An awesome way to spend your day in Antigua

[Miss Vickie]

Antigua now has a great daysail! We were in Antigua on January 19, 2010 on Serenade of the Seas, and this was the best day of our cruise. Antigua usually is, though. This year we spent the day with Eli Fuller, of Adventure Antigua (www.adventureantigua.com), on his handbuilt classic Carriacou yacht, Ocean Nomad. We love Eli's tours, and always book once when we're in Antigua. We've done the EcoTour 4 times and Xtreme Circumnav once. We followed his stories of the building of Ocean Nomad on his blog and the boat's website (www.sailing-antigua.com), and were eagerly awaiting our opportunity to sail her. We were not disappointed!

 

Ocean Nomad is a 40' sailboat. Classic Caribbean sailboats were originally used to carry people and cargo from island to island, and the builders are a disappearing breed. There recently has been a small resurgence and there are now several of them who compete in their own class during Antigua's Sailing Week races. Check out Eli's websites if you want to see more about them, their tradition and their construction. The construction process is fascinating, from beginning to end, and involves quite a bit of ritual, from the keel laying to the floating out. They aren't luxury boats - the deck and seating areas are all wood, and Eli does provide cushions to sit on, but you may want to make sure you have a towel to use as a cushion, as well. She is beautiful, though, and fun to sail. Eli usually takes 6 guests at a time, but if you have a group of up to 10, he'll ocassionally do that as well. I believe he usually goes out with 2 crew members, in our case we sailed with Eli, who we've known since 2002 when we first met him on the EcoTour, and Jason. There were 6 of us, including me, my husband, our adult son and his partner, and my sister and brother-in-law.

 

Our day was sunny and bright, with not quite enough wind for optimum sailing, but we had a great time, anyway. We took a taxi over to Jolly Harbor to meet Eli and board Ocean Nomad. Taxi cost was $6.00 + tip per person and the ride was maybe 15-20 minutes long. This allowed us to maximize our day on board. We spent quite a bit of the day under sail - more than you spend on a catamaran cruise. We stayed in the area between Antigua and Montserrat, sailing nearly to English Harbor, and then back St. John. We made our snorkeling stops before lunch. Jason went into the water with us on the first stop. On the first snorkeling stop Jason led us along Cade's Reef away from Ocean Nomad, pointing out fish, an octopus and other interesting sights. The reefs around Antigua have been fairly well battered by hurricanes. We've done a fair amount of snorkeling in Antigua, having spent so much time on Eli's tours. It was really nice to see how the coral is coming back with new growth. The swim away from the boat was against the current, and took a little work, but was well worth it. (We all carry our own equipment, but Eli does have, if you need.) The snorkel back was AMAZING. We've done the drift snorkel in Bonaire, and enjoyed it. This was an incredible drift snorkel. Jason knew exactly where to put us to ride the current back to Ocean Nomad. You just rode the current back along the reef, and you didn't need to kick or work at all until you got near the boat. Just let the current take you and enjoy.

 

The second snorkeling stop was in closer to shore, with some great snorkeling along the rocks. Closer in, there were juvenile fish and interesting invertebrates. A little further out were bigger fish. While we snorkeled Eli and Jason got lunch together on the boat. Lunch was the same as we've enjoyed on our other Eli tours. A neighbor of Eli's makes it for his tours every day - absolutely great barbecued chicken, a salad, a pasta salad, fried plantains, and banana bread for dessert. I'm not a big chicken fan, particulalry barbecued chicken. This chicken is an exception - I've been trying to get the recipe since 2002, with no success. I'm not exactly a threat to to steal any business away - from Cleveland, and not liking to cook anyway :D. Drinks available thorughout the day were water, juices (passion fruit and tamarind) and coke. And then there's Eli's rum punch - Eli's famous rum punch. I know a lot of people who think it's the best rum punch they've ever had (I'm not a big drinker, so I can't really tell you :rolleyes:). That comes out in the afternoon, after the snorkeling is over (this is not a booze cruise folks, if that's what you're looking for, check another excursion). After lunch the sails went up and we spent the afternoon under sail. Awesome! We relaxed on board, talked with Eli and Jason, watched for turtles popping up, got stories of what we were seeing on-shore from Eli, and - big treat - watched Montserrat. We could see Montserrat most of the day. And the volcano was active. We could see the ash plume off in the distance and could even see the iconoclastic flow, if you looked very closely (my eyes aren't as good as Eli's). I should have brought by binoculars.

 

Toward the end of the afternoon the wind died down. Eli was taking us back to the cruise ship dock in St. John on board Ocean Antigua. Eli wanted to make sure he had us back in time, so leaving the sails up, on went the motor. We caught up and passed a couple of catamarans. Seeing our sails up (theirs weren't), they had to be wondering how the heck we were flying like that :D. On our way back to St. John we saw both Adventure Antigua heading back with her guests, and Xtreme heading back to Jolly Harbor after dropping her guests off at the dock. We had our chance to help sail a little as we sailed back toward the harbor. We dropped sails as we sailed into the harbor, and sailed past our ship and several other cruise ships (we were in port with Explorer of the Seas, Norwegian Dawn, and a very large yacht actually owned by a rich Arab). Eli dropped us off at Redclilffe Quay, where his other excursions pick up and drop off guests after an absolutely perfect day.

 

Can't wait to do it again!