Treasures of Barbuda

On Monday morning we did some shopping and went snorkeling at Bishop's reef. It was very nice, it is almost as good as in Deshaies or at Pigeon's island. Early afternoon we sailed to Nonsuch bay. We passed the pretty cliffs of Antigua's south coast ....

... and already in the Nonsuch bay we broke the spell and caught a fish. We ate it that evening.

Next morning we sailed to Barbuda. Ride was a bit bumpy and salty, but we were quite fast. On the way we caught a small Little tunny and threw it back. Next moment we had another one, and as we were about to throw it back, we realized it's tail was bitten off. It could not survived without a tail, so we decided to keep it. And in the next moment another fish grabbed the hook, and it was Barracuda.

 We concluded that Barracuda was after the Little tunnies and ended on our hook. Later on, when captain cleaned the Barracuda, he found the Little tunny's tail in Barracudas stomach.

We anchored in Coco bay already at 2 in the afternoon.

 I went snorkeling half an hour later. Last time we were here I spotted some interesting things under the water and I wanted to take some photos. These little delicate beauties are called Tunicates (in Slovene tunikate) and they are one of the prettiest things I ever saw in the sea. Without my new great books on sea life in Caribbean (Paul Humann's and Ned DeLoach's trilogy Reef Fish, Reef Coral and Reef Creature Identification) I don't think I would recognize them or even see them.

I'm pretty proud of these photos, I think this is the best my camera and I can do.

The individual Tunicates are half to one inch in size, this whole formation, that was attached to Gorgonian, was of the size of a grapefruit. It was pretty difficult to spot them four meters below the surface, as they are almost translucent. If you look closely, there are some Tunicates also attached to the ground in the lower left corner of the photo.

The blue ones are called Bluebell Tunicates and are a bit smaller than white ones.

Next morning I took some more photos.

This is a sponge growing on a Gorgonian, and around it are White stingers (a kind of Hydroids).

In the afternoon we rowed to the beach to collect some coconuts for a pancake party in the evening. Pancakes were delicious, we had them with shredded coconut and ginger and sugar, or with coconut, banana and Nutela, or ....

On Thursday morning we sailed west and around the Palmetto point to Low bay. We anchored close to Lighthouse hotel on Barbuda's west coast.

Alenka, Grega and captain dinghied into Codrington to take the tour of eastern part of Barbuda. My stomach got upset for some unknown reason (too many pancakes the night before maybe?), so I stayed on the boat.

There are caves on the eastern coast of Barbuda, where Arawaks (the first people in Caribbean) once lived.

And there are Tropicbirds nesting in the cliffs.

Alenka, Grega and captain managed to get back to Heron just before the short rain shower, that looked very dramatic, but was over in minutes. It was a rare event, we had almost no rain for couple of weeks, not even in the night to wash the boat.

On Friday morning we swam to the beach and took a stroll along the water's edge. Beach is truly pink of all the broken shells.

This is Heron photographed from the water on our swim back to boat.

 At noon we sailed back to Antigua. The ride was nice and fast, with just right amount of wind and small waves, for average sailing speed of 7,6 knots. We were all enjoying it.

Near Antigua we caught this pretty Cero.

We anchored in Deep bay before five in the afternoon and there was time enough to go swimming and for Alenka and Grega to hike up to the fortress. 

They saw a Green throated Carib on the way.

 We had a nice evening with fish curry and wine. On Saturday, after a short swim, it was time to sail to Jolly Harbour. Alenka and Grega were returning home on an evening flight. We all enjoyed the glorious summer day till the last minutes.