tcm
...
Thort i had better write up this seeing as how many kindly gave advice beforehand.
We only went for a week. The idea was a quick sunshine christmas flit, with no connecting flights. Antigua is good for this - direct flights from Virgin, BA and BMI cos ta grand over Xmas, or the godawful cramped air2000 (sunsail) via st thomas is £600. I splashed out on Virgin at christmas eve, booked quite late, trtied to upgrader but no space. Got on the plane to find i'm the first one on board dammit, now how long to wait? But almost nobody turned up, and the flight took off with an empty-looking economy. After takoff we discovered the back of the plane empty except for eight people and the flight attendants toldus there were more people in first and premium than the whole of economy. I had eight seats to myself - one row to lie down on and the other row to adjust so i could see a couple of tellys nicely whilst lying down.
Like a nitwit i booked sunsail, for i think the very last time. As at Dec 2004 its still in nelson's harbor, which is great to visit, rubbish as a base - no showers and not many proper shops -tho lots if you want a t-shirt.
Now, the most active and energetic aspect of Antigua is their use of adjectives in the travel brochures. So, they're a bunch of lazy git - er oops, i mean, it's a place where there's time to relax and chill out. Especially for anyone supposed to provide a service like the nitwit cabdrivers at the airport who actually get given a chit saying "take these people to nelson's harbour you dozy nerk" at which they say hurrah i have now got the next job lined up so i can go to the bar, chat with mates, or perhaps see if anyone else wants to go the same way for double time. I told the chap we'd pay taxi rates OR bus rates, but not taxi rates in a bus.
Four of us had a 45.2 is nice and comfy. The diesel was on reserve, the gps didn't work and neither the speed/log so ahem nav a bit limited to taking bearings.
We landed Xmas eve -not recommended for provisioning. Xmas there's a "party" in Nelsons harbour although in truth, a load of people turn up and the band plays a massive racket, whilst lots of people wander around saying jeez what a racket.
Nice natural harbour here. The Artillery restaurant is recommended, or least, it was until i went. God, it's rubbish. Not only do i not know a restaurant in the UK this bad, i don't even know anyone who cooks this badly. They must checkem out to find who is the most uselss cook, and hire them on the spot. If you found some prawns at the back of your fridge and couldn't remember when you boughht them, or a handful of pencil erasers, they'd be much nicer as a starter. But, with the exchange rate, not too hopelessly expensive - about £70 quid for four with wine. Nice view, nice surroundings. Rubbish food, though.
Xmas day passed in a bit of a blur, and we anchored out in the harbour entrance, and food eaten probably included a cheeseburger, which leads to my main antiguan restaurant tip: "If the restaurant actually offers cheeseburgers, then that's probably going to be the best thing, really". I broke this rule on a few occasions during the week, but didn't disprove it
Snowleopardishly, i wimped out of Nonsuch on the east side cos it was quite windy, and that's where the wind comes from, and went to Jolly harbour on the west coast. Which is quite good, lovely beach a 600yds from the marina, but the marina is fine. Or, you can sit on a buoy and nobody asks for any money, ever. I got about $100 of diesel into the tank. Its a bit hopeless to rent the boat out like that, innit, Mr sunsail? But they refunded at the end , so not to worry. Next time, i mite use Horizon, who are based in Jolly harbour.
A rather top thing in Jolly harbour is the bar, which has a free swiming pool. So, we stayed there a night.
Keeping a boat in antigua mite seem a great idea, but they have a siginificant barnacle problem: those powerboats who can afford it liftout or buy a large lift for there boat to keepit clear of the water. In fairly stiff breeze, i put up all the sail, but could couldn't get it to go v quick - a look underneath showed a thick carpet of growth.
Next day. off to Dickeson Bay, millionaires land doncha know, houses on the hill, Sandals resort in the bay. Jeez what a mess. The beach is 10 yards deep and jumping with ankle-biting insects. Sandals enforces a strict diet of top-volume steel drum bands. Coconut grove looked so-so ish and we didn't stay. Anchoring in anything but an easterly is a bit swelly, but not too bad.
Worst of all in Dickenson bay is the unrestricted PWC activity. Blimey. I thort i was fairly laissez faire in this regard, but a compelte fascist nothing compared with them. It is total nutterland all day long. 10 of them screaming about in quite small bay, i kept thinking that the next one out obviously must be a member of staff who was out to haul them back in, but no, nobody said a thing. erk. I think praps they are free from Sandals, and provided that one is always available then the PWC fixers can do as they please yeehah. DO NOT go to Sandals in Antigua unless you fancy swimming next to the M25.
After that, I decided to follow Tome's advice and go and see the amazing church in Parham, which is quite slog and erm not really "amazing". I mean, it'd be amazing if i'd built it, or the kids had built it, but otherwise, it's a wooden church with a few busted windows. We goosewinged back to Jollly harbour at ten knots yeehah, and stayed there, where swmbo encouraged me to take the boat apart by losing an earring. But then it might have been in the swimming pool, so we scoured that as well. Then i offered a $100 reward and the local kids went diving all afternoon. No earring, so i'm afraid everyone house insurance will go up next year, all down to swmbo, sorry bout that...
Axctualy, Jolly hartbour is pretty good spot if you like winter sunshine. Cheap rentals and a fairly decent supermarket has just opened there with (gasp) fresh meat, not just the frozen chicken paste or Jello. I met a chap who had just bought two flats, and the going rate is about £70k £100k depending on whether its on the waterfront or not. Golfcourse nearby, i hear, PLUS most importantly, table football and premier league cable tv in the sports bar.
Oh yes, more restarant tested include The Beach which is vair trendy, and OJ's in Crab bay, also "recommended". OJ's managed to turn two half lobsters into a fairly hard-compound radial tyre, whilst son#2 smugly scoffed a cheeseburger. The Cheeseburger Hypothesis holds true. Peace and calm-wise, the Lat lemming at Falmouth harbour is very pleasant, nice boat views, and some more rubbish food, albeit slightly less rubbish than most other places.
Deep bay is also a nice anchorage, pretty in the sunshine. The wreck of the andes is an okish snorkel, but really, it's just sunken old boat - no sharks ripping up and down corridors, nothing. The shoreside beach restaurant is also called "Andes", good view from here. They invite you to wear shoes, and cover up, ladies consider wearing a gown. Of course, I had the cheeseburger option, to stay safe. "Local catch" was deepfried marlin.
With no GPS I unfortunately failed to find para's offshore underwater lobster paradise, and wimped out of a trip to Barbuda. I think praps it's a bad idea to go for just a week to antigua, from london anyway, cos it's so slow it's a flippin windup. I did manage to stop smoking tho.
We only went for a week. The idea was a quick sunshine christmas flit, with no connecting flights. Antigua is good for this - direct flights from Virgin, BA and BMI cos ta grand over Xmas, or the godawful cramped air2000 (sunsail) via st thomas is £600. I splashed out on Virgin at christmas eve, booked quite late, trtied to upgrader but no space. Got on the plane to find i'm the first one on board dammit, now how long to wait? But almost nobody turned up, and the flight took off with an empty-looking economy. After takoff we discovered the back of the plane empty except for eight people and the flight attendants toldus there were more people in first and premium than the whole of economy. I had eight seats to myself - one row to lie down on and the other row to adjust so i could see a couple of tellys nicely whilst lying down.
Like a nitwit i booked sunsail, for i think the very last time. As at Dec 2004 its still in nelson's harbor, which is great to visit, rubbish as a base - no showers and not many proper shops -tho lots if you want a t-shirt.
Now, the most active and energetic aspect of Antigua is their use of adjectives in the travel brochures. So, they're a bunch of lazy git - er oops, i mean, it's a place where there's time to relax and chill out. Especially for anyone supposed to provide a service like the nitwit cabdrivers at the airport who actually get given a chit saying "take these people to nelson's harbour you dozy nerk" at which they say hurrah i have now got the next job lined up so i can go to the bar, chat with mates, or perhaps see if anyone else wants to go the same way for double time. I told the chap we'd pay taxi rates OR bus rates, but not taxi rates in a bus.
Four of us had a 45.2 is nice and comfy. The diesel was on reserve, the gps didn't work and neither the speed/log so ahem nav a bit limited to taking bearings.
We landed Xmas eve -not recommended for provisioning. Xmas there's a "party" in Nelsons harbour although in truth, a load of people turn up and the band plays a massive racket, whilst lots of people wander around saying jeez what a racket.
Nice natural harbour here. The Artillery restaurant is recommended, or least, it was until i went. God, it's rubbish. Not only do i not know a restaurant in the UK this bad, i don't even know anyone who cooks this badly. They must checkem out to find who is the most uselss cook, and hire them on the spot. If you found some prawns at the back of your fridge and couldn't remember when you boughht them, or a handful of pencil erasers, they'd be much nicer as a starter. But, with the exchange rate, not too hopelessly expensive - about £70 quid for four with wine. Nice view, nice surroundings. Rubbish food, though.
Xmas day passed in a bit of a blur, and we anchored out in the harbour entrance, and food eaten probably included a cheeseburger, which leads to my main antiguan restaurant tip: "If the restaurant actually offers cheeseburgers, then that's probably going to be the best thing, really". I broke this rule on a few occasions during the week, but didn't disprove it
Snowleopardishly, i wimped out of Nonsuch on the east side cos it was quite windy, and that's where the wind comes from, and went to Jolly harbour on the west coast. Which is quite good, lovely beach a 600yds from the marina, but the marina is fine. Or, you can sit on a buoy and nobody asks for any money, ever. I got about $100 of diesel into the tank. Its a bit hopeless to rent the boat out like that, innit, Mr sunsail? But they refunded at the end , so not to worry. Next time, i mite use Horizon, who are based in Jolly harbour.
A rather top thing in Jolly harbour is the bar, which has a free swiming pool. So, we stayed there a night.
Keeping a boat in antigua mite seem a great idea, but they have a siginificant barnacle problem: those powerboats who can afford it liftout or buy a large lift for there boat to keepit clear of the water. In fairly stiff breeze, i put up all the sail, but could couldn't get it to go v quick - a look underneath showed a thick carpet of growth.
Next day. off to Dickeson Bay, millionaires land doncha know, houses on the hill, Sandals resort in the bay. Jeez what a mess. The beach is 10 yards deep and jumping with ankle-biting insects. Sandals enforces a strict diet of top-volume steel drum bands. Coconut grove looked so-so ish and we didn't stay. Anchoring in anything but an easterly is a bit swelly, but not too bad.
Worst of all in Dickenson bay is the unrestricted PWC activity. Blimey. I thort i was fairly laissez faire in this regard, but a compelte fascist nothing compared with them. It is total nutterland all day long. 10 of them screaming about in quite small bay, i kept thinking that the next one out obviously must be a member of staff who was out to haul them back in, but no, nobody said a thing. erk. I think praps they are free from Sandals, and provided that one is always available then the PWC fixers can do as they please yeehah. DO NOT go to Sandals in Antigua unless you fancy swimming next to the M25.
After that, I decided to follow Tome's advice and go and see the amazing church in Parham, which is quite slog and erm not really "amazing". I mean, it'd be amazing if i'd built it, or the kids had built it, but otherwise, it's a wooden church with a few busted windows. We goosewinged back to Jollly harbour at ten knots yeehah, and stayed there, where swmbo encouraged me to take the boat apart by losing an earring. But then it might have been in the swimming pool, so we scoured that as well. Then i offered a $100 reward and the local kids went diving all afternoon. No earring, so i'm afraid everyone house insurance will go up next year, all down to swmbo, sorry bout that...
Axctualy, Jolly hartbour is pretty good spot if you like winter sunshine. Cheap rentals and a fairly decent supermarket has just opened there with (gasp) fresh meat, not just the frozen chicken paste or Jello. I met a chap who had just bought two flats, and the going rate is about £70k £100k depending on whether its on the waterfront or not. Golfcourse nearby, i hear, PLUS most importantly, table football and premier league cable tv in the sports bar.
Oh yes, more restarant tested include The Beach which is vair trendy, and OJ's in Crab bay, also "recommended". OJ's managed to turn two half lobsters into a fairly hard-compound radial tyre, whilst son#2 smugly scoffed a cheeseburger. The Cheeseburger Hypothesis holds true. Peace and calm-wise, the Lat lemming at Falmouth harbour is very pleasant, nice boat views, and some more rubbish food, albeit slightly less rubbish than most other places.
Deep bay is also a nice anchorage, pretty in the sunshine. The wreck of the andes is an okish snorkel, but really, it's just sunken old boat - no sharks ripping up and down corridors, nothing. The shoreside beach restaurant is also called "Andes", good view from here. They invite you to wear shoes, and cover up, ladies consider wearing a gown. Of course, I had the cheeseburger option, to stay safe. "Local catch" was deepfried marlin.
With no GPS I unfortunately failed to find para's offshore underwater lobster paradise, and wimped out of a trip to Barbuda. I think praps it's a bad idea to go for just a week to antigua, from london anyway, cos it's so slow it's a flippin windup. I did manage to stop smoking tho.
