Antigua from a different perspective

Antigua from a different perspective

Wed 13 - Sat 16 Dec 2023

We may be living in paradise but there are still plenty of boat jobs that need doing. Having returned from our excursion up north, we settled back in to life in the anchorage at Jolly Harbor and made a list of jobs that needed to be completed before Tasha and Mac arrive on Sunday. These included changing the engine oil, topping up the diesel tanks and refilling the diesel jerry cans, tidying away our stuff to create some space, cleaning the inside of the boat, laundry, refilling a propane tank, re-provisioning … and more cleaning! Jolly Harbor is a great place to tackle many of these projects; there is a waste oil disposal site, a service-only laundry and a fuel dock. You can leave an empty propane tank and they will take it away to be re-filled and return it the following day. There is also a good supermarket … actually it’s a Waitrose, a well renowned chain in the UK. We spent Wednesday and Thursday tackling these jobs, making numerous wet dinghy rides into the marina, as the winds remained strong and kicked up quite a chop in the anchorage. It’s quite hot here, so the breeze is welcome, but rain showers / squalls pass through with some regularity, requiring us to shut all the hatches. It’s always a relief to open them again once the shower has passed. It seems like the evenings are when it rains the most, often around dinner time, then it stops and we open up the ventilation, only to have it start raining again 30 minutes after we have gone to bed!

Mike

On Friday, as a break from boat jobs, we decided to visit a local nature preserve/park.  Mike had read on line that there were stone monoliths to be seen and some birding and hiking in that area.  Equipped with lunch, water and binoculars we went in search of a taxi to take us to this park.  The taxi driver seemed a little bemused but consulted some other drivers and we set off.  After a few miles along the main road to the north, we turned onto a dirt road that quickly degenerated into many potholes and large puddles.  I got the impression that our driver was regretting taking us to our destination.  After about a mile, he elected to turn around, dropping us on the track.  Off we strode.  

After a short distance, we encountered a friendly chap who told us that we were really in the wrong place to visit the park with the monoliths (the Antiguan Stonehenge).  That area could be accessed from a valley on the other side of the ridge!  He did tell us about the track we were walking along and a “government station” further along.  We had a very interesting conversation with Bernard Nichols who told us about his Scottish grandfather, his early career as a rigger for the BBC both in Antigua and in the UK and his current work as a farmer.  

Following the information we gleaned from Bernard we took a pleasant walk along the track.  The vegetation was dense with many trees and plants that we couldn’t identify.  Looking across the valley, we could see cliffs to the left and hills to the right.  Some areas along the track appeared to be under cultivation, other areas seemed to be more wild.  Once we reached the iron gates of the “government station”, we were in a more manicured area where some plants and trees had once been labeled with signs—now indecipherable.

Walking further we came to the buildings that perhaps had once been the hub of the “government station”.  Even though it was Friday, no workers were present.  There were many rows of young plants and trees in pots presumably for sale.  We noted some sour sop bushes, mango trees and pomegranate bushes.  We spotted a few hummingbirds, a broad winged hawk and eventually saw some Nutmeg Mannikins, a new “life bird” for us.  

To return we walked back along the track to the main road.  Then we had a 40 minute trudge along the shoulder of the main road.  It was a pretty hot walk but not too difficult.  We were quite happy to see the turning for Jolly Harbor and the marina.

Gloria

The strong trade winds brought out a couple of "wing foilers". We were fascinated to see this for the first time because our friend Dave Anderson has been learning to do this out on the Columbia River in Oregon. Now we have seen it first hand it's easier to understand dave's descriptions.

Some quite fierce squalls passed through the Jolly Harbor anchorage this week with gusts to just over 30 knots. We also managed to get soaked with fresh water a couple of times when we encountered squalls during our dinghy runs to town. The rest of the time we just got covered with salt spray!

The sun rises over the hills behind Jolly Harbor

Bernard Nichol, a friendly farmer we encountered on the track we were walking. He had a lot of interesting stories and helpful advice.

I created this photo using focus-stacking techniques, combining 30 individual shots taken automatically at variable focal lengths using the focus shift control on my camera 

"Fallen Hibiscus" is my favorite picture from Friday's hike. Again created using focuys stacking techniques, but I only used the first 10 frames of the set of 50 that I shot, choosing to leave the petals out of focus. (I have stacked the full set, and it also gives an interesting picture, but it needs a lot of detailed corrections to the stamen part of the image. I doubt that I will find the result as appealing visually)

I continue to work on a "Caribbean reptiles" project and took these shots up at the Government Station. The lizards were very skittish and it took a lot of effort to get these shots.

These lizard shots were taken without flash ... mostly because I left the flash gun on the boat!