Jolly Harbour, Antigua

On Tuesday we thought we really ought to snap out of lethargy and make the next step towards the BVI’s before the hurricane season is upon us. We had really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and beautiful surroundings of English Harbour but as we have been warned by several cruisers in the past, if you get too comfortable in a place you may end up there forever and indeed in every anchorage we arrive in there is always one or two yachts with liveaboarders who look like they are there to stay. As the next step to St. Barts is a fairly long hop to do in our favoured day hops, we are moving the boat round to the other side of Antigua today and then heading away at first light to St. Barts the following day.

The trip round to Jolly Harbour is only a couple of hours though the west side of Antigua is strewn with reefs and has a depth of only 5m for several miles out so you have to pay attention. However because of that the water was a fantastic blue and we enjoyed being out at sea again even if under motor. On the way we had a great view of Monserrat to the south west which had a catastrophic eruption of it’s volcano – Galway’s Soufriere in August 1997, when the entire south of the island was buried in dust thrown 10,000m into the air, the capital of Plymouth had already been evacuated as the volcano had been active since 1995 but still several lives were lost. When we pass the volcano still seemed to be smoking infact, the exclusion zone is still in place for the south of the island.


Monserrat - still smoking?

Jolly Harbour was apparently a swamp area which has been dredged and reclaimed and is now a large resort covering acres of land consisting of a large lagoon lined on all sides by apartments with their own docks and a hotel, casino, boatyard and marina. There is an anchorage to the south of the channel on the way in but we decided to motor in and have a look around first. It was obviously all built a few years ago and mostly in concrete though it is fairly well done the low docksides make it feel a bit like a canal side within the lagoon. We had to go and check out of Antigua with customs and immigration as soon as we arrived so decided to pick up a mooring in the entrance to the lagoon and went in for a wander round. There were a couple of super yachts but this place clearly doesn’t have the following of Falmouth and English Harbour. The centre itself has a few shops and restaurants, car hire etc but the concrete architecture makes it look a bit dreary.

We found the marina office to pay for our mooring where we were met with the usual surly service which is unfortunately fairly wide spread in the Caribbean. Although we were pleasantly surprised at by the reception at Customs and Immigration a little up the waterside where the officials were very pleasant and welcoming and despite the usual forms in carbonised triplicate it was over quite painlessly. Anyhow we had a beer in the Dog Watch bar in the marina complex to say our goodbyes to Antigua before heading back to the boat.

We’d been warned by Ian about the mosquitoes in Jolly Harbour (the bay is called Mosquito Bay) and we saw the first before sunset as we were sat in the cockpit reading, the biggest we have seen so far and quickly escaped indoors closing/flyscreening all hatches rapidly. This didn’t prevent one persistent brute from flying past Kevin’s ear just as we were getting to sleep which wakes you up again very abruptly, particularly as you then have to switch on all the light to find the thing again. We gave up though after a while and decided to spray the whole room as we were tired with an early start and a big day ahead. While having a cup of tea upstairs in the saloon waiting for the air to clear the mosquito appeared again, luckily the electric swatter which my dad had brought out (a tennis bat with a current running through the strings) soon killed him and we finally got to sleep.