The group we often sail with decided to rendezvous at Nonsuch Bay on the east side of the island. Our friends Janice and Steve on Sailacious sailed down from the north end of the island – a fairly easy trip. The rest of us – Compass Rose, Persephone, and Chimayo motored around crashing and bashing into the wind and waves. It took about three hours to go 11 miles.
Nonsuch Bay is a fairly large body of water protected from the waves by a reef and a couple islands. The wind, however, blowes unabated so the anchorage is breezy, but relatively calm. Antigua has placed some free mooring balls behind the reef between Bird Island and Green Island, so you can sit on a mooring and and look out eastward to sea. This is quite novel, because most anchorages are protected by part of an island, so the eastward view is usually a mountain.
You can just see the waves breaking on the reef that protects Nonsuch Bay
We had barely settled after tidying the boat from the trip when Jackie spotted a woman with a windsurfer in the water nearby. She appeared to need help. It turned out that the mast had broken loose from the board and she was looking for a tow to the beach. We already had the dinghy in the water, so I gave her a ride to shore. (Let’s see – I’m here for half an hour and Jackie is arranging for me to go to the beach with some French girl in a bikini….)
I rescue a windsurfer
We tried some snorkeling by Bird Island, but there wasn’t too much to see. We later heard that it is better out by the reef. We took a hike on Bird Island one morning and spoted some birds. There were a lot of humming birds and Bananaquits. One of the best places to spot birds were in the Century Plant flowers.
Hummingbird having some lunch
A bullfinch sits on a Century Plant flower
A couple of anole lizards pose for us. They are everywhere on the islands
Our dinghy waiting under a palm tree on one of the Green Island beaches
There was a little excitement the day before we left to go back to Falmouth Harbour. The bay is a popular place for kiteboarders because there is a beach to stage from, the wind is steady, and the water is flat. There were obviously some people giving lessons.
Some of the kiteboarders sail pretty close to the moored sailboats. One guy landed in the water right in front of our boat, but he was able to get back up and sail off without getting his kite caught in our rigging. A little later he wasn’t so lucky and snagged a mast with his kite. Someone in a support boat came by and helped him get the kite loose.
A kiteboarder's kite caught in the rigging of the boat next to us.
The rising sun shines down through clouds to the east
Next: Classic Yachts
The Adventures of Little Rosie 
April 26, 2012 at 12:15 pm |
I love those Century Plants. Beautiful 🙂
Skye, his dad, A1 & A2 were in Nonsuch last year around this time. I missed out.