BARBUDA



Exit Strategy and its crew were looking forward to visiting Barbuda (pronounced Bar-BEW-da), Antigua’s little sister island.  Time ran short last spring when we cruised Antigua, but this year the winds were in our favor.  So northward we sailed from Dominica, passing the lush farmlands visible along the leeward side of Guadeloupe.  We saw multiple rainbows along the way as we maneuvered through isolated light showers, reminding us of God’s covenant with His faithful people.  Yes, it was rain that produced those rainbows, but nothing we couldn’t handle in mainly 15-20 knot winds.  We were reefed and ready.



The northern 5.5 miles of Eleven Mile Beach

The southern half of the beach

We made landfall in Antigua’s Jolly Harbor where we cleared customs and immigration because we were unclear about the procedure for getting permission to cruise Barbuda. I had requested permission via e-mail a week before arriving (as indicated in a recent sailing publication) and finally got permission via e-mail after returning from the Antigua office. 



Barbuda is only twenty-five miles north of Antigua, but it is so flat that you can’t see it until you are just a few miles out.  Even then, the “bumps” of land or trees or buildings can be mistaken for a cloud or vessel on the horizon.  But no-  it’s Barbuda!  As we drew nearer, we could make out varying shades of Caribbean blue under a thin strip of white sand with a clear sky above.

 

                                                        

Viewed from our boat: Codrington is at the horizon past the lagoon.

An estimated seventy-five percent of Barbuda’s coast is rimmed with reefs.  Our guide book described the western shore south of Low Bay as easier to safely navigate, so we headed there to drop the hook.  This side of the island is called Eleven Mile Beach and we walked about half of it on different days. The sand is pinkish along the surf from bits of pulverized coral. There were no docks, but nature was kind enough to bury some sturdy driftwood every so often onto which a dinghy could be secured.  There was one restaurant that would open for dinner IF you went in and found the owner in time for him to go to town to get food to prepare and the chef.  An exclusive beach resort that delivered guests via helicopter was north of our anchorage. It posted a “Guests ONLY Beyond This Point” sign on the beach.  We skipped that resort and preferred to frequent the Oasis Snack Bar, an up-cycled shipping container, on the beach about one-hundred paces away. 

Animals graze untethered just off the main road in town.

 

We went into the main town of Codrington by way of water taxi that motored us from the thin strip of Eleven Mile Beach across the lagoon.  The town was easy to walk about and the people were extremely friendly.  Barbudans are a closely knit community and they knew all about us in town because word had spread after our conversations with the bar tender on Eleven Mile Beach.  The other big news item of the week was about a local butcher who had been arrested after stealing and slaughtering a steer…





A tractor shot for my farming family

             

 

Sorrel makes a refreshing sweet red drink. 

 
It would be so easy to lose track of time here with miles of pristine beach to explore.  One could easily decide to stay indefinitely or at least until your provisions ran out.

Nighty night, Barbuda.