Beautiful Barbuda

From 5 miles offshore, Barbuda looks like a yellow sliver on the horizon, looking at our depth gauge we can see it is quickly shoaling. With over 200 shipwrecks in the reef infested waters, I go up to the bow and direct Dylan into the anchorage, weaving in and out of the reef coloured areas.

Even once anchored Barbuda is still a yellow /pink (due to the coral) sliver set in turquoise waters, a low lying island with the highest point being a mere 125ft, you can easily see how back in the day, many a ship ran aground here. There are only 2000 people living in Barbuda with most of them clustered around the capital, the village of Codrington. When entering Barbuda, we chose to anchor first in Cocoa Point and when we arrived we were happy with our decision, a huge bay there were only 3 other boats sharing it with us. As Dylan did his usual routine of bedding the anchor, I watched Teddy the Turtle eying us up from a distance, taking a break from the reed bed he was much more curious to see what us humans were up to. The biggest turtle I have seen so far I bet he could tell a tale or two.

The Barbudan people were originally imported as slaves and worked for the Codrington family. Everywhere you see on the map of Barbuda seems to be named Codrington. Codrington lagoon, Codrington bank, Codrington farm. Since the days of slavery, the land has been held communally and keeping control of the island in this manner means land cannot be sold to foreigners. Thats what we like so much about this place, it is yet to join the 21^st century and shows no sign of wanting to. Our guide told us a story of a hotel being built by the Antiguan government. Fearing irreversible damage to the local wildlife and surrounding land the locals pushed the mobile construction offices off the cliff! Most locals here seem to make a living out of selling sand or catching fish, no desire to cater for tourists or 21^st century services.

Our first anchorage was off the K-Club where apparently Princess Diana used to come and stay. Well if its good enough for a princess....! The hotel has since closed down but the beach is pretty amazing, very very fine white /pink sand littered with small shells. Not a soul on the beach as far as we can see and the turquoise waves crashing at our feet, Dylan and I felt like we were on a deserted island.

There are no amenities ashore so our first few days were spent snorkelling on the nearby reefs where we saw loads of bright corals, an eagle ray and shoals of colourful fish then at night we would cook and play dominos – the Caribbean game of choice.

Keen to check out the west coast of the island and get close to the capital to clear out, we sailed around to Low Bay. Another quiet anchorage we were sharing this space with 2 other boats and at times it was just us there. We met an American couple on Ile de Grace who invited us around for a fish dinner (pieces of a 7ft sailfish they had caught!). These guys are just completing a 2 year circumnavigation and we all went on a tour the following day.

No dinghy docks in Barbuda, we beached the dinghy and dragged the monster up the sand bank so there was no way it would be floating out to sea by the time we got back. Meeting our tour guide, George Jeffrey, we were off to see the Frigate Bird Colony. Now his boat was built to navigate the 2 mile lagoon from our side of the sand bank over to the colony. His boat (complete with 40HP) motored across Codrington Lagoon to Codrington village. With the wind up, the lagoon was really choppy so we all got 'dinghy ass' – a new term I have learnt that describes the wet bum you constantly have when getting out of a dinghy. Park fee paid George then took us to the colony telling us the history along the way. The frigate mating season is in September and that is when the males puff out their necks like big red balloons trying to attract the females with their neck and a dance. Unfortunately we were too early for that but we still got to see them in their natural habitat and in their thousands. At 3 pounds in weight and a wing span of up to 6 ft, they have the greatest wing span in proportion to their weight. Makes for an entertaining spectacle, watching these birds trying to land in the trees in a most ungainly manner, flopping about like jellyfish, head butting the trees. The mangroves are full of the heads of frigates, all clucking away waiting to be fed. Although the chicks are very cute these looks can be deceiving as frigates are thieves. As they cannot land in the sea (due to weight: wing proportion) they steal the fish from other birds that can! This colony has been featured in the National Geographic as it is one of the largest in the world apart from the Galapagos.

Back in Codrington we started the process of clearing out and thank god we had a guide with us! Walking to opposite sides of the village with no signs pointing us in the right direction, we had to walk back and forth locating people's houses that doubled as port authority /customs and immigration. Good job George was with us as we would have got very lost otherwise. We stopped for lunch at The Palm Beach restaurant where I had lobbie and Dylan had chicken. The most massive portion sizes you can imagine and the food was excellent.

About to commence on our first night passage we wanted to get an up to date weather forecast for the area. With no available internet, we noticed a locked wifi signal at the nearby Lighthouse Bay Resort. Figuring we would buy a drink then ask for the password we ordered 3 diet cokes and a beer. You will never guess how much it set us back...US$53!! The most expensive drink I have ever drank and we didn't even get a glass or ice! The staff were extremely rude and unwelcoming and after paying for our drinks we were informed that they couldn't give the password to 'outsiders'. To put it mildly, this place is not cruising friendly and you should avoid at all costs.

After such a lovely day of seeing some of the island we were greeted back at the boat with a horrible smell. On following our nose (or rather mine as Dylan claims he never smells anything bad but he notices in seconds if I have bread or cookies on the stove!) we discover the drain in the fridge had blocked and stagnant water was accumulating in the bottom mixed with rotting callaloo that had fallen out of their bag. Nothing like a boat chore to bring you back to reality. Orion had clearly missed us that day and wanted to show who was boss.