We were getting ready to head back when we happened upon an old, abandoned lobster pot that still had some trapped inside. My goodness they were HUGE! We were torn with what to do. We of course didn’t want to steal from someone if it was still in use, but the pot had lost its marker buoy, meaning it would be almost impossible to find for its original owner. It looked like it had been there for a long time, and any more lobsters that wandered in would be doomed. We eventually decided that the right thing to do was set the pot lobsters free (and hopefully in the process be able to snag a few for ourselves). It was surprisingly hard work diving down to the old pot (about 7m deep), but our efforts yielded three monsters!

After all that swimming, everyone needed a snooze. But, we had our eyes on the prize and were soon back at it – keen to get in a beach barbeque that afternoon. Sam and Alex, M’s brother, headed in to shore to build a fire, while the rest of us readied food. We turned out a great spread – rice salad, couscous, jerk chicken, skewers, and of course our lobster were prepped (plus copious amounts of garlic butter – we went all out!).

Gutting the lobster was new but actually very easy. Spiny lobsters don’t have claws, so 99% of the meat is in its tail and that’s the only part that needs preparing. We wanted to make sure the lobster didn’t suffer, so we put the fridge on max and put them up against the cold plate for half an hour before doing anything else – this effectively puts them to sleep. Then it was as simple as removing the tail. The final trick, which we learned from YouTube, is to use one of the lobster’s antennae to remove the intestinal track that runs along its back (is it too gross for me to say you stick the antenna up its butt?). And voila – one lobster tail! We parboiled them for a couple of minutes and then they were ready for the grill.

We dinghied all the goods into shore once prepped, and then left the men in charge of the meat while the ladies went for a walk. There were tons of hermit crabs – you had to really watch your step! – plus we found an adorable flock of birds hunting in the surf. We headed back to the bbq in time for the tails to be served up and oh man were they good!! And that was only the first course! While we were eating, some local spearfishermen arrived on the beach and set up camp next to us, where they had their own barbeque of huge quantities of fish. We got the sense we’d found one of those spots that is so good the locals keep it for themselves – no tourist trips out here. Luckily, they were super friendly and very happy to share this special place with us 😊. We watched the sun set as we finished off the skewers and jerk, but didn’t talk much. It was enough to simply be and admire the amazing setting we found ourselves in. I wish I could bottle up that feeling to keep for a bad day – it was just, perfect.

As the sun started to dip below the horizon, we pulled ourselves out of the reverie and headed back to the boats before it would be too dark to navigate the reefs. Seahawk invited us over for a games night to top off our fabulous day. Alec, who had been chief diver and catcher of lobster was totally and utterly zonked (technical term) and had to pass out. But I found a bit of energy and made my way over after cleaning up from the barbeque. By the time I got there Marianthe had made chocolate chip banana loaf (by now I was sure we’d found heaven), and we filled the last bits of room in our stomachs while playing a competitive round of Catan. Admittedly, we didn’t last too long. By 9pm, everyone’s eyelids were drooping, and it was back to Serenity for bed.

Days like this are what we did this trip for. It was magic from start to finish (even the epoxy part haha!) and not an experience you could get any other way – you can’t buy this! Sometimes we forget why we’re doing what we’re doing, but this is it, this is the point. Days where wonderful places, friends and weather come together in the most brilliant way to make a memory I will always, always cherish 😊.

Parting Thoughts – Books!

So, confession, I love medical stories. My favourite TV shows are ‘24 Hours in A&E’ and ‘An Hour to Save Your Life,’ both of which document emergency medicine. Unsurprisingly, my guilty pleasure books are the ones by doctors – I loved ‘Do No Harm,’ a neurosurgeon’s reflections in his final year before retirement – and I recently found the time to read ‘This is Going to Hurt,’ a humorous diary of one junior doctor’s time in training, and ‘When Breath Becomes Air,’ a beautiful memoir by another neurosurgeon who discovers he has stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36.

I highly recommend both. ‘This is Going to Hurt’ is both really funny and also gives an intriguing inside view into the NHS and the health system in general. ‘When Breath Becomes Air’ is more serious; it’s about the search for meaning in life. But it is a beautiful exploration of that topic and, while it made me cry more than once, is hard to put down because you really connect with the writer and the people around him.

Do you have any recommendations for us? We’re always looking for great book club books! We’ve recently started Bill Bryson’s latest, ‘The Road to Little Dribbling’ – I’m only one chapter in, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be recommending this one too!