We spent the last week roaming around Antigua anchorages.  We had Five Island Harbor to ourselves most of the time where the beaches were full of small, perfect, shells.  I’m going to make a necklace with mine.  Nancy had a dentist appointment on Wednesday, so we headed to St. John on Monday, but we found there is no longer an anchorage there.  It has been taken over by cruise ships!  As many as 5 a day!  So we went around the corner to Deep Bay which was a nice spot.  There is even an old sailing ship-wreck to dive on.  Unfortunately the visibility was poor so not much to show for our efforts.  But we got to sort out our new equipment which was a plus.  The beach was long and perfect, with a fort overlooking the bay.  

The large Royalton Resort took up much of the area and during the day we were surrounded by the buzzing of idiots on jet skis.  It was often entertaining but also terrifying.  We didn’t hesitate to use the facilities however, with numerous pools, and hot tubs.  We had to buy a dinner pass to eat there as they don’t accept cash.  But, for $60US we could eat at all the restaurants and drink as much as we wanted.  

And we wanted a lot!  Anyway, on Wednesday we went to the front of the resort to get a cab and they wanted to know our room number in order to let us out.  We told them we weren’t staying there and they were shocked that we could have gotten through their front gate security.  We said we came from the sea side and they were nonplussed.  Finally, I made up that we were on a day pass, the security didn’t know what that was but seemed satisfied and let us get in the taxi.

AJ the cabbie drove us to the dentist, where Nancy was reassured that her crown was okay and she just had a minor chip.  “Not to worry” said the dentist.  AJ then took us to the Supermarket, which had everything you could want, except they were out of milk.  Sad.  As he was driving us back to the resort we were concerned that we wouldn’t get back in.  Sure enough, the first gate guard was suspicious about the “day pass” but wrote our name down on her clipboard and waved us through.  Fortunately when we got to the reception area there were three different groups checking in so we picked up our huge bags of groceries, put our heads down so as not to make eye contact, and ran the gantlet!  No alarms went off and the secret resort police didn’t detain us.  But somewhere our name will be filed on the Unreconciled list.  It is a very nice resort, if you like the mediocre food, canned music, Stepford village sort of place.

So, having taken care of food and teeth, we decamped 30 miles North to Barbuda.  We are anchored west of Cocoa Point before a 4 mile long pink-sand beach.  

It is a bit rolly, but the breeze is pleasant and the water is transparent.  We’re going in to do our workout and then have a lobster luncheon prepared for us by Inoch the Lobster Guy at Shack-A-Kai.  All very civilized if you ask me.  We’ll be here for a few days, then off to the eastern side of Antigua for more of the same.

Merry Christmas, from Randy and Nancy!