We have a lovely sail across from Marigot bay, St Martin to Road Bay,
Anguilla the wind is behind for the first 10 miles and gives us 7+ knots boat
speed most of the crossing. As we turn behind Anguilla on the north side we have
18 knots on the nose almost so we close reach for 3 miles until we are too near
the reef and surrounding islands and drop sails to motor in the last 2.5 miles.
It was a pretty nice sail and the seas not too rough given the wind. We are
surprised at the cliffs surrounding the north side of the island which are
around 50’ feet in Road Bay but it gives a lovely look to the harbor.
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| Anguilla with large cliffs surrounding the shoreline |
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| A very affluent island |
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| An unusual cruise ship in port here |
We arrived a little ahead of Nauti Dog as they took on fuel before
departing, but we both find ample space to anchor in the somewhat busy harbor.
Anguilla is quite restrictive on cruising with most of the islands anchorages
and bays being in the park system. Unlike the USVI the charges here are pretty
egregious so we will be restricting our visit to just Road Bay which is free to
anchor in for us and only $26 for larger boats, so very affordable. As we are
limited to to anchorages we decide to car share with Karen and Michael to see
the island and its beaches that way.
We get a nice little Nissan “March” for $35 a day including insurance and
Devin drives so an extra $20 for a Anguilla drivers license, a great deal. We
toured the whole island easily in a day.
First stop was Best Buy grocery since it is easy in the car to get stuff,
where Karen buys Dog food of course!, then on to Meads bay. It’s a stunningly
attractive beach to relax and swim from and has a lot of resorts on it to prove
it. We can imagine a stay here is paradise for beach lovers looking for a
tan!
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| Best Buy had some interesting finds |
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| Meads bay |
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| Sun worshiping paradise |
The next stop is back to Best buy for an ice cream fix, well after all it
was pretty early the first time around. Then we headed to the south-western tip
to Shoal Bay (west) where we saw the award winning homes designed by Myron
Goldfinger which look like something far out, almost Sci Fi, nice setting though
and very expensive to stay at.
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| Shoal bay west |
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| Unusual home designs |
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| A nice beach bar at Shoal bay west |
Next stop was Blowing Point harbor where all the day trippers arrive on
ferries from St Martin. There are nice views across the channel but little else
here.
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| Blowing point ferry terminal |
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| View of St Martin 10 miles away |
Next was Forest Bay where we looked for and Amer-Indian site marked on the
map. It was on the prominent point at the end of the beach so we walked over the
beach to look for it. Despite a few attempts to penetrate the mangrove we failed
to find any trace of anything let alone Indian relics.
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| I can't see any hint of indians |
After a slow run around “The Valley” which is the center of Anguilla, we
headed out to the Heritage Collection Museum, well just our luck it was closed
on Saturday’s. We took a few pictures of the artifacts outside which were
interesting to see.
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| British cannon |
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| Cotton Ginny |
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| Copper pots |
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| The "Valley" scenery - quite bleak |
Well about now we started to consider lunch plans so after reading the
restaurant guide we chose “On Da Rocks” which is in Harbor Island looking across
to Scilly Cay. The bay itself is very picturesque and we got lovely photos from
the roof top restaurant. It was a nice lunch stop and good food too. The beer
prices on Anguilla are a bit pricy though at $7 a Presidente.
Our first after lunch stop was Upper Shoal bay on the north side. After a
confusing time finding the beach we were a bit disappointed as it was badly
eroded and had poor access. We had contemplated snorkeling here but decided the
beach was not quite accessible enough with the pounding surf. So we moved
on.
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| Upper Shoal Bay |
At Shoal Bay (north side) we stopped for a while but found only a beach
entrance and car park so decided to take only photo’s of the nearby house with
an observatory attached to it. It is note mentioning now that there is a huge
amount under construction in Anguilla and around here we found dirt roads
leading to large numbers of resorts and private residences. Lots of the inner
plots were still filled with construction materials to supply the projects.
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| Someones personal observatory |
The next stop was to find the first of 2 caves on the map in this area. We
stopped by the quarry at Crocus hill and walked into the bush on a dirt trail to
look for cave #1. After several abortive attempts inside gated plots we gave up.
That is Devin and Karen did, Michael and Liz just had to keep going for another
20 minutes before being convinced they was no cave just plots and partly
constructed buildings.
OK strike the first cave lets try the historical sites? Well we had no luck
at the first 2 nothing to be seen anywhere.
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| Strike out - no idea what this is/was |
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| Strike out again |
Then on #3 we hit pay dirt, the
Wallblake House was where it is supposed to be. It’s the oldest sugar cane
plantation on the island and had several well preserved buildings. Unfortunately
for us it’s closed on Saturday’s too.
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| Wallblake House |
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| The adjacent Church |
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| Front entrance |
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| Private residence at the rear |
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| Out house |
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| All nicely maintained |
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| Micheal checking water levels in the cistern |
Well buoyed by this discovery we try for cave #2. We drive down several
tiny lanes looking for a sign, but alas they are not to be had. We find several
holes but all are foundations for new homes and not for spelunkers. Strike #2
and out!
The last ditch effort is the historical site by the sea, fortunately it’s
there. We find the old 1750’s Court House which also housed the Treasury, Post
Office, Customs and the Prison. Must have been a huge loss when hurricane Alice
destroyed it all in 1955.
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| We found it |
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| The hurricane damaged site |
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| The inside view of the courthouse |
Well after a long day in the car we return it unscathed but a little dusty
to the beach at Sandy Ground and in the morning hand the keys back to the rental
company. It a great deal for 24 hours so if your ever here we’d recommend it,
particularly if you share the cost and even more if you’re a night owl and visit
one of the many evening restaurants. We are all cruisers and in bed by 9pm so
passed on that.
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| Back on Moosetracks for sundowners |
On Sunday the island is pretty shut down so after handing the car keys back
Liz and I borrow Chester from Nauti Dog to have a stroll around town and walk
the beach. We have a great time meeting locals who just can’t believe how big
Chester is compared to local dogs.
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| Chester and Liz |
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| One on the many restaurants at Sandy Ground |
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| Chester and Devin on the beach at Sandy Ground |
While walking around town we discover another historical site “the Pumphouse” which was in the guidebook but was not on the map so we had never found it! Well a nice morning and great fun to walk Chester around.
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| The missing Pumphouse |
That's about it from Anguilla, the forecast is good for the next week with light winds so we will explore some of the eastern shore in St Martin possibly.
We hope all our friends and family are well and happy whatever they are doing.
