Check out our passage plan from Montserrat sailing Antigua. With only one day to show friends around Antigua, what did we choose to show them? Sit back and take a tour of one of our favorite Caribbean islands. Also see our passage plan from Montserrat to Antigua, check out our crew member, Douwe’s, first fish catch, and much more.
Sailing Antigua Video
If you missed our last video, check out Sailing Montserrat and Touring The Exclusion Zone. And if you’d like to see all our videos of this 2018 season, watch this playlist: Sailing Britican 2018
Other Videos about Sailing Antigua
- What was it like to race in the Oyster Antigua Regatta? (Article and videos)
- Sailboat Gooseneck Repair in Antigua (Video)
- Britican Experience: Grenada To Antigua
Sailing Antigua Video Transcripts
Our trip from Montserrat to Antigua was bumpy but at least we’d finally be all the way to the eastern part of the Caribbean. From the Bahamas until Antigua we had to motor a great deal of the time into wind and waves. Antigua marks a turning point where we can finally head south and enjoy getting those white flapping things called sails out.
Having been to Antigua already this year, our main reason for going was to show our friends on Rondo the island as it would be their first visit.
As we were sailing along a flock of pelicans joined us for a while. Interestingly there are 8 different species of pelicans and they can be found on all continents. The pelican family is at least 30 million years old. Pelicans don’t just eat fish, they’ll eat turtles and other birds too. On occasion pelicans will come together and hunt in groups so this might be what they’re doing now.
It would also be our crew member, Dowe’s first visit too. Here Simon is explaining the passage.
The sun was quickly setting and the trip took us slightly longer than calculated. It seems that we came up against a bit of a current. On most passages, we aim to get in during daylight but this will be our 7th or 8th time entering Falmouth Harbor so we know the lay of the sea.
Our friends on Rondo arrived before us so they called to tell us where a mooring ball was. Once moored up we headed into town to have a meal and our favorite restaurant called Trappas.
The next day Simon went into town and radioed us that we were booked in. One of Sienna’s jobs is to manage our flags. She pulled down the yellow Q flag and put up the Antigua flag.
To me Antigua is the Caribbeans main sailing hub.
There’s the Antigua Race Week and the Antigua Classic regatta hosted there every year. Lucky for us we’ve been able to partake in the races other peoples boats. And in 2016 we did the Oyster Antigua Regatta where Britican actually won the whole event! Make sure to watch our two-part video series showcasing our wins.
After doing a bit of provisioning in town, we headed back to the boat and invited Rondo over for supper on our second night on the mooring. The meal was Simon’s special carbonara and garlic bread. While the food was being prepared the kids messed around.
Our plans were not to stay in Antigua for too long.
We planned on doing one day of sightseeing so Simon, Sienna and I had to think about what everyone would like to do best.
We started off heading west on the island at the Tropical Forest Zipline thinking the kids would love it. Actually, we drove up the road a bit further to Jolly Harbor and got all the things we needed from the Budget Marine Store but I must have been too board to video that. Whenever cruisers have a car they will most definitely stop at a marine store.
The kids really enjoyed the zip line. There’s a few of these dotted along the Caribbean Island chain and it’s a great excursion for boat kids. Instead of swimming in the sea, they get to fly through the forest. The cost was around 80 Eastern Caribbean Dollars.
After the rain forest we went for a splash at one of our favorite beaches called Driftwood beach.
After cooling off and getting a bit of lunch, we ventured over to the Antigua Donkey Sanctuary. Earlier in the year, we flew into Antigua to visit friends. While staying for 10 days we came to the sanctuary where our friends adopted the donkey named July for Sienna. Being so close to July we had to stop by and say ‘hi’. While we were there I think Rondo may have adopted a donkey or two too.
Our next stop was just outside the Capital of St Johns to visit at a really good grocery store. On our way, we detoured over to what is usually a very nice beach called Half Moon Bay. Back in March, this beach was packed with people but in the month of June, the seaweed build-up was terrible.
For some reason there was a tonne of seaweed this year.
While visiting Antigua, it would be impossible to miss the famous Shirley Heights. It’s a restored military lookout & gun battery offers harbor views, hiking trails & a bar/eatery.
The views in every direction are breathtaking…and it’s always fun to look down into the harbor you’re anchored in to pick out your own boat.
We finished our tour down in Nelsons Harbor at Boom where the adults could enjoy a drink and the kids a swim.
In our next video, find out what we get up to in Guadaloupe. Mike from Rondo gives us a lesson on how to fillet a Mahi Mahi, I get the sewing machine out, Douwe takes the ceiling down, Sienna acts like a goofball, we find some amazing waterfalls, a boat drifts off a mooring ball and heads to sea unmanned, and we go for a snorkel!
Any comments? Please leave them below.
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If you’d like an overview of all the places we’ve visited in the Caribbean please read our destination overview: Caribbean
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Great Video!
My son and I have many years experience on many boats, even outside of the vessels we have owned. We are looking for a ride for 2020 Antigua Race Week.
Hey Michael…we’re still undecided about whether we’re going to do the Race week 2020 or not. I will send an email out if we choose to do it. Are you on our email list? Kim