Barbuda

Dead calm water on the way to Barbuda

3/14/13

We made our way to Barbuda, motored the whole way as it was dead calm. Enroute an engine belt broke and the temp alarm did not go off right away so it overheated a little, fortunately we have spare belts and it did not take long to get back underway again.  Caught a barracuda on the way but threw it back as we did not know if there would be a ciguatera problem in these waters. Stan saw the tail of a whale which we had hoped for another sighting but it didn't happen, I only got to see the ripple in the water.

Stan pulling in another barracuda, but this photo was taken before we knew what it was, some of our most exciting times is when we have a "fish on!!"

Approaching Barbuda

We anchored initially on the very eastern side of Gravenor Bay near Spanish Pt., water was clear and you could see several rays in the sand.  Stan was not happy with the swells that were reaching us there so we moved to the middle of the bay snaking our way past several reefs that provide us with very calm water.  The north swells built up to 13' and we never were affected.  The snorkeling was pretty good and we had a great walk on shore.  We saw several donkeys that had no interest in us until I came up with a granola bar, although they would not get close to us it did not take them long to mosey up to were I set the granola bars on the ground after walking away.  This would be a great Island to have a couple of mtn. bikes.  Not much activity on land, the beaches are beautiful but if your looking for a big social life you probably don't want to come here.

My camera won't do justice to the pink beaches

southeastern shore

This is about as lively as it gets here on Barbuda, wild donkeys :-) at least on this end of the island

Hard to see but "Dream Walker" was the only boat in its anchorage here on Gravenor Bay

Got a bunch of boat projects done, as Stan likes to say "doing boat maintenance in exotic places".  Although you can check out in Barbuda it turns out to be costly as you need a taxi into town as it is not accesible by boat unless you can drag your dinghy 300 yards across sand to a pond of which the other side is the town of Codington.  They have a new procedure for people checking out need to pay a check in fee if you originally checked in Antigua.  Anyways we decided it was more economical to just go back to Antigua to check out before heading north to St. Martin. Our recommendation to anyone is to do your checking in and out at Jolly Harbour, Antigua.

We sailed some and motored some yesterday and we are back at Five Islands Bay, Antigua. We caught several fish, the first one we only got the head and could not identify, I assume it was a barracuda that felt he was more deserving of it than we were.  The next fish was a huge barracuda who knows it may have been the one that ate the first fish we caught, gave Stan a good fight but then we let it go.  I caught a Little Tunny that gave me a good fight and is worthy of a few meals.

OK, not sure what it was but we think the barracuda in the picture below enjoyed a meal

This barracuda was big/fat and set free

So small I needed my reading glasses :-)  This was dinner last night, poached in foil with garlic, onions, lemon and tomatoes YUMMM

 

Today was troubleshoot the engine cooling system day and it appears our heat exchanger is leaking and needs replacement.With everything apart we replaced the internal zinc and cleaned gaskets etc before putting back together.  We can get by but will need to be vigilant until we can have a replacement shipped likely to Culebra. It is amazing how much can go wrong on such a small boat but at least we can manage this problem and we are not dead in the water like when our mixing elbow went.

For now the weather indicates Sunday will likely be the best weather window for the 85 +/- miles to St. Martin. We will plan on leaving in the afternoon for an overnight sail and arrive sometime Monday morning if the weather forecast holds.

Thats all for now, take care and for my friends back home enjoy the spring skiing.
 Elizabeth

Sunset in Barbuda