Barbuda (Thursday 21st March to Sunday 24th March)

(Cally writes🙂

We had a pleasant close reach from Antigua to Barbuda in a moderate Force 4 wind, with little swell.  We caught a spanish mackerel and another, unidentified, fish – both of which we put back in the Ocean, as we were unsure of the ciguatera risk associated with eating them.  It was a bit overcast and we were wary of the numerous reefs that are said to be off the coast of Barbuda.  (Thank goodness for GPS!)

Barbuda is an incredibly low-lying island, with its highest point only 125 ft above sea level. (James pointed out that from time to time there are super yachts in Antigua with masts taller than Barbuda!) So there was nothing of the island to see from the sea until we were right up close:

You see what we mean!

We were very lucky there was little to no swell, so we anchored comfortably off the “Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Beach” and dinghied ashore with no problems.

No wonder Diana came here twice (and had booked in for a third time before her untimely death) – it is the ultimate desert island with the finest, softest sand we’ve ever seen.

At the bottom end of this 7-mile stretch of beach was the exclusive Cocoa Point Lodge.  On our random explore, we were politely stopped by the managers, who in fact showed us a great kindness: James had a nasty old infected (sandfly?) bite on his knee and they gave us some antibiotic ointment to put onto it.  This saved us yet another doctor’s trip and/or putting him on general antibiotics yet again (and potentially the wrong type, at that…) His knee started to recover almost straight away.

Half way along the beach is the abandoned K Club – the once exclusive resort in which Diana and her boys would stay on their trips to Barbuda.  It is now fenced off and overgrown, as the current owner has given up, but won’t sell up.  Prime real estate, waiting to be snapped up…

On the other end of the beach is Palmetto Point, with another, even longer and beautiful pink coral beach running, unbroken, for 11 miles up the whole of the western side of the island.

The beach forms a fragile divide between the sea and 7-mile long Codrington Lagoon.  This divide is apparently being eroded and is under threat each time a tropical storm or hurricane hits the island.

Lagoon on the left, sea on the right.

On the inside of the lagoon is Barbuda’s only town, Codrington.  Like the lagoon, it is named after the notorious Codrington brothers who leased Barbuda off the British Crown for the annual rent of “one fattened sheep”, payable “on demand”.  The locals doubt that the government ever called in their debt.

(Inadvertently) following the trail blazed for us by Diana and her boys, we arranged a tour with George Jeffries to motor up the lagoon to Barbuda’s famous frigate bird sanctuary.

Atlantic Ocean buoy AM52 from Canadian waters (as found adrift by some Barbudan fishermen) looking very incongruous in the shallow lagoon

George was a very gentle, knowledgable man who entertained us with plenty of stories.

George Jeffries

The Codringtons were apparently highly rich and successful plantation owners.  Their main sugar plantation estate was in Antigua, but they spotted some potential trade on arid Barbuda that others overlooked.  The African slaves on Barbuda were (and their descendants often still are) noticeably taller than the Africans on other islands.  They were considered stronger and tougher, so the Codringtons decided to use Barbuda to “farm” slaves, livestock and basic root crops for food, rather than turning the island over to mass sugar or cotton plantation.  Apparently the Codringtons also introduced deer and wild boar for hunting and these animals can still be found, roaming the island.  There are also numerous wild donkeys, which we did see for ourselves.

The Codringtons found another cunning way to exploit the natural geography around them on Barbuda.  There are numerous reefs and rocky outcrops off Barbuda which are still uncharted today.  The brothers constructed a lighthouse, the sole purpose of which was to lure ships laden with bounty ONTO the reefs.  The Codringtons would then claim salvage and if the vessel wasn’t totally wrecked, then help them off the reefs and on their way again.  Thankfully for us, the lighthouse is now a ruin:

Not that we would contemplate sailing along this bit of the coast in any case:

Whether the Codringtons’ approach meant that life on Barbuda was better or worse for Barbudan slaves than for those on other islands is unclear. Certainly being left to their own devices has made the Barbudans resilient and highly independent.  With only 1600 people on the island, they all know each other and hold land communally, so it is impossible for anyone to sell to an outsider.  They resist all periodic attempts both by their sister island, Antigua, and others to “develop” their island.

So areas such as the frigate bird sanctuary remain quiet and undisturbed, except by the occasional guided tour such as ours.  The colony is magnificent, with tens of thousands of birds perched in the mangrove bushes.

 

When we there, the mating season had just finished, so we missed the sight of thousands of male birds puffing up their red throats and making clicking noises to attract the females.

Instead, were thousands of young white chicks cheeping, while the sky was filled with large, dark, swooping birds with impressively large wing spans.  (Of all birds, they have the greatest wing area in proportion to their weight.)

George told us that the birds go out to sea collect food, surviving mainly on a diet of flying fish.  They cannot land on the sea, so have to avoid being submerged.  Therefore they either catch their own flying fish or bully other birds into dropping their catch for them to scoop up – hence their name: “frigate” or “man o’ war” bird.

It was an outstanding excursion.  The frigate bird colony rounded off a wonderful day, in which we also visited the “highlands” to see the Indian Caves where Barbuda’s earliest settlers had lived.

View across from the”highlands”

The caves in the hillside

Petroglyphs? Not sure…

Two full days on Barbuda were not enough to enjoy all its treasures, but we loved the delights we were able to sample.  Our visit to Barbuda was certainly a very special highlight of this trip.