Antigua - Recently?

[Chuteman]

T423:
Alert Mode - My wake up call was the same as yours.........as I rounded the island after a rocking fast sail from Marie Galante and we were catching our breath.......we were "intercepted" by the 1st boat man........he followed me all the way to Portsmouth at various distances which related to my protests.
He actually turned out to be a good guy and I used him for the river tour. But I do not like to be escorted or distracted when sailing especially with short crew in strange waters. It was June & very few boats so it was like ants on a piece of food............after several "exchanges" they understood that I like to anchor myself & wanted "me" time. After that, we exchanges philosophies in a relaxed way, we only made the deals that made sense & we needed.
Once past the hawkers on the water & a few dinghy spots, it got much-much better and we had a great visit highlighted by the river & a 7+ hour tour of the island with a driver.....I walked the town, shopped in the market, used the internet, ate out, bought gas, etc, etc. ...and on the 4th day we left heading to the Saints
There have been reports of incidents including a yacht a while back but no where near the problems reported on other islands>
Dominica is such a beautiful island with kind people yet being alert is never a bad thing.

[spinnaker]

Lots of unmarked reefs in Antigua. If you don't have a lot of experience or don't want to be bothered with paying extremely close attention to charts and current position then I would look elsewhere.

As an alternate you could try Sunsail Colonna for some dinghy sailing. I was always a big boat charter vacation guy myself until I sailed a Laser for the first time in Antigua. It is a blast. To get the big boat sailing out of your system, they have boats available at special rates. Supported flotillas are also avaliable.

But still be careful of those reefs. I was out with another skipper and he assured me he was experienced. I put my attentions to a lovely lady on board instead of our positions, trusting our skipper's experience. Big mistake we smacked a reef. Thank goodness it was just the keel and no damage done.

One of the other boats did not fair much better. The boat jibbed and one of the crew was struck in the head by the boom. Luckily the only damage was some minor lacerations.


So I guess the second rule is, be careful of who you choose for mates and skipper .

[Chuteman]

Spin- Thanks for your advice............but it was too late as I was sailing Antigua & Barbuda for 10 days between 5/13 - 5/23.
Yes, it has many reefs but with the charts it was pretty straightforward.
Sunsail has just restricted certain areas ie; cutting thru reefs on east coast of Antigua or Anchoring between Coco & Spanish pts in Barbuda which has simplified the navigation planning.
I thought Belize was trickier in many ways than Antigua.
Great sailing/anchoring/cruising conditions all ten days..........a few clouds/showers toward the end but nothing serious.......loved the country.