Monday, February 29, 2016

Amazing Antigua Part Deux

Woke up and readied ourselves for an adventurous beach day today. With 365 beaches on Antigua, there's one for every day of the year.


A gorgeous rainbow was there to greet us that morning. What a sight!!
We all headed out in the dingy around 9am 

At least the girls were eady for an ADVENTURE!
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We cruised north from Jolly Harbor to check out the coastline and the beaches. On our way we came upon a shipwreck in Deep Bay that we snorkeled and dove around. 
Saw some tiger fish, but luckily not the lionfish that we spotted the other day. (Those are poisonous suckers) We cruised up to St Johns parish and checked out that harbor. (Not much to see there but lots of cruise ship tourists) Then we spotted a freighter off loading some sailboats for the upcoming Antigua Sailing Races. 
What luck that was to see this happening!

I know we were excited..

It's amazing to think that these sailboats are put on the freighter, strapped down and stay that way in harrowing seas. Impressive sight!
Being the professional über sailor Buddy is, he knew a few of these boats and it was such a cool process to watch how they off loaded them. 
After that experience, we cruised around and found the BEST secret beach that astounded all of us... Pinching Bay beach. 
It was right out of a magazine and heaven on earth!! As hard as I tried to capture it from the dingy, the photos do not remotely do it justice so you'll just 
have to take my word for it.
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We felt like we were Robinson Crusoe and charting our own path on a deserted island. 

Buddy tossed out the anchor, and we all swam to shore.


This could be a painting.
We swam ashore and walked the beach. The softest sand we've felt so far. A natural reef right on shore and fantastic swimming! 

I was sorry that I hadn't brought my camera ashore, but I wanted to enjoy my swim. 
We walked and walked, then swam back to the dingy for a 
little snack. We swam & floated around some more, then headed back south to cruise the coastline. The water was insanely turquoise!
 
This was an inflatable obstacle course on the shore...
mostly adults imbibing which was hilarious to watch.
We did find another beach that looked great for swimming, however upon further inspection everyone was nude. Ha! 
Who knew?

We continued our cruise south and ended up in front of a locals beach haunt called Dennis' that we had nixed the day before. The view was just too good so we gave in and grabbed a little bite to eat which took foreverrrrrr, but that happens a lot in the Caribbean. We cruised past our fave dining spot, Sheer Rocks and called them from the dingy so we could eat there that night for a repeat performance.
We are in love with this spot! Just something about it...the view, scenery, the blanket of stars at night, the sound of the waves and the chirping tree frogs that hum along. Dreamy!

After more swimming and exploring we headed back to boat for showers and a nap. 

The boys went to fuel up the dingy..

And I hosed down all of our snorkeling extravaganza.

We had spent the entire day on the water, swimming like little water bugs. 
That's a day we won't soon forget!!

The next day we were all packed and ready to head to the airport. 
We weren't excited at the thought as we had been having too much FUN!

Buddy navigated while Brad drove...
 
We spent a few hours and scoped out more island sights 
en route to the airport for our afternoon flight. 
This is smack downtown in St John..a bustling city filled with locals. 

We were driving past this native with his herd..he wanted to know if we wanted a ride? Mwaahahahaaaa!!

We finally found a great Italian spot for lunch near the airport in St Johns 
while we awaited our flight...La Bussola.

The view from the lunch table certainly didn't disappoint.
The perfect ending to our fabulous 2 1/2 weeks abroad!

It came time to depart...Nancy and I were sad to leave our island o' fun, 
but we all had THE best time and headed to the airport. Until our next adventure....