Antigua

Monday, December 2nd
Seabourn Sojourn
St. Johns, Antigua
Arriving:  8:00 AM
Departing:  5:00 PM
Partly Sunny - 82 Degrees

Antigua is the largest of the former British Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, colonized by English planters from St. Kitts in 1632.  Antigua and Barbuda attained self-governance within the Commonwealth in 1967, and full independence as a two-island nation in 1981.  Antigua is the "Island of 365 Beaches," one for every day of the year.

Nelson's Dockyard is "Antigua's Most Famous Attraction."  English Harbor on the southern coast of Antigua was one of the most strategic ports in the Caribbean, a deep, wide bay, with a narrow, well protected entrance.  The Royal Navy began operations there in 1704.  Horatio Nelson Sailed in on the HMS Boreas in 1784, and English Harbor would henceforth be known as Nelson's Dockyard, the world's only Georgian-era dockyard still in use.  The Royal Navy abandoned English Harbor in 1889, its strategic importance no longer of value.  In 1961, Nelson's Dockyard reopened with craft Shops, restaurants, restored hotels, and the Dockyard Museum in the old naval officers' house.

With just one day on Antigua, and 365 beaches, we skipped the history and went to the beach.

We "set sail on a sleek, state-of-the-art Wadadli Cat sailing catamaran to discover the exciting underwater world of Antigua and snorkel over a real shipwreck.  The 866-ton, three-masted steel barque, the Andes, sank in 1905. The wreck remains an historical resource, sitting upright in 30 feet of water.  It is teeming with marine life like parrotfish, damselfish, grunts and angelfish.  After snorkeling, a swim, and a rum punch, there is a guided walk to Fort Barrington dating from 1779."

Antigua has had lots of rain over the last few weeks, kicking up the silt at the bottom of Deep Bay.  This has obscured the wreck of the Andes, which does not make for good snorkeling.  We sailed out to the reef instead, and donned snorkel and mask to swim with the fishes.  There were fish aplenty, pretty fish in yellows and blues, others in camouflage to blend in with the rocks, little tiny ones, and some as big as your arm.

We sailed on to Deep Bay to see just the tip of the mast of the Andes poking through the surface of the water.  The captain beached the boat so we could have another swim and some time on the beach.  We admired the fort from sea level, and left the hiking to the goats on the hillside.

As we sailed back out of Deep Bay, past the rocks that wrecked the Andes, the music got higher, the limbo got lower, and the rum punch really started to flow.

Next Stop:  St. John