Christmas in Antigua

Before sailing to Barbuda we stayed in Deep bay for a day. This is Heron, photo is taken from the fort .

The night was rolly, there was a huge swell coming into the bay. On Saturday morning we sailed to Barbuda, but decided to go straight to Coco point, we knew there would be impossible to stay in Low bay on the western side of the island in that kind of swell.

The weather was cloudy, though without any rain. The wind was strong and unfortunately on the nose, so sailing was wild and uncomfortable. But it must have been good weather for fishing - we caught this beautiful cero (we had it later that day for dinner with garlic, lime and butter) ....

 ... and let go of this big barracuda and couple of small tunas.

Coco point was almost empty and all the beautiful colors were there and so were the turtles. But the swell was getting bigger and bigger, huge waves were breaking onto the shore. We tried to get on shore by boat, but it was impossible. And it was even too wild to get ashore swimming.

 So we decided to sail back to Antigua the next morning.

 On our way back we again had good luck with fishing - we caught even bigger barracuda and let it go ...

... and this is one of the two ceros that we caught.

We ate one of the ceros that evening in Nonsuch bay, grilled in a aluminum foil and it was delicious. Next day we did some snorkeling around the Bird island. I was really lucky and had a close encounter with beautiful Spotted Eagleray - I was floating over the reef and he came to see what I was doing, swam one meter beneath me for a while, and then slowly circled away into the deeper water. It was breathtaking, I was really sorry to not have my camera with me. I consider this one of my Christmas presents.

We left Nonsuch bay at two in the afternoon for Falmouth harbour. We passed these two boats - here you can see side by side how not to anchor and how you should anchor.

 The same evening we visited Trapas restaurant for dinner.

After a great meal our faces were even happier than on photos. Trapas remains our favorite restaurant in Antigua, maybe even in whole Caribbean.

 On our way back to boat we stopped in Seabreeze for a pina colada.

There were even Christmas carolers there, singing gospel songs. We really had a great Christmas eve.

 And yesterday, after some swimming and snorkeling in the morning, we went to English Harbour. On our way we saw this "Rudolph the reindeer" car.

 When we came the party was already going on with full steam.

We drank a lot of champagne - after all it's for charity and one has to help! We had a great time!

We are staying in Falmouth today, swimming, snorkeling, and maybe visiting Shirley heights in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning we are returning to Guadeloupe, our friends are flying back home on Saturday. And Captain and myself sill have to figure out where to party on New Years eve.