Wednesday morning found us pulling into the dock at St John’s, Antigua, which was directly next to one of the main streets of the town. Antigua is a somewhat hilly island and has lots of inlets, leading to its total of 365 beaches.

Shipwrecks in the back yard

Steel drum band welcoming us

We had scheduled a morning of snorkeling so as soon as we left the ship, we headed to the catamaran that was to take us out to the reef. We joined a group of about 30 people on the catamaran, which sounds like a lot, but the boat was quite large and spacious so it did not feel crowded.

We powered out to the reef, which was not far off shore, and the crew quickly distributed the gear to everyone. One women soon made a pest of herself by insisting that she did not need the life preserver that she was supposed to wear. The crewman said yes, you will wear it. It is required by law. After a little more arguing she acquiesced. Next came the flippers. The guys were really good at looking at your feet and picking the right size for you. Practice makes perfect? But this same woman decided that she didn’t want the style of flipper she was given; she wanted the other style that some people were given. The crewman said no, you have to wear what I gave you because your size only comes in that style. She continued to argue quite vehemently until finally the crew member got quite testy and said that was the only choice. Wow!

Everyone else was quite happy with their gear and we were soon plopping ourselves into the water from the back of the boat. As soon as we hit the water and put our heads underwater, we saw a multitude of beautiful yellow fish. As we swam away from the boat and explored the reef, we saw a nice variety of fish, including some cool slender fish with a long spear out of the nose, like a mini-narwhale. They were silver and yellow and about a foot long and favored swimming near the surface in schools.
Looking deeper we saw striped fish, a few blue fish, and quite a variety of other beautiful fish. We obviously did not catch the name of any of them, but some were long and skinny, some were round and fat, some were small, some were big, some were speckled. Some liked the surface, some liked the bottom, some stayed solo, and others went around in packs. With such a sophisticated description, we’re sure you can tell what we saw!

In the deep end of the pool

Needle nose fish

Yellow stripe fish

Working hard to get the shot

We were swimming along a reef that extended for a total of around five miles. The reef was quite close to the surface in places so it was very interesting to get a closer look at it and the fish who hang out within the reef. There was also a good variety of coral, although there was less variety in color of the coral. We had a good long time to swim as we liked all around the reef.

Coral

While swimming, at one point Mike found himself being repeatedly swam into by, you guessed it, Ms. Annoying. There were enough of us out there in the water that you would occasionally bump into someone else, but she continued to swim directly into him even as he tried to move away. And she wasn’t even an American!

There was a good swell that far out from shore so our 45 minutes in the water was actually plenty. After we all climbed back on board they broke out the rum punch, of course, turned on the reggae, and raised the sail. Which was kind of funny, because while they did raise the small jib, they continued to motor along so it may have looked pretty, but really wasn’t doing anything. With such nice breezes blowing it would be fun to do a real sail in the area. We saw one very small cruise ship in Barbados that was a sailing ship. Now that would be the way to see the Caribbean! But we had places to get to before out time was up.

We stopped next at a beach where we had another nice break to swim or walk the beach. Tami made a beeline for the water and had a couple of nice swims. The water temperature was perfect for the warm weather, and the beach was quite protected with very little surf. Mike took a turn to cool off in the water as well.

The beautiful tropical beach we stopped at for a swim

Woman selling things on the beach

Back in town, it is set up as a small village with a lot of shops along a cute main street, but most of the shops are very touristy, as expected. But a block or two off the main drag we found some nicer shops with higher quality items, including one guy who was doing some very nice original art. He also recommended a good lunch spot called Hemingway’s, and we headed there for a relaxing lunch. It was on the second floor of the building with an open deck overlooking the street. Tami had conch fritters, which were very tasty, and Mike had conch curry, which was especially fine. A couple of Wadadli beers, the local brew, made a complete and satisfying meal.

Main tourist shopping street – same old imported crap you see at every stop – we did find some local art, etc. on a nearby street

Eating at Hemingways

Local beer!

We wandered around a bit more, but the lure of our cool room was enough to get us on board a little early, where we could enjoy the views of the island from our balcony and sip the chilled fruit tea they provide us in our room every day. Mike was also happy to finish the day with a blackberry gelato sandwich, which he had been lusting after all trip. It was a nice finish to the day.

Fishing boat