Adventure Antigua - a blog about island life spent with sun, sea and sand.

Will the Chinese wipe out Antigua and Barbuda's lobster?

2012-05-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Over the past month there has been considerable media attention on the subject of certain Chinese businessmen orchestrating a massive monthly purchase and export of spiny lobster. (Click here if you want to know more about spiny lobster)
In a nutshell, these businessmen are providing boats, scuba gear and fishing equipment to fishermen here in Antigua and Barbuda in exchange to the exclusive rights to purchase this lobster from them at an elevated price than the current market price. The cost of the equipment is slowly subtracted from the payments so essentially the whole agreement is a sort of financing agreement. The deal for fishermen is irresistible.

The first big complaint in the media came from the hotel sector which became enraged when they couldn't get their usual supply of lobster. The Chinese were paying more for lobster and taking any amount supplied, so there was none being offered to the hotels. They were upset.

The second complaint came from one of the oldest lobster wholesalers here who for decades has been the biggest buyer and seller of lobster. He complained that he couldn't afford to pay as much as the Chinese for the lobster. His supply dried up and he was upset.

The third complaint came from supermarkets and other local sources of consumption who could no longer get lobster to buy. For the first time since it opened Epicurean Supermarket has an empty lobster tank.

Recently I have heard complains against the businesses that are selling to fishermen who are being financed by the Chinese lobster mafia. They feel that it's wrong for some reason for local business to accept money loaned to fishermen from these Chinese lobster men.

Then with all the media outcry and the calls coming in to the radio stations I started to hear more and more people complaining about the "Chinese and dem tekking all d lobster and nar left none for ahwee". Passions have run high and have even bordered on being viewed as xenophobic in some of the arguments. I say that because the focus seems to be on the notion that the Chinese are doing something wrong. All the comments are focused on the Chinese and not at all on the fisheries policy that has permitted non national entrepreneurs to capitalize on the fishery. It's not just Chinese either. One of the biggest seafood merchants in Antigua is a Syrian and most of the commercial fishing for parrot fish and lobster is being done these days by fishermen from Dominica and the Dominican Republic. Lets not even talk about the tons of fish that is caught in our waters by the French from Guadeloupe. Sustainable fishing has never been visible on the ground or in the water.

This concern that our nation's lobster stock being decimated by Chinese interests could be dealt with fairly easily I think. Once again it boils down to passing of the Fisheries Act and it's regulations and then enforcing them. This is a problem that has again and again been blamed for most of the marine conservation issues. Antigua & Barbuda are some of the only islands in the Caribbean that do not have a carefully managed closed season. Also, there doesn't seem to be any limits on catch or on export quantity. Essentially with enough money and resources, the Chinese could legally wipe out all of Antigua and Barbuda's lobster while using licensed fishermen who they finance/contract. They could do the same thing for almost all of our seafood to be honest. Just today my sister came across a group of Chinese men fishing along the Shell Beach main road. They had buckets of tiny Queen Conch (an endangered species) as well as buckets of starfish. This large group of Chinese are here working on the airport expansion and knowing that there is no fisheries management they play off their ignorance of the law and do as they like. That could be another blog entry i guess.

The issue at hand is the decimation of our lobster stock by local fishermen for Chinese consumption, and as I mentioned to fix it, our Fisheries Minster and his Chief Fisheries Officer need to work together in the interest of all of the citizens of the nation and get those regulations off the desk and into law. The interesting thing is that we even with all the media attenton and public interest we have not heard anything officially from them. This is not a problem with the Chinese, but rather a problem with the management of our fishery and the way that our fishermen utilize it. Currently the way seafood is harvested here is not sustainable, and if nothing is done there is no doubt in my mind that the only lobster my son will ever see will be in photos of them that I took before he was born.

I think it's time for action because writing and speaking about this doesn't seem to make any difference to the people making the decisions. I think we need to somehow be a bit louder. Does anyone else think it's time for an actual protest demonstration?

Other similar blog posts by me:

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/08/french-fishermen-threaten-us-while-we.html

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/03/most-important-and-threatened-fish-in.html

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2009_06_19_archive.html

http://www.365antigua.com/cms/content/green-environment-gill-nets-threaten-antigua-barbudas-waters

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/07/chinese-lights-start-killing-turtles-in.html

Want to catch a blue marlin? Join us in the Antigua Sport Fishing Tournament.

2012-05-16T21:18:00.000-04:00

Each year Adventure Antigua sends at least one of our boats to the Annual Sports Fishing Tournament here in Antigua. We have always done well and few boats have released as many marlin as our boat Xtreme has done. These days the price of fuel has limited our trips into the deep, and we have done far fewer international tournaments as well. However, there is one tournament that we try to do each year, and it's this annual one when many boats target Marlin. Last year was the first time that Adventure Antigua attempted to offset the costs associated with the tournament by taking on anglers who contributed financially. We didn't have a charter per say but each angler paid his fair share. Once again this year we are looking to do the same. Anyone who is interested in hooking up to a big marlin and fighting it to the boat so we can release it should give us a call or text. Contact me on my mobile +1 268 725 7263. For more info on the fishing and the tournament please check the link above. Here is a little compilation of video bits from the tournament last year.
<p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;</p> www.adventureantigua.com

An Antiguan in "The Everest of sailing" once again. The Volvo Ocean Race

2012-05-01T07:17:00.002-04:00

The Volvo Ocean Race is considered the Everest of sailing and fellow Antiguan and friend, Shannon Falcone, has done the race around the world once before. But that wasn't the highlight of his professional sailing career. After crewing on the winning America's Cup boat in the last cup challenge he has been training for the next cup and spending more time in Antigua than he has been able to in recent years. A few weeks ago he was asked to come back to the Volvo Ocean Race once again to replace an injured crew member. Their Puma sponsored boat is leading the Brazil to Miami leg and will pass close to Antigua in a few days. For more on the race click here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/the_race/1_Overview.html and for more on where the boats are in real time check here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html and for more on one of Antigua's top sportsmen ever check here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/5923_Falcone-gets-his-PUMA-boots-on.html

Hope you find it interesting. eli

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

2012-04-24T10:09:00.001-04:00

After four days of racing in various conditions and courses, Adventure Antigua's team Zemi wins in the Traditional Class. We had a huge team which reached 14 people in two of the races.

After our engine was installed by A1 Marine in Jolly Harbour we had to do some rigging changes before the regatta and they were completed just in time for the race. With only minutes to spare, Itano, Jason and I managed to get to the Antigua Yacht Club on Wednesday. On thursday a few of us got together and went out to test the rig and see how Zemi felt. It was the first time we had sailed properly since last year. We had won our class in the regatta then, but the winds had been exceptionally light. Our sail on Thursday was fine and the boat felt good with the extra lead ballast that i had just purchased from a local scrap metal business. I took a photo of my truck deep inside the scrap metal place when I was about to collect the lead the Tuesday before. My sister Fran was going to be joining us for the regatta so she came out on the practice sail with us: All of the wooden Caribbean vessels sailing in the Traditional class of the regatta bunched up together between the Turtle Surf Shop and the Skullduggery Bar on the Antigua Yacht Club Marina. Half of them seen here: The first race was on Friday and our start was actually just after 10 am. We had two crew coming in from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands at the very last minute and they were bringing uniforms. Andy Morrell and his son Josh run HIHO which is a high end clothing company (check it out) and our team was going to look sharp if they arrived with the loot. In fact, HIHO is one of the sponsors of Antigua Sailing Week which starts here at the end of this week. Anyway, they arrived, jumped on board Zemi and we cast off our lines. The race was starting shortly, and we needed to get everyone set up (and suited up).

The Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda provided air rifles for the race committee, so i can't say the races started with a bang. Needless to say, it was quite funny hearing about that mess up on the radio. Anyway, the race started and Zemi was off. Our boat has more sail area than the others and the light winds of the first race were in our favor. We slowly pulled ahead. On the broad reach we had our spinnaker up which gave us a slightly bigger lead. When it was time to drop this sail in preparation for our sail back upwind, something went wrong. The line holding the sail to the top of the mast was jammed. There was nothing we could do but sail upwind with about four of the crew trying to bunch the sail up around the mast. Spinnakers are sails that don't go upwind and that's where we were headed. Thankfully the winds were light and the sail didn't get ripped out of the hands of our crew and torn to shreds. We were going directly for the rocks at Winter Hill and had to tack with this sail which was another challenge. Then there were other yachts which had right or way coming toward us. We had to "duck" them, still with this sail dangling from the top of the mast. Finally a decision was made to send one of the crew up to the top of the mast. Out came the bosun's chair and up the mast Jason went with a knife! The sail was finally cut down, but we had to get it fixed, and in no time we were sending Nikolai back up to get it prepped for the next time we had to use it. Here is a pic of Nik way up at the top while we were racing: Here he is on his way back down:

With this kind of team work we were able to finish enough ahead to beat the second place boat by under a minute on corrected time after the handicap had been worked out. Here is some of the team celebrating our win back at the dock:

More on the rest of the Classic Yacht Regatta tomorrow.

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2012

2012-04-16T23:10:00.001-04:00

As you know we offer a classic yacht tour, and each year we try and compete in the Traditional Class of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. The first year we entered on the brand new Ocean Nomad with paint still drying on the deck we finished second. The next year we finished first. I didn't race again until last year and this time it was on our new Carriacou Sloop, Zemi with paint still drying once again. We finished first and were delighted. Since then Zemi has not been sailing once and has sat in Jolly Harbour slowly getting an engine installed. It's finally in there and operational. She is now able to get in and out of harbours without sailing. Ocean Nomad is the older of our two sailing vessels and has been out of commission for the past month while her mast was repaired. She may be ready to sail in the regatta which starts on Friday which means that Adventure Antigua will have two boats in the Classic Yacht Regatta.

I will be skippering Zemi again this year, and over the next few days I will be strengthening the rig and finding some more ballast. In last years race we knew she was under ballasted which means she didn't have enough lead below deck to keep her steady in the water during heavier winds. Luckily the winds were light last year and it worked to our advantage.

This year will be different if the forecast continues as it is right now with winds getting up to 22 mph. We have to have more ballast otherwise we will not be able to sail fast and will spent plenty of time over on our sides! Lead is what we need, but if we can't find it we will be looking for anything else. We have three days to get it below deck and register the boat. Among the team sailing with us this year we have Andy Morrell of HIHO with his son Josh. This means that Adventure Antigua's team Zemi will have some nice clothing to race with for a few days. We also have an old team mate from Scotland sailing with us. Harry Ingram didn't sail across the Atlantic this time but took the quick flight here for the regatta. He will be leaving his chair below deck and will be on the rail like the time when we won on Ocean Nomad. I understand he's bringing some good Scotch to "bless the deck". You know, it was the Scottish who first built these boats down in Carriacou for the Plantation owners of Grenada. Plenty of history which you can learn about if you end up watching Vanishing Sail which is a film about these amazing vessels. Click here to learn a bit about the project and see a preview. Of course we will have plenty of local knowledge, skill and rum drinking/sailing experience on board too with several of our long time team members playing key rolls. Guilli, Nikolai, and Big John will be there too. Once again this year Mount Gay Rum is providing us with shirts and hats or one of the day's racing. I am sure there will not be a shortage of rum either. I will blog more about the progress of Zemi before Wednesday and then after the first race on Friday. Stay Tuned.

Whales, Dolphins, and lets not forget Turtles too!

2012-03-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

In my last blog I highlighted the whale and dolphin watching that is going on at the moment and mentioned that our boats have been seeing more than usual this year. Yesterday our two Xtreme boats doing the Circumnav (round the island) tour saw a pod of whales off Nelson's Dockyard. They approached them in between the tour stop at Green Island and their tour of Nelson's Dockyard. The whales didn't stick around for long and sounded showing their tails before the very deep dive. The water out there is several thousand feet deep. Anyway, the tours did their historical tour of Dockyard and then went to snorkel at Pillars of Hercules. After Xtreme's snorkeling session they returned to the area the whales were spotted and luckily they met them again on the surface. Captain JD shot the iphone image of one of them that is the featured image above. Once again we had delighted guests on board who got more than they expected on our round the island "Xtreme Circumnav Tour". Our Eco Tour on the other hand didn't see any whales for the week, but has been seeing dolphins fairly regularly. Both boats see turtles almost daily, and yesterday on the North side the weather was clearer and the Eco Tour saw quite a few hawksbill turtles between their tour stops. The nesting season for hawksbills is between May and November and generally people in Antigua regard nesting season as the summer months. However between the three species of marine sea turtles we have nesting on our shores (green, hawksbill, and leatherback), the entire year can have turtles coming up to lay eggs. The legislation protecting nesting turtles really only speaks of a few months in the summer, but Leatherback turtles nest from Feb to May. Leatherbacks are the most interesting turtles in my opinion and largest, and of the three nesting here, they are the rarest in our waters. The Antigua Sea Turtle Project, run by my wife and the EAG, has been getting reports of nesting leatherbacks for the past few weeks. Very early on Wednesday morning a massive momma leatherback came up to lay on Jabbawock Beach which is just down the road from me. If you follow my other older blog, then you will have read the huge problem that Jabbawock and many other beaches around Antigua face when it comes to street lights. The squished turtle shown in the image on the left is a member of the Hawksbill Turtle, an endangered species, taken on Jabbawock's main road the morning after the nest with about 150 little turtles hatched out. Using photos like this one and blogs like this one (click here) we have gotten the media involved (click here) and generally gotten the public to understand the situation. Still the lights are on and in about 60 days the endangered leatherback turtles will hatch out and will be drawn instinctively to the brightest thing. Usually the water lapping on the shore with the reflection of stars, but on Jabbawock the Chinese gift of street lights will lure them away from their natural environment and on to the main road. The Antigua Sea Turtle Project and the EAG has met with the public utility company several times and the lights remain on. It's a simple fix and solutions including different frequency bulbs, lower poles, using deflectors, and just plain switching them off. I hope I can blog here one day that our government has taken their head out of the sand to correct this problem. This image is of a leatherback turtle we found in the bottom of a hatched nest after doing an excavation. Usually one or two little ones get left behind in the bottom of a hatched nest and if you get there early enough the next day, you can help them get to the water. We have found that it's best to let them go at night though which is when the birds don't see them in the shallow bright waters. For more info on the amazing leartherback turtle check this link.

Best Whale and Dolphin Watching season ever

2012-03-27T07:55:00.000-04:00

Our Humpback Whale season here is usually from Feb until May and this year we got off to a slow start mainly I think because of weather. Feb was pretty rough and with all the white caps out there it wasn't easy to spot whales spouting or breaching. People kept asking me when it was that they were going to see whales, and I kept on saying that March was the best month to see them. Anyway, march came and sure enough we started seeing whales. Nicola and I did a Observer Radio 91.1FM talk show interview with their Voice Of The People show to speak about whale watching and the best practices that should be used during whale watching. We also started a facebook group called The Antigua and Barbuda Whale and Dolphin Network. This facebook page had a goal of letting people know about whale and dolphin sightings as well as providing awareness about whales and dolphins. Check the page out this month if you can. Anyway, our tours have been seeing whales and dolphins each week for the entire month and while all of my crew and many of our guests have been lucky enough to see them recently, the office team has been getting quite jealous especially during whale sightings. Last week during a tandem Xtreme Circumnav tour both captans Ross and JD spotted a pod of whales just off The Grand Pineapple Resort up near Devil's Bridge. Forty of our guests were lucky enough to see these amazing creatures with their young ones swimming freely without fear in our waters. It was a great experience. Yesterday morning very early in the tour Ross called me and said that he and his tour were whale watching just outside Jabbawock beach. This was quite surprising to me as this is the area where I have spent most of my life and I have never seen one close into shore there. Anyway, I quickly called Nell and Mom in the office so that they could go have a look too from the shore. The mobile phone image which is featured at the title of the blog was taken by Natalie who was part of Team Xtreme with Ross and Nicola. Finally they got a glimpse of these amazing marine mammals and within less than 7 days this was the second time we have seen whales on our tours. We have been seeing dolphins more regularly though and overall these calmer sea conditions have been making all of the boaters happy. For more on whale watching in Antigua check this blog or visit the facebook page. You stand a good chance of seeing them up close if you come on one of our tours between now and the start of June.

Very Dry Weather for months here in Antigua means drought conditions

2012-03-24T09:26:00.000-04:00

That's right, we have hardly had much rain at all since before the new year, and both Antigua and Barbuda are looking very dry indeed. Gone are the green landscapes and hills sides in the South of the island, and quite often bare soil is what you are seeing in people's yards. This makes me shake my head for two reasons. First, because I don't like to see the island suffering in times of drought. Animals and plants need rain water to thrive and all natural life on the mainland is using it's reserves slowly while hoping for a little rain. Today I watered my lawn which was very dusty indeed. Much of the grass is now gone and the plants were screaming for some sky juice.

As you can see from these photos, my yard is very dry.

Also you will see the ten day weather forecast from weather.com for antigua which for the past 11 years has been forecasting rain almost every day. That's the second reason that I shake my head. These simple animated weather forecasts always predict and show rain for Antigua even at times when we are experiencing terrible drought. So many potential tourists are turned off Antigua even before they reserve their flights and hotel rooms after seeing these incorrect forecasts, and the ones who see these stupid forecasts worry and fret all over the internet. Here is a typical post as seen on a regular basis on Tripadvisor:

bilxbet

no...

posts: 212

“ weather ”

Jan 18, 2010, 1:06 PM

hi we are going to antigua in 4 days. i keep looking at the 10 day forcast and it is rainy every day. does it only rain for 10mins or are we in for rainy weather. we are hoping for nice weather and the beach. be there friday the 22nd and can't wait, bill

Over the past decade I have spent so much of my time trying in many ways to tell people on the net that the forecasts constantly predicting rain for Antigua and Barbuda are not right. I am on most of the tourist forums telling people that it's not in fact raining. I blog about it regularly. Click here and here for examples of those blogs on two different sites which both have good info by the way, and the first one explains why weather.com and the other simple animated forecasts get forecasting for Antigua so wrong. Both blogs give you an alternative and more accurate forecast for Antigua weather. Another thing I do is use twitter to show normal sunny everyday photos. It's no Antigua live web cam, but it's an attempt to show what the weather is like from someone on the ground here in Antigua. My twitter log in is www.twitter.com/antigua so if you are interested you can "follow" me or just check it from time to time for images and a bit of banter. Anyway, Adventure Antigua, my snorkeling and sight seeing trips, charters and tours usually work better when it's nice and sunny, but some rainfall would be a blessing for the island overall. Hopefully when it comes, if it comes, the rain will fall at night!

A new website for Adventure Antigua

2012-03-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Dwayne Tonge at JJDEZIGNS we have a new website finally. On my Google+ account I asked the general question "Where in Antigua can I get a good website built" and Dwayne Tonge immediately contacted me. We met, and I told him that I had been very happy with my old website but wanted something that was: 1) more easy to update, 2) manageable from anywhere without the need of a Dreamweaver type program, 3) phone and tablet ready, and most importantly 4) search engine friendly.
www.adventureantigua.com was purchased by me back in 1999 I think but was actually not in my name. The domain name was being hosted by one company. The website was being hosted by another company and then emails were being hosted by another company. It was all pretty messy like some of the West Indian beach restaurants that grow and grow by adding different rooms or levels onto their first little shack. We needed to sort things out.

From the moment we met, JJDEZIGNS was ready to offer ideas about how the new website could work to suit my needs. Many times Dwayne suggested ways of doing things that were way better than i had considered. It was refreshing working with someone from Antigua who really knew his stuff but more importantly, who bent over backwards to make me, the customer, happy. Dwayne, like me, is very very interested in SEO and in the way social media helps your product and website. This was important to me.

My website is one of the most important aspects of my business and I'm sure that I contacted Dwayne more than any client has done before. He never got frustrated with all my questions or suggestions. He was great, and did things the way I wanted them while using his knowledge and expertise to make sure it was done properly.

Our site is up and is still going through some editing and changes as you, the users, give us feedback.
Please note however that some of our emails took some time getting to get to us, and could have been corrupted during the transition. If you didn't hear from us please use the booking form again to resend your info.
We are happy with it and hopefully the engines will be. In fact, we will be editing all the little hidden things that the search engines look for over the next few days.

If you are looking for someone to get you sorted with a new website or even kick start your facebook page, then check JJDEZIGNS out. This is their facebook page for more info.

www.adventureantigua.com

Another lovely tripadvisor review

2012-03-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

Another lovely tripadvisor review from someone who took their kids on our Eco Tour. It was the highlight of their trip to Antigua which we have to be very proud of. Thanks so much for posting!

“Eco-tour: a fun day for the kids”

Reviewed March 16, 2012

We took the eco-tour with two young children, four and seven. Our crew was Ross, Jourdain, and Nicola. All three were friendly and helpful, especially answering questions from our inquisitive seven-year-old, but Nicola was a real gem. She helped the kids with the easy climb on Great Bird Island and the trickier one at Hell's Gate, and both took a real shine to her. We had the only kids on the boat; there were I believe around twenty-six passengers in total, but it didn't feel crowded. My older daughter loved hearing about turtles, mangroves, and other wildlife. The younger one enjoyed the trip, but didn't get nearly as much out of it. The snorkelling was a little beyond the capabilities of the kids - it's too bad we couldn't have dropped the kids off at some shallow and calmer water. All-in-all, a great day trip and for my older daughter, the highlight of our week in Antigua.

A History of Adventure Antigua Published in December 2006

2012-03-16T09:45:00.000-04:00

This was published under various posts back in late 2006, and I figured it was time to organize it into one blog post. Of course, it needs updating, but it gives you an idea how we got started and also provides some fun reading. Enjoy:

Part 1 (Nov 11 2006)

If you have looked at the about us on the website, then you will know that I grew up in Antigua and spend most of my time windsurfing, fishing, camping, snorkeling and generally enjoying the sea around me. As soon as I started windsurfing at the age of 12, I became extremely interested in competition and in fact within about 8 months I windsurfed to Montserrat from Jolly Beach during the Windsurfing Antigua Week competition. That was in 1984 long before the volcano became active. Over the next 10 years I continued to compete internationally and did a fair amount of traveling. When I left Antigua for college in Florida in 1989, I went with the plan to study business and to windsurf and compete as much as possible. I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life other than becoming a "professional windsurfer". After college, I returned home with my business degree to look for a job. As mentioned in the Blog about Leslie, I worked for my Mom's retail business for a while at first. What I would do is work for a while saving enough money to go off to windsurfing events anywhere from Northern Germany to Maui. When the money ran out, I would come back and work for 6-12 months before going on a big adventure again. I had a bad accident out on the water one day while training at the famous Ho'okipa Beach in Maui. I ended up with a badly broken ankle which was terrible for me as it was just before I was to join The Professional Windsurfing Association's World Tour. I was fitter and faster than ever and excited and confident about going on the World Tour. Unfortunately, to make matters worse, the GP in Maui made a very bad judgment call and I ended up not walking for 6 months. The particular type of fracture required some metal work, and all I got was a cast! Anyway, my hard core windsurfing career was never the same. After I got better I did some competitions in Brazil, the Canary Islands, Germany, Greece, England and across the Caribbean, but I wasn't doing well enough consistently to make money. It’s an incredibly expensive sport and I was finding it hard to make it work. I was lucky enough to get a job working for the largest sail manufacture in the world as a "tester". My job was to work along with another tester and the main sail designers in Maui. Our work there tested prototypes that were adjusted by the designer according to our recommendations. Once they were better than the current production models that we were testing against, the prototypes were sent off to Hong Kong to put into mass production. It was a fun job and I was getting paid to windsurf in a pretty nice place. Maui is a pretty nice place, but not as nice as Antigua and certainly not home. I started dreading the thought of going back to Antigua to work for another hotel, restaurant, disco, shop, health club, or any of the other possible "managerial" jobs. I had done them and didn't want to be stuck inside again. During my lifetime in Antigua I had spent most of best times on the water. I started thinking about my friends and fellow windsurfers, Inigo and Xabier Ross. I kinda grew up with these two brothers who were about 10-12 years older than I was during my windsurfing years. When I was 12 Inigo was the most amazing windsurfer I had ever seen. He and his bro, Xabier, must have gone through the same kinda dilemma thing that I was now going through years earlier and had gotten into the watersports business. It hadn't been that profitable for them and they had ventured into the excursion business starting a company called Wadadli Catamarans. They started with one Cat and had done very well. They loved the sea and were smart. They were also one of the first excursion companies to do it "properly".
Sitting in the sail loft in Maui one night, I started thinking about the possibility of doing some sort of tour. I had some very tight constraints though....the main one was the fact that I had no money. I did have control of a small open boat back in Antigua though, and I though about how I could use that on some sort of excursion. The excursion had to be different and to make it easy for me; it had to be something that I already knew how to do. I grew up in the North Sound of Antigua and knew the 22 small islands and reefs up there like the back of my hand. It was mostly calm and beautiful and so many of the spots there were not seen on the "regular tours". I did some spread sheets and figured that I had to give it a try. When I returned to Antigua that November, Adventure Antigua was started. After painting and cleaning up the little boat, I got insurance and my license, took some photos and then started figuring out how to market the product. I will talk about what happened next in future "The history of AA" blogs. Here is a photo that I took during the first trip I ever did on Adventure Antigua's Eco Tour. It was just me and my ex-girlfriend who modeled for me, and we did a demo tour to see if the timeline would work out. This pic is of Chantal in the little open boat near the mangrove habitat off Guiana Island back in late 1999 I think. More of how it all started soon......

Part 2 (Nov 14, 2006)

After i had gotten all the official documentation sorted and the little boat ready for guests it was time to find these guests. It just so happens that Sunsail had just opened up their hotel at Club Colonna in Hodges Bay. It was two bays down from where I lived and kept my little boat. Perfect! I met up with the manager Roger and his assistant Robin, and organized a tour for them. I collected them and two of their friends and did “The North Sound Eco-Historical Tour” for them. They seemed to be having fun right off the bat and by the end of the day told me that they though I was onto a winner. These words of encouragement were exactly what I needed, but even more I needed guests. We decided to charge US $60 per person for the tour, and Roger and Robin helped out in that department by speaking about my business at their orientations. By the next week I had done two different trips for their hotel and things were starting to take shape. It wasn´t easy as I was on my own and the day for me usually ran about 12 hours. Let me just tell you that 12 hours out on the boat with the sea and sun to contend with are not the same as a 12 hour day in doors. By the end of a day I was exhausted. Anyway, I was trying to create something and was actually excited about the future. When you are trying to do something like this, it is never easy and I had loads of obstacles to overcome. I remember my mom getting cross with me one day telling me that it was time to get “serious” and stop messing about. I know it didn’t look like it to many but I was, and I could see the potential for me to be happy while making a living for myself.
Sunsail was just one hotel though and I because of the size of the boat, I could’t go further to collect guests. People were not interested in getting expensive cabs to come and join in on a new little boat tour. Not many people if any had heard about it on the island and the money was just barely paying the bills. It took 3 years before I wasn’t worried about the financial side of things every night.
Anyway, while I was trying to figure out how to get more business I was told to go and speak with Julie Patterson. Julie, had a much larger power boat and had been trying to do exclusive charters without much success. Her main problem was the price. My idea was to do a per person rate like Wadadli Catamarans and Kokomo Cats had been doing, but all the power boat companies were doing Exclusive Charter rates charging on average US $900 for the day back then. Anyway, her boat was on dry dock and it appeared as though she had given up. I approached her and she seemed immediately interested in working is some sort of partnership. Since she had paid for the insurance and was paying for storage she offered me the boat at cost as long as I maintained it and split the profits after operating expenses with her. This seemed a great opportunity for me and I took her boat right away. I then could start aggressively trying to get guests out of the hotels on the west coast. My Dad had a small property in Jolly Harbour where I could keep the boat and start tours from in the morning. The boat was perfect too with loads of space to sit 10 guests comfortably. It had a cabin, loads of storage space and plenty of shade too. After a few months I was still relying on Sunsail. The hotels wouldn’t sell my tour. I think they felt that I (being the widsurf bum) was not serious, but they didn’t know that the tour was something I had been doing all my life. When I was a little kid I would have to take guests from my grandparents hotel up to the islands, and I spent most of my time up there exploring anyway. I was serious and the tour was a great one. Still, I couldn’t get hotel guests though their sales reps. The Website that we had set up on day one was proving to be valuable and I was getting bookings that way. Many more people who didn’t book had seen in on the web and would go to their tour desks and hotel reps saying “we want to do eli’s eco tour”. After about 2 years of doing a few trips a week without their help, they started to understand that they were losing out on valuable commission. The reps and tour desks finally started to take notice. To this day however it is just crazy how many people work at the front desks of these hotels and just have no idea about what I do. I guess staff changes quickly and knowing about tours is just not part of the training. We have to constantly provide info to hotels about what we do. The funny thing is that the more “exclusive” the hotel the more lost the front desk staff seem to be. They know about what’s in the hotel but not much about what is out. Thank god for our website though because usually the guests know what’s going on and just need the hotel to make a booking (which we gladly pay 20% for by the way).
Anyway, after a year of using Julie’s boat, she decided that she needed to sell it. I went to every bank in Antigua and all wanted to know how much land I was putting up. I had a business plan….a working business with financials and they couldn’t care less. They wanted to only talk after I had shown them the collateral. Julie started to get impatient and I finally had to get my Dad to co-sign the loan with me. US $50,000 was a huge chunk of cash but it gave me enough o pay Julie off and to get a few other crucial things for the business. Now more than ever, I had to make it all work. TBC……….

Part 3 (written November 17, 2006)

After I finally got the loan, things were more stressful because business was still not as good as I knew it could be, and I had the bank to think about now. I couldn’t just scrape by like before…..now I had to find an extra US $1500 a month. It was at about this time that my internet bookings started to take off, and you can read all about that in the blog about “The power of the Internet”. Like I said before the reps in the hotels were even now taking notice of me. It was a great time for my business and I was enjoying being paid for doing what I loved doing. It was all working out, or so I thought. After a super busy year when all the maintenance and other big bills had been paid, I still didn’t have much to show for it. I took a few days trying to figure out where the money had gone. The books didn’t lie…..even after a busy year I wasn’t really making any money. I had worked sooo hard and had made Adventure Antigua a working company. The business was getting loads of recognition in the media and on the net and I felt like the business was here to stay. The tour operators and the hotels were booking my tour, and I was turning people away, but still after all that I hadn’t much of a profit. What the books showed was something that Xabier had told me when I first started out. Xabier is the owner of Wadadli Cats, by the way. Anyway, he said that it’s all about numbers as in numbers of people you take out. If you want to make a profit in this business you need to take large numbers of people. However I looked at it, doing tours with a 10 person maximum was never going to get me anywhere. Either the boat or my body would wear out before I could make enough money to get a mortgage and buy a home for myself. I started to notice several other problems at this point too which could threaten the newly acquired stability that I felt. One of them which was a total shocker had to do with the reps and hotel tour desks. Since I was getting so many bookings from the internet in the season, many times I would turn down bookings from hotel reps because I was full. After a while I noticed that their calls slowed down. I had many of them tell me that they didn’t want to call me anymore because every time they promoted my tour and got guests excited, I was full when they called me. They were tired of getting turned down by my company. I had worked so hard to get them to call me and as soon as I had them calling me it looked like I was going to lose them. Crazy but true!!! Another problem I was facing was the “piggy backers”. After I started my Eco Historical Tour and people in Antigua saw it doing well copycat tours started popping up. This is totally expected I guess but I knew that some of them would be able to gain market share immediately without doing any work. All of a sudden there were several tours with names like ECO TOUR modeling their tours after mine. I was more concerned with being flattened than being flattered. I had no choice to take the next step…..which was obviously to just get bigger.
All my internet people from both hotels and cruise ships had been telling me for 2 years that the main reason that they picked my tour was because it was small and “intimate”. “Personal” is what they called it. The big dilemma was how much to grow and how. Should I have several boats of similar size to the one I had now or just get one bigger boat? How much bigger should I get? What kind of boats/boat? What was most important when it came to design of a new boat? It took me about six months, but I finally found a power catamaran built by a company called Cooper Marine in St. Petersburg Florida. It was just by chance actually, because I was looking at a boat company from Belize up until then. Cooper Marine made boats specifically for excursions, and the one I ended up getting was built for a company in The Bahamas who backed out on it after it was almost finished. They had been trying to sell it for a year without success and had dropped the price several times. I got it for a great price I thought because the design was perfect for me and the numbers I thought I could carry was precisely what I was looking for. It had so much shade which is exactly what I was after too. It even had two cabins with a head (toilet) and a shower at the back. All I had to add were the seats and the huge ladders and it was ready to go. Finding financing for the boat was a bit easier than it was for the first loan, and along with three friends I went to collect the boat on Florida’s west coast in November of 2003. We had an awful trip from the Florida Keys to the Bahamas where we were all shocked by how rough it was in the Gulf Stream. It was soo windy and the waves were massive and short with currents making them truly unsafe for our trip across the channel. I figured that we would have calm seas while we passed through the Bahamas but it never eased up. We kept on going and finally got to The Turks and Caicos Islands a few days later. We were all tired and sore because the seas had been soo rough. The forecast didn’t look like it was going to ease up either. We had too keep going though because I had bookings in late November that I had to have the boat ready for. Also, my crew all had jobs that they had to be back for. We left Provo on a rough but sunny morning for Samana, Dominican Republic. This was the biggest crossing we had during the 1500 mile trip from Florida to Antigua. The boat kept crashing though the waves as all of us looked at each other with stress imprinted on our faces. I knew the boat wasn’t handling the short and steep waves well. About 90 miles out of Provo, I started hearing a knocking which immediately gave me the shivers. I stopped the boat in the rolling swell and did a search below deck. I found some major structural problems where it looked like the two “shells” that made up the boat were coming apart. After speaking about it, we decided that we had better turn back to Provo where we were sure to get repairs done or at least get flights back from. We slowly limped back to Provo and ended up getting in after the sky had tuned dark. I worried that the boat was in some major problems. I had just spent more money than I could imagine on a boat that I now couldn’t use. What was I going to do? …….To be continued on “part four”……….

Part Four (published first in Nov 21st 2006)

(i am at an internet cafe off island at the moment. the connection is slow and the computer is a crasher......i will spell check and edit this later. please excuse the mistakes)

We arrived in Provo, cold, tired, and stressed. We were not speaking much because the reality didn't sound too good. We were at the very least stuck up the creek without a paddle. I made some calls to Cooper Marine as soon as i got in and they agreed to put someone on a plane the next day. Two of my crew who had businesses to run back in Antigua flew out the next day as the guy from Cooper came in. This guy came off the plane without saying hi to me and carrying loads of attitude along with two boxes of repair materials. Before we even got to the car i stopped him and gave him a bit of my mind. It was a good thing i didn't tear him apart considering my mental state at the time. I was the victim here and he's giving me attitude!!!! Anyway, he said his main problem was that he had never left the country (USA) and didn't think that flying out to repair a boat he built was his idea of fun. I told him i was having way less fun and that i would have him back in Florida as soon as he made the simple repairs we needed to get us back home. Fortunately there was a good boat yard in Provo and the next morning we started the job with the help of a good Jamaican Fiberglass repair guy. The Cooper guy and the Jamaican cut away lifted laminations and prepared areas where i suggested we added more strcture. I have had quite a bit of experience over the years working in fiberglass and on boats and could easily see the problems. Of course, the Cooper Marine guy wanted to do as little as possible and didn~t see the need to add structure. He did a rushed job which was soo poor that i was worried it wouldnt last back to antigua. I knew we needed much more repairs which would be time consuming and costly. Cooper Marine never helped a bit. Please speak with me if you are ever thinking about getting one of their boats!!!!!!!!!!
Finally about 5 days later Chael and I set off from Provo again on our way to Samana, Rominican Republic. It was slow going as the seas hadñ't eased up and we ended up getting stuck in the middle of a storm which lasted most of the night. We took turns driving and trying to look out for other vessels. At one stage in i saw a light appear behind us appearing in and out of the torrential rain. At one stage i had to increase the speed to keep clear of it. Never saw what it was out there in the middle of the dangerous and famous "Mona Passage". Anyway, at sunrise we arrived like wet rats in Samana after a horrible night at sea. All we needed to do in Samana DR was get fuel and get outta there. We had to bribe 5 government officials because they told us that we had to clear customs and immigration first. We had to bribe them because they said it was a public holiday, and we were not going to get far in that noisy, dirty corrupt town without "playing ball". Anyway, we were happy to get out of that manic town and be on our way to San Juan. Once again we arrived at night and were met by US Coast Guard who were doing an operation off Puerto Rico. They told us to go into the port where they would do a search. They were very nice and after searching us and the boat released us into San Juan Harbour to get some needed rest. We slept like the dead and the next morning got fuel and left for the British Virgin Islands. As we arrived, the weather got so bad that i was worried about our trip from the BVI to St. Martin. Inside the BVI where it is normally calm there were huge waves and torrential rain. I heard later that several people died in flooding there. We arrived into Virgin Gorda's Spanish Town which was the last stop before our St. Martin journey, and it's where we were given the most hard core and disrespectful search by the customs officials yet. They wanted to "confiscate" a drill set and some other tools we had onboard simply because they liked them!!! After they left, i went to the BVI tourist board and made a formal complaint. It was that bad! Served us right i guess for being so honest. Most boats in transit dont bother clearing customs! Anyway, we moved around in the harbour to get a "birth". It was raining hard as hell and the boat next to us filled with a group of self proclaimed "red necks" invited us to have steaks with them on their yacht. We must have looked miserable or something, but the kind and warm hospitality was exactly what we needed. IT was some of the best steak i have ever had and the company was great too. I think they had been drinking all day in the rain by the time we got there and were very merry. At 5 am the next morning we set off for the 100 mile trip to St. Martin straight into some of the nastiest seas i have experienced. It was 8 hours of scary pounding into the sea with waves crashing over the bow and washing right across the deck and out the back. Chael and i kept on listening out for noises below deck and we kept checking the repairs that we could easly see. Having no life raft out there with a boat that already had problems in huge stormy seas was a stressful experience. St. Martin never looked so good. We arrived to flooded streets and mud everywhere but we were happy to be there. The next day we made our last 100 mile journey to Antigua. We had to laugh really because as we closed in on the final 10 miles the winds calmed down. In fact, for the next three weeks the weather was flat calm........1500 miles of rough dangerous seas where we nearly lost the boat, and we get home to another 3 weeks of perfectly calm weather.
Within a week we were taking full boats out on The new Eco Tour though and very quickly the news of the new boat spread. IT was as good as i thought it would be for the tour. We didn't have to change a thing and the tour was better now in my opinion. It really is a great design. We added one crew to make it easier to handle a larger group, and this worked great as well. I figured i could make it through the season with the repairs we had done in Provo since it had made it through all that rough ocean. Winter 03/04 was a busy season and spring stayed busy too. In fact summer 04 was almost as busy for the company as the winter season had been. We were turning away bookings again, and i started thinking about another boat and another tour. Why not? On the trip down from Florida, i had seen some boats by a company called Performance 40. Powerboat Adventures in Nassau were using these boats and swore by them. They were built stronger than normal and looked like fun. I enjoyed the Cooper boat but it was a bit big to take out on the weekend days off. These boats would be perfect for a new tour as well as a great boat to have fun with. Soooo...............................I went to Miami to see Bob the boat builder..........T.B.C.

Part 5 (published November 25, 2006)

.....continued from "part 4".......
After arriving in Miami, i went straight to see Bob the boat builder who was kinda short and to the point on the phone. He didn't try to sell me anything which i kinda found strange. When i got to his factory or warehouse he met me and took me to see several boats which were in varied stages of construction. He pretty much lets his boats do the pushing of the product. They are built tough like things were build in the USA in the "good old days". Of course, after my disaster with Cooper Marine, my main concern was strength, and you could see strength at every point with Bob's construction. He had been building boats for over 30 years and had seen it all. He told me storied about building boats with his best friend in the early 80s when most of the people who wanted "go-fast" boats were shady characters. His best friend went on to start one of the most famous "go-fast" boat companies...."Midnight Express", and Bob told me stories about how his friend building boats for people who would pay with cash in full. To me it sounded like something out of a movie like the Al Pacino film "Scarface". Later he mentioned that his friend did get arrested by the DEA for knowingly building boats for a big time drug runner. The joke was that part of his sentence was building several boats for the government. Funny......
Anyway, Bob was a no BS kinda guy. He said "what you see is what you get" and i believed him. When i asked him why he wasn't with his friend building the original Midnight Express boats he laughed and said that he had been hired by another friend, Ted Arison, to turn an old ship into a cruise liner. It took him several years but that ship ended up becoming the first of Carnival Cruise Lines' ships. He (re-)built that and put what is now the worlds largest cruise line on the water!!!
I was happy with what i saw for two reasons. Firstly, I could tell that Bob was an honest hard worker who didn't BS his way through life. The second thing that made me feel cool was seeing the boats being built. This was a very limited-production boat builder where each one is custom built to your needs. They are not finished like some of the big names out there like Contender, Intrepid, or Boston Whaler but there was no question that bob's boats were built to last a lot longer carrying much more weight through much worse seas. Bob said he could have one finished for me in just over three months, so I sent him a deposit the next day. I think that was in August of 2004, so i was thinking about having it ready for the busy winter tourist season.
The next month we did extensive work on the Eco boat built by cooper marine. It cost me a good chunk of change and poor Tony worked like a daemon in the worst possible conditions. When we stopped, i felt much better about the boat and was sure it would be fine through the next few seasons. We had beefed up and created more structure in the front of the boat using the best possible materials and workmanship. I had hired a professional Marine Surveyor and boat builder to oversea the job with Tony and together they had done an awesome job. I still would like to do more in the middle and aft of the boat but it was the front that was where my main concern was. The surveyor agreed and was happy with the outcome.
In October, i went to have a look at Bob's progress and was pleased to see that he had done some good work getting the boat prepared. I could see that it wouldn’t be finished for November like he had said, but I was fine with that considering I didn’t have all the money sorted out. Since my sister Nell was working with me, I decided to offer her some ownership in the business. She and my bro, Ali, were interested in finding some money to help pay for the new boat and come on board with my growing company. They quickly found out the same thing that I already knew. Banks in Antigua don’t care about your business! All they want to know is how much land you are gonna put up. Anyway, in the end (some time in May 2005) they managed to come up with $90,000 to help me pay for the Performance 40.
Yes May 2005!!!! What happened over the winter was quite simple. In December just before Christmas I had a disaster. We had just picked up some cruise passengers from the cruise terminal, and were on our way out when I heard a strange sound coming from the port engine on the Eco Boat. Immediately I knew it wasn’t good, and after taking them to a beach nearby for a swim and some lunch, we went in and dropped off the guests. We didn’t charge them a dime of course. Anyway, mechanics meet us in Jolly Harbour and tell us that we have big problems which require the engine to be taken apart. Looks like it may be a total wreck, but I am told that it is still under warranty. I think for a minute what the implications are……..Warranty………so what? In the Caribbean a warranty isn’t what it is in the USA. Here they take the engine to pieces in order to find what is wrong with it, then ship the broken parts which show the cause of the failure back to the manufacturer, then they decide if they are gonna replace or rebuild. I spoke with the good people at Marine Power Services who estimated that it could take 6 weeks or longer considering the holidays and holiday shipping delays. This was December 20th I think. MPS tell me what I am already thinking: “You could always buy a new motor, and end up with a spare when the other if fixed or replaced”. I asked them to immediately find out the cost and approximate shipping time. We had full tours for the next 2 weeks in between the holidays. It’s always the busiest time of the year for us. Perfect!!!!
I got a call an hour later saying that the engine was US $23,000 and could be shipped and landed here within a week only if we air freighted it. Wow! On the one hand, I could be up and running within 10 days, but on the other, I couldn’t afford the expense. So what do I do? If I don’t buy the engine I may have to close down because of not being able to operate for 6 weeks or longer, and if I do buy the engine I won’t be able to pay my regular bills at the end of the month……
I went to the bank and wired the money to Yanmar USA, and the engine was shipped later that day. The stress was pretty hard core, and my Christmas wasn’t as relaxing as everyone else’s. Over the next week we pulled the boat out of the water to do other maintenance and found major eminent problems with the propulsion systems as well. My girlfriend at the time, Chantal, who I had been with before I started the company, was about to go off to college too. I couldn’t spend time with her as I had to be at the boat. It was all too much for me, and I came down with the flu! It was the worst I had in years and when she left, I felt lower than I had done in years. The business was about to fail, I was sick as a dog, customers, their reps, and hotels were all pissed off with me, my girlfriend had gone, it terrible weather………..it all just sucked!
Anyway, Tony, who works for me told me to chill at home, and he would make sure the boat was sorted out. He worked like an ox again down in Jolly Harbour getting the steering and propulsion system all fixed and ready for the new engine to be put in. When the engine finally arrived I was better enough to help them put it in. The next day we were ready to put “Arawak Odyssey” back in the water. Two days later we were back in business and totally broke with all kinds of bills, employees, Harriette and banks to pay. Not to mention Bob. Tony knew what was going on and told me that he had money put away….he told me to pay him when things got better. He is the best! Harriette said the same thing…..always looking after me.
I called a friend in Miami and told him to go and take some photos of my boat being built to see what stage of construction it was in. This was the start of Jan and Bob had originally said it would be done in November. When I saw the pics I knew it still had some months to go, so I told bob that he had to wait for more money as well. By the middle of January it all looked as though things were gonna work out. We were exceptionally busy and the rest of the season looked good too. Bob didn’t finish the boat until May! I knew I would miss the season and I was also pretty tight on cash, so I didn’t get too mad with him. He had been building his house and had do deal with several hurricanes after the boat started being built.
After my terrible trip from Florida in the Eco Tour boat, I knew I didn’t want to bring the boat down again under its own steam, so we hunted for good shipping rates. They didn’t exist! Because the boat’s length overall was 45 feet long it was too long to fit on the 40 foot container “flat rack”. Also, at 10 feet wide it was too wide as well. The shipping companied wanted me to pay for the same shipping rates as four 40 foot containers. The rates were astronomical and we couldn’t afford it.
In late may, my brother Alexander and I set off to pick up the boat. Everyone was worried about our safety (not only because we were going to be out in the ocean, but they were more afraid we would kill each other).
Let’s save the next part of the story for another blog entry…….
The photo above is of the inside of one of bob's boats. You don't normally see that much structure in boats these days.

Part 6 (published November 28, 2006)

Alexander Fuller a.k.a "Ali" has been working for one of the gaming companies here on island for longer than my company has been around, and doesn't get to go out boating as much as he did when we were kids. Back then we were out almost every day either boating or windsurfing. Anyway, the late nights at the office keep him off the water way too much. He was due a holiday in May and decided to come along with me to collect the boat from North Miami Beach. All we had to do was outfit it with all the life jackets and anchors and general safety stuff. Getting bits for the boat in Antigua isn't always easy so we made sure we had everything we needed. The trip was 1350 nautical miles to Antigua and I knew how much open ocean there was going to be too. We got some nice rain jackets too just in case and a few other things. We Antiguans always shop too much when we go to the USA.
I thought about the problems i had in the Dominican Republic on my last trip down from Florida and decided that i would try to make the 350 mile trip from Grand Turk to Puerto Rico skipping the DomRep altogether. I needed more fuel than our tank held so we got 12 5 gallon tanks from Wal-Mart too. Don't u just love Wal-Mart? When buying our GPS (global positioning system) i made sure it was a very good chart plotter and got the chip containing the charts for Florida and the Caribbean. When i go to big boat supply stores i just want one of everything. My mother had urged me to buy a life raft, but i knew that my money was tight and had to decide between the latest EPIRB and the expensive life raft. An EPIRB or Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon sends out a distress signal that allows the beacon to be located by the satellite system and search and rescue aircraft to locate the people, boats and aircraft needing rescue. The one i was looking at was registerable which meant that you send in your info along with your closest family’s contact numbers. When the coast guard first receives the signal they get in touch with your contacts to make sure it’s not a false signal. This also alerts your family of a problem. I had heard too many stories where the end of those stories was "if they had an EPIRB they would be alive today", so i went with the US $1300 EPIRB. After all, if we sank and had the life raft instead of an EPIRB it could be days before anyone knew there was a problem and then where the hell would they start looking. The best option would be to have both, and next time i will.
Ali warned me that this was a holiday for him, and he wanted to 1) Eat well 2) do some fishing and 3) sleep in hotels each night. I knew where all the good fuel ports were from Miami to Antigua and knew that all had hotels and restaurants. I also knew that this boat was way way way faster than the Eco Boat (arawak odyssey), so went over the planned course with Ali who agreed that it looked good. We paid and thanked bob, loaded all the gear into the boat, got 360 gallons of fuel and set off for Chub Key which was gonna be the fist place that we could clear customs and immigration. Just as we were leaving the fuel station, a boat came in and said that they had tried to go out but it was too rough....!!!!! Great! Just GREAT!!!!!!!!
Ali and i had to get back in a week so that he could get back to work, so we were not gonna stay in port unless it truly was bad. Also, if anything was gonna go wrong with the boat, i wanted it to go wrong close to Miami. We left north Miami beach like a bat out of hell going directly into the grey waves. We left much later than we wanted to because the fuel station was having trouble processing my credit card for all that fuel. We were late and I was pushing it pretty hard and the boat was crashing as hard through the Gulf Stream’s nasty waves. Bam Bam Bam Bam CRASH CRASH....after an hour ali said we had to stop for a pee (and cigarette break) and to stretch the sore legs. Bob had told me when i first spoke with him about the boats "you will break your body before you break my boat". I smiled, shook my head and put the three engines back into gear. It got very rough at one stage and we did have to slow down, but we finally arrived into Chub Cay at about 4:50 pm. It had taken us four hours, and as we pulled in the fuel attendant told us that the customs and immigration people had already gone home. The thought of sitting and wasting time in tiny Chub Cay until the next morning when they returned to "clear" us into The Bahamas didn’t sound good to me, so i looked at the charts and decided to make a run for Nassau, New Providence which was another few hours away. We arrived at dark and pulled into a tiny marina on the main stretch on the Nassau side opposite Paradise Island and Atlantis Hotel. Technically we were not allowed to leave the boat until we had cleared customs (as with all countries), but we were tired and Ali had made me promise hotels. Don't tell anyone, but we did check into a nice hotel next door only to return the next morning to clear in and get fuel.
When we were collecting the boat from Bob we met up with Nigel, the owner of Powerboat Adventures on Nassau, who was checking out another boat that was being built. He knew that my engines were brand new and offered me the use of his boat life to do my 10 hour service. He also called his mechanic in Nassau who agreed to do the job for us if we brought the oils and filters. These high tech engines are the most expensive "four stroke" variety which are way more fuel efficient and have way lower emissions than the older models. They need careful maintenance, so we took the boat over to Powerboat Adventures and left it there to get the very important 10 hour break in service done.
Time for a "full english breakfast" which is one of my bro's favorite things in the world.
We got back as the service finished and off we went into the high winds and choppy waters off Nassau. We were on a long run to Long Island passing the beautiful Exumas. It was a long day covering well over 200 miles i think. We were about 20 miles away from the marina and hotel on Long Island when a gear cable came undone. When we stopped for a break out there one of the engines got stuck in neutral. After spending about 45 minutes inside the cramped consol, i figured how to temporarily fix it by jamming it into forward gear and over-riding an electrical control which stopped you from starting it in forward gear. We were on our way again and rushing one more time. Rushing....It is the thing i tell all new boaters to never do. You never should rush when you are out on a boat unless you are in a race. It is dangerous! Anyway, i didn't know the place well and wanted to get in before dark. We finally got in just after sunset and immediately started getting attacked by the most aggressive mosquitoes we had ever seen. Luckily we were met by the hotel mini van who rushed us off to the hotel. We had a lovely shower to wash off 8 hours of salt spray and sunscreen, and headed for the restaurant. We had seen two of the Powerboat Adventures boats in the Marina as well as another fancy powerboat, and remembered hearing Nigel say that his boats were helping a film shoot. At the bar downstairs we saw what it was about......There were actors and crew from the new Disney Pirates Of the Caribbean movie. If you saw the second one then you will remember the scene when they are sword fighting on a beach...., well that was 30 miles from Long Island in the Bahamas. Each day the boats had to transport the crew and actors out to that deserted spot to film. If you see it again check how windy it was!!!!! Windy = Rough!
So the next morning bright and early we set off on a long trip to The Turks and Caicos Islands. We studied the charts that we had and saw that there were several routes. One was shorter and took us outside Long Island into the rough seas which were super rough at that point....too rough. The other zig zagged along Long Island (which didn't get its name by chance) around a few other Bahamian islands and shallow spots. Ahhh yes......shallow spots..hahahahahaha
So we say that the chart said a 6 feet deep sand bank for like 30 miles along our route. We figured we would take this route because it was just too rough outside the island. Anyway, we needed just over 3 feet to be safe and figured that we would not go around the sand bank adding another 15 miles onto our trip. We would go over it.......BIG MISTAKE!!!! DONT RUSH!!!!!
We could see it getting shallower and shallower as the tide dropped, until we finally slowed down and decided to trim up the motors and fish slowly. We only had 2 more miles to go and we would be in deep water on our way to The Turks and Caicos in no time. We started fishing trying to see where it was deepest zig zagging through the very shallow spots on the sand bank. The tide kept dropping and I told Ali to reel the line in as we had more to worry about. I could see nice deep blue water up ahead but there was not a deep enough channel to it. So close and yet so far. We were starting to churn up sand behind the boat too. All of a sudden we were aground. we were only doing about 2 miles per hour so we revved her in reverse and got off, but now where?. We turned off the motors so not to suck up any sand into the intakes and stood up on the front of the boat to see if we could figure out how to get out of this sandy maze. We had to laugh at our situation......the most beautiful colours in the world, great fishing, calm seas clear skies.....but we were in danger. We possibly were stuck for 5 hours until the tides came up. In Antigua we don't have to worry about it because our tided are about 18 inches at a max and even that is in extreme cases. Here it seemed to be 4 feet. Ali jumped over and pushed the front of the boat around to face the 90 degrees off to our right pointing us toward the detour we had opted not to take. If we made it there it could be 12 miles just to get to the blue that was right in front of us on the other side of the sandy shallow spot. The water reached just above his knees. What a joke! We had some nasty white bread, mustard and packed tuna fish. Lunch first, and then we would try for the original detour. Anyway, after lunch we set off in the 3 feet of clear water just above the sand bank and carefully made our way out to what we knew would be a much longer but deeper water trip. After about 10 minutes when it got a little deeper, Ali saw something and told me to look off to our left. There was a 12 inch line on the bottom cutting through the sand and grass going in the direction we wanted to go. Some bigger boat had experienced the same thing but didn't have the luxury of trimming up their motors. They had kept on going cutting a tiny path through the sand bank. We looked at each other and knew that if they had done it then we could too. All we had to do was follow their "dredged" channel very carefully and very slowly. We did and in an hour we were in the deep waters at the bottom (south-east) side of Long Island. Yeee ha! We had a problem now......we were very late and not even half way to Provodinciales. Anyway, we zoomed down past Crooked Island, and then past Acklins Island each time staying on the leeward sides. It was about 5 pm when we got to the end of Acklins Island and i knew we wouldn't make it into The Turks and Caicos until way way after dark. It looked like with the winds and seas that we were now seeing it would be an all night session. Screw that i thought. Let’s get into a safe harbour as close as possible to the Caicos Islands and then set off first thing for "Provo".
Gosh it was rough! Pounding straight into oncoming waves that shook the boat and our bodies, i didn't like it one bit. The sun had now set and we were over 50 miles from Mayaguana Island which would be our last (unscheduled) stop in the Bahamas. The funny thing is that on my first trip down with the Eco Boat, we had also slept in Mayaguana. Both times we arrived at night in the dark into what the charts said was a small harbour protected by a barrier reef. Thank god for the GPS chart plotter. If we didn't have that we would have been just another of the thousands of wrecks across the West Indies. We could hear the waves breaking when we arrived but couldn't see them. We slowly powered into the harbour until it was calm enough and shallow enough to anchor. Xtreme as we were calling her for the trip, has a nice cabin and we had no choice but to try using it for the first time. There would be no proper hotel for Ali tonight, but we slept like babies with the gentle rocking and nice moonlight that reminded us of camping trips we did as kids. Before going to bed, we had more tuna and white bread with mustard sandwiches. YUM!
This journal entry is getting out of hand huh? A bit long.....so i will end it here for the time being. The pic above was taken by ali when we were beating through the waves on our way to Mayaguana. As you can see....it was rough!

Part 7 (Published Nov 29, 2006)

Just like the last time I was in Mayaguana, i powered out of the harbour before the sun came up bound for the island of Provodinciales. Since we had gone a bit North the night before it was a slightly better angle going across to Provo. We could get some good speed up since we were going across the waves instead of pounding into them. Since we had been eating pure crap for the past two days and hadn't had any breakfast we were like wolves. Don't ever mess with my bro when he hasn't eaten.....I could see the wildness in his eyes and i was worried. Worried that the lunch menu in the marina would not be ready at 11 am after we had cleared in with Customs and Immigration.
While we were filling in the forms he kept looking at the restaurant 150 feet away, so when we burst in there at 11, he was ready for action!!!!
We started with conch fritters which are better in the Turks and Caicos than anywhere on the planet. They even have a conch farm there. Then it was the mandatory chicken wings which we always seem to sample when we are at a new place. I don't remember what I had for a main but remember looking in amazement at the Kobe beef burger that Ali had delivered. It was massive and just what he wanted. The look of pure satisfaction was amuzing. I wonder if he even remembers. We were very tired still and decided to take a day off....after all....it was the NBA finals that night. We got a hotel room in the marina, and as Ali settled in for an afternoon of relaxation and sleep, i went back to see if i could properly fix the gear cable. Since it came undone just before Long Island, i hadn't had time to properly fix it, and had been starting the right engine in forward gear. It was permanently stuck in forward. After 2 hours in the tiny cramped space of the consol I managed to fix it properly with the help of some waterproof tape which held a pin in place locking the cable to the shift lever. You know, i didn’t have to mess with it for 6 months. Nothing in the world like waterproof duct tape. I don't even remember who won the basket ball that night, but know that the next day i was well relaxed and ready for the biggest and most dangerous of our entire journey. Turks and Caicos to San Juan. I knew how much fuel we had been burning up until now and calculated that if we topped up one last time on the outer most island, Grand Turk, we would have enough fuel to get us comfortably to San Juan, Puerto Rico. As usual things never work as you expect them to. We cleared out early that morning and made the fairly long run to Grand Turk where we were immediately told that we had to clear in again to get fuel, and customs was a few miles down the road!!! What!!! They got to be kiddin. Anyway after doing all of that we were once again behind schedule and rushing. Don’t rush!!!
We had to do 300 miles and it was 2pm when we left. This meant we would be at sea at night again. It appeared to be calm though which was cool with me. As the sun set we were passing the famous "Silver Banks" and saw many big fishing boats anchored there. They deployed smaller boats to go and do some sort of fishing and they were scattered over the place. All of the big boats had people on them waving us over. They looked like they were in trouble and were waving and waving, but Ali and i knew better. Here we are out in the middle of nowhere with some of the poorest people in the Caribbean calling us over to their boats. Hmm....we knew they were fine, and we were not as safe as they were. We still had 150 miles to do in the dark.....
Just before it got dark we noticed quite a bit of junk floating in the sea. Bits of branches, coconuts, a big piece of wood, plastic crates. It was as if we had come into some kind of current which passes through the Mona Passage (the channel out of the Caribbean Sean between The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I became very concerned upon seeing all this crap in the water because it was another way for boats to sink. I remember reading the awesome book "Adrift" about a guy who drifted for 76 days in a life raft after hitting something while sailing. He never saw what he hit and only had time to deploy the life raft and jump in before his boat sank of the Cape Verde islands near Africa's West Coast. Hmm LIFE RAFT..... We didn't have one, and as it got darker so did our mood. I can just hear my mom urging me to get the life raft. Moms always know best!
I have been told that the other blogs were too long soo i will leave this one here. The photo was taken by me as Ali drove the boat during our trip. Enjoy.

Part 8 (November 30, 2006)

......To make matters worse, the wind had been picking up very slowly as the sun went down, and by the time it went dark i had to slow her down quite a bit. We were slamming down off the waves, and the worst part was that i couldn't see them. When it’s rough during the day i can speed up in between waves and maintain a good average speed. I just keep my hands on the throttles and "work" them, but at night this didn't work. In the end i had to slow her down to 15 knots and even then it was scary. My brother loves to describe that night. He does a better job than i do because most of the time i was driving i was concentrating so hard i didn't have time to absorb the experience. I will try to describe it like he does....here goes:
"It was so rough that we were doing between 12 and 15 knots going directly into the waves. We couldn't see them but they were obviously huge as we would climb up them and then free fall crashing back down into the dark sea".
It was scary....very scary. When it’s dark at sea on a calm night your mind can run all over the place, but when it’s as rough as it was that night you think terrible things. After an hour or two i started to think about how much more fuel we must be burning since at 12-15 knots we were surely not being efficient. We burned less fuel per mile going 25-30 mph, so i began to worry about our range. At this rate of probable fuel burn we may not make it to San Juan. I told ali to take the helm and to slow down while i looked at the chart to see if there was another port closer to us. We were out in the middle of nowhere 1/2 way between Grand Turk and San Juan in a terrible unfriendly angry ocean. Of course cell phones don't work out there and neither would a VHF radio at that range. Nobody to ask for advice, and if anything were to happen to us.....it would just be the EPIRB that would save us. I had packed a "grab bag" which contained a waterproof VHF handheld radio, the EPIRB, four life jackets, a gallon of water, a flare kit, and a hand held GPS. It wasn't much but i kept looking back at it during the night to make sure it hadn't moved from where i left it.
I saw that Mayaguez on the West coast was a bit closer to us than San Juan was. It was also a better angle against the waves for us. Going there would put us back as much as a 1/2 a day possibly but i knew we would get there. Getting safely to San Juan was not looking great. Doubting yourself out there is a terrible feeling, but i am glad i did. We made the wise choice and started heading towards Mayaguez. Just at that moment we started seeing the lightning just off our right side. GREAT! Windy, rough, incredibly wet and cold, and now thunderstorms were coming. It got rougher...........and waves crashed occasionally into the boat.
It was about midnight and i had been driving since early that morning with only a short break in Grand Turk. I was totally exhausted, cold, and stressed out. Ali was not much different, but he had to drive as i was falling asleep standing up. He was cold and miserable but took over without complaining. I lay down behind him with half my body on the cooler and the other half on one of the two person seats. I was shaking with cold and clenching my teeth with stress and the cold. I think i actually may have slept for 30 minutes during the hour or two that i lay there which was plenty. Ali later told me that he would look back every few minutes to make sure i was still there. He said he was terrified he would look back and not see me, and he even said that if that happened he would just have jumped over too. Weird huh, but when you sit there in the darkness cold, wet, scared, tired, and stressed you think about all kinds of things. When a wave broke into the boat practically landing on me.....it was time to get up. Ali was happy to sit back down and hug his knees to try to warm up. We were not in the rain but the lightning was getting closer, and i was worried about how bad it could get. We were now in hurricane season and the weather can change pretty quickly. My mind started to wander. I though about my life up until that point, the places i had been, the things i had seen, the experiences i have had.........I though about my family, girlfriend, and friends. I thought about the young people in my life who died too young. I thought about the things they missed out on. I thought about my high school classmates: Kieth Scotland, Brian Dailey, and Mervin Barns who all died in a terrible car accident during our final semester at school. I thought about my two young aunts who were claimed by cancer. I thought about Inigo Ross who co-founded Wadadli Catamarans. He was lost at sea on a rough day between St. Vincent and St. Lucia. I think about these people often and that night out there I though about them again. What should i do if i make it back alive? What do i need to change in my life? I don't think i prayed, but i did lots of reflection. It was not a good night.....or maybe it was. It made me think about my life and that can be good sometimes i guess.
Anyway, the GPS said we had 40 miles to go and i could see the glow coming from the city of Mayaguez. At night in the Caribbean you can usually see the glow coming from the next island's lights, and finally this was a slight comfort. At this point i started hearing the US Coast Guard speaking to a boat somewhere that was in distress. Fifteen minutes later they made a report about another boat off the North Coast of PR that had made a single distress call. They advised boats too look out for any sign of that boat. Anyway, i kept on going and when we got closer the seas started to drop down. When we were about 8 miles away it started getting calm. At about 3 miles away it got glass calm as we were now in the behind the protection of West coastline. Ali moved to the front of the boat to lay flat on one of the bench seats, and immediately fell asleep. The sky had colour in it now and slowed for a second to take a photo. It was 4:38 am on June 8th according to the digital image i have on my computer and you can see the sunlight and ali sleeping in his wet clothes in the front of the boat. I will put that up at the top when i am done. Finally i cruised into what the GPS said was the harbour. It was still not light enough to see where i was, but i knew it was calm enough and shallow enough to anchor. We would rest a bit and then go look for customs and immigration, and then fuel. My fuel light was flashing and we had less than 60 gallons left in the extra plastic tanks. We may have made it to San Juan, but i am not so sure. It was a good thing we changed course. My dad and Steve Mendes had done this same trip before in similar conditions and had run out of fuel off san Juan. they were towed in luckily.
Anyway, after dropping anchor, i woke up ali to move him into the cabin and fell asleep in my wet and salty clothes.....thank God we were safe!

Part 9 (published December 1st 2006)

We woke up to the sounds of a city with all the car horns and sirens that make up that reality. It was about 8 am and we pulled up the anchor to move over to the main dock. I had found it strange that we hadn't been stopped by the coast guard yet. After all, this was a 45 foot off-shore boat with triple outboards. This was the stereotype for drug boats and I was sure that we would set off all kinds of alarms coming in from out to sea at night. Towards the end in the calm I was doing about 40 knots too!
We got to the dock and still saw nobody. I saw someone official looking speaking with the crew of a ship behind us and went to ask him where I could clear in. He looked at me in amazement and asked me to repeat myself. You see the dock was very high and you couldn't see our boat below the concrete edge. He immediately got on his VHF radio calling several people. He told me to go back to the boat and wait for customs. First came customs in a jeep with three officers and a dog. They may have been called homeland security.....I can't remember. There was another car that pulled up with local police, then another group who came from the ship terminal. We had officers all around the boat wanting to know what we were up to. Ali and I had our passports and boat papers ready but they were not happy with us. Why I don't know because we hadn't done anything wrong. I think they were ashamed that we had come in without anyone knowing. Anyway, they jumped on the boat with their dog and big black boots and started searching. They turned the boat inside out looking for drugs I guess. It was very hot and we were very tired. All we needed was some fuel and a meal. At about 10 am they told me I could now go and clear in with immigration which was in the town 35 minutes walk away. Nice huh? The fuel truck starting filling our tank and when he was done took me to pick up burgers, and even took me to immigration. It’s so nice to meet cool people every now and then when you have been surrounded by mean people. Anyway, at about 12 we pulled out of Mayaguez (FINALLY) ready for a quick trip to San Juan and then on to the BVI. It was pretty calm in the lee of Western Puerto Rico, but then we hit the North-West coast. Oh my God!!!! It was rougher than anything we had seen up until that point. There were waves about 10 to 12 feet high but the thing that made them super bad was the steepness. They were what you describe as short waves with one steep wave followed by another and another and so on. As had been the case most of the way down we had to go straight into them along the Northern Puerto Rican coast trying to get to San Juan. It was awful even though it was sunny and clear. The boat was taking a terrible beating and we got several big waves over the bow. What would happen is that I would get the timing wrong every now and then and the front of the boat would just go right through a steep wave instead of riding over the top. When this happened we would usually get about 300 gallons of water into the boat in an instant. This was never fun and after about 45 minutes of this I decided that the angle was just too bad. If we slowed down we seemed to get more water over the bow and if we went fast enough to avoid this, we ended up pounding the boat too hard after falling off these monsters. I decided to do something that I had never done in all the years of power-boating….I decided to “tack” like a yacht going into the wind at angles towards San Juan. I would go out to sea for 3 or 4 miles and then turn the bow through the waves and head back at a comfortable angle into shore a few miles up the coast. We were probably doing about 15 miles per hour but actually doing about 8 miles per hour towards San Juan. It was very very rough and windy. I think the currents coming out between Puerto Rico and The Dominican Republic were going along the North-East coast of Puerto Rico in a North-Easterly direction, but the wind and waves were going the opposite direction making a dangerous mess of the ocean around us. We slowly got closer to San Juan where I expected the Coast guard, homeland security or some other authority to come out and stop us, but thankfully it never happened. We arrived outside San Juan Harbor sometime around 5 PM and stopped for a pee break and for ali to have a cigarette. We also stopped to try to decide what to do. We had two choices which comprised of chilling in San Juan for the night in a nice hotel or to keep going on to Tortolla where we would surely get in sometime after dark. Ali had to be at work in a few days and after all the stress in Mayaguez, we decided to push on to the beautiful BVI. We knew it well too which made us feel as though we were getting into our own neighborhood. After San Juan, the Puerto Rican Coast seemed to calm down significantly and we were able to point the boat right towards the North-West end of St. Thomas, USVI and cruise at about 25 knots. Before we left behind Puerto Rico we saw massive schools of small tuna thrashing about on the surface. We couldn’t see what they were eating but all the birds in the area had heard about the bounty too and it was a carnival of a feeding frenzy. We wished we had enough time to fish for a bit but we were in that RUSH which had plagued us since the start. After Puerto Rico and before the USVI the waves started getting confused again and we had to slow down a bit after getting some awful crashes off the tops of some steep ones.
It was very dark by the time we got to the USVI and we kept going and faster than most of our trip so far. The USVI and BVI has mostly protected waters and we were able to do about 35 knots going up in between these dark islands on out way to Nanny Cay, Tortolla.
I hoped nothing was floating out there in the channel that would end out trip for us. At that speed hitting a log wouldn’t be cool. Anyway, we pulled into Nanny Cay at about 9 PM and went to get a room straight away. We didn’t need fuel and we only wanted a place to sleep for the night. Like real naughty brothers we didn’t clear customs or immigration before or after our sleep in Tortolla. If you remember what happened the last time I cleared into the BVI you will know why. Before going to sleep we had dinner at Peg Legs and I think we were sleeping on the way back to the room finding it just by luck. As I said, we were outta there before the fuel dock or anyone was open to see a big go fast boat tearing out of Tortolla. We felt like real bandits as we pulled out but I don’t think anyone missed us.
Nobody should go to the British Virgin Islands without making a stop at The Baths in Virgin Gorda, and Ali stressed that we had to stop. It was out last stop before we went on to St. Martin and we took a mooring to have an early morning swim and snorkel. As usual the Baths were beautiful, and we relaxed there for an hour before thinking about moving on. The Baths consists of several beautiful coconut fringed beaches divided by massive smooth grey rocks and the clearest waters you have seen. You can walk/hike through and under the rocks between the beaches and/or swim around them. We did some lovely snorkeling……. swimming down deep alongside the rocks, then we swam through caves in the rocks, checking out all the colourful fish both big and small. We saw a huge barracuda and a pretty big ray as well as large schools of tiny pilchards. It was a lovely peaceful break and we had our fill before going back to the boat. It was the first time we could enjoy a bit of relaxation in days. When we dropped the mooring we had another 100 miles to go directly into the waves towards St. Martin, but something strange had happened. The winds had dropped! Was it possible? Were we going to get lucky with calm seas on the way to St. Martin? It sure looked like it, and we kept the speed at around 28 knots all the way to St. Martin going through what were probably 4 foot waves. Lovely! We had to stop about 10 miles off to add fuel from the plastic containers, but we still managed to pull into St. Martin in time for a late lunch. I wanted to stay there for a day and to clear in properly. We knew the immigration was near the cruise terminal so approached the area slowly to see where we could dock up. As we got closer we saw a guy in a golf cart on the main cruise dock waving us down. We went closer and he said he was from the port authority and that we couldn’t be so close in a boat like ours to the Cruise Ship that was in port. We told him that we were just there to pick up some bits and pieces for the boat and would be leaving later that day or early the next morning. The guy said not to bother clearing in and to just go to Bobby’s Marina and tie up. Crazy I know, but that is St. Martin for you. The Dutch side of St. Martin has no real customs as it’s a free port, and boats usually don’t bother clearing in. It’s not legal but seems to be ignored most of the time, and in this case encouraged by an official. I have friends in St. Martin and we met up for dinner later that night after some shopping on the famous “Front Street” and securing a nice hotel as well. It ended up being a very very late night of intense partying as ali and I celebrated making it this far. Our friend Ricardi was our guide to all the late night spots and as usual was the best host in St. Martin. The next morning was a hard one, and the pounding I had experienced in the boat all the way from Florida was now taking place in my head. “I am never drinking again” I heard myself say to Ali, and with that I heard a crash of lightning outside just to add to the pain. I took a look from the hotel window to see sheets of rain falling. Oh well….we were not in a rush because we had less than 100 miles to get back to home and we could be there anytime before 8 am tomorrow morning. We didn’t feel like powering 100 miles in the rain and lightning either. My Dad who loves to know what we are up to when we are having adventures, and he was extra happy now to be able to reach us on our cell phones. He kept calling with weather updates and assured us that it was gonna clear up. He is an addicted weather junkie. With a break in the weather sometime after lunch we set off on our last ride. It was pretty bumpy but the angle was good and within 4 hours we were closing in on Jolly Harbour…..Ali shouted out “let her run” and I cranked it up to max RPM @ 6100. The Yamaha F225 four strokes seemed to enjoy the last few miles at wide open throttle and just before we slowed at the harbour mouth we were doing 53 mph on the speed-o. Mom and Dad were there to welcome us and gave us extra hugs. I think they knew how bad it had been for us after speaking to us a few days earlier. Although Ali and I were glad to be home in one piece with the boat, we were silently sad that another big adventure was over. As brothers we don't get to do them like we did in the old days. The drizzle that started as we left the boat seemed to make the reality of being back a little more sobering. Ali had a 5-midnigh shift the next day and I had a hell of a lot of Red Tape to sort out. Back to Reality!
The top photo of the Moon Jelly was taken at the baths as well as the one below of Ali in the middle of the pilchards. Enjoy!

Part 10 (published Dec 4, 2006)

After we got back to Antigua, I had to do a dummy run of the Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour that I had envisioned to make sure that it was fun and flowed properly. I also had to get photos and a brochure done quickly. The pic above was done by Roddy while doing a job on Caribbean Helicopters. I didn’t want to use this new boat for the same old Eco Tour type thing and thought that something very very different than was already out there was needed. I had contacted Andrew who is one of the main owners of Stingray City and convinced him that an alliance would be a great idea. He mentioned that several companies had spoken with him about doing combined tours before but none had come through. I think he thought originally that I would be the same, but when I picked he and his wife up that first day he realized I wasn’t just a talker. The first demo tour was great, and everything seemed to be timed perfectly. To this day we haven’t changed a thing, and I still think it’s an excellent tour. We make 5 activity stops during the tour around Antigua. There is no other tour in Antigua that does that. The speed and comfort of the boat allows us to make this many stops without ever feeling rushed. I keep thinking about doing another tour, but I still haven’t come up with something nearly as good. Maybe in the spring we will do something new. I dunno…
Nothing dramatically different has happened for Adventure Antigua since we got Xtreme and we are now in our second busy season. I guess I could say that one of the interesting changes that happened last February was that I started taking more time off from driving the boats. I broke my knee very badly three years ago and since then I have had three operations. The last one I had at the end of Feb was just “damage control” according to my doc. My Doc, Mr. Justin Cobb, is one of the world’s leading orthopedic surgeons and happens to be a family friend. After smashing up the bones in my knee joint, I then tore up the cartilage. He says the knee “is not good” and finally advised me to lay off driving the boat. There is quite a bit of bone on bone “rubbing” in the knee which is made worse by driving the boat while standing up. I find it very difficult to drive without standing. My life has changed dramatically since all these knee problems…..I was a very active windsurfer and then kitesurfer, and now I can’t even ride a bike. It has given me more time to spend on my business which on one hand has been good, but I sometimes feel trapped in this “broken body”. Not having the active physical release is hard and it has taken its toll. I did take a month totally off the boat back in March and since then have worked on and off. There is no doubt that my knee is much less painful when I am not on the boat, but life without boating too wouldn’t be worth it. Its hard enough not being able to windsurf/kitesurf. Who knows maybe I will get the total knee replacement sooner and you will see me out windsurfing again. For now, I will keep working on the Xtreme boat most days.
The History of AA saga is now up to date (december 2006) and I will just give you the history as it happens. I am not sure where this blog is going to go, or what I am gonna ramble on about, but I will try to make it interesting in some way. If not I will still have some cool Antigua photos for ya. I hope you Enjoy.

Why not write a review?

2012-03-11T07:39:00.001-04:00

After a snorkeling tour it's fairly easy to write a review about your recent Adventure Antigua Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour, Eco Tour or Classic Yacht Trip. These reviews help the Team out and we appreciate the time you take to do them. Thanks!

Review Adventure Antigua

www.adventureantigua.com

A wonderful slideshow of over 600 Adventure Antigua images.

2012-03-10T10:35:00.001-04:00

We are working on building a new website and will be including many of these photos fom out tours and private charters. As you can see, there are many images of sailing, snorkeling, power boating, beaching and relaxing in this beautiful place in the caribbean, we call home. There are over 600 images here which will take some time to view, so make some tea, sit back and relax. Tell me if you think that some of these need to be cut from our soon to arrive Adventure Antigua website.

Whale and dolphin watching in Antigua and Barbuda becomes more organized.

2012-03-09T09:51:00.003-04:00

In October last year I was invited to attend a special whale watching conference in Panama. Unfortunately, some faction within our Government decided that the funding available from the conference shouldn't be used to send me. Anyway, another NGO provided funds for me to go. At the last moment, our little one decided he was not happy where he was and started trying to enter the world early. My wife was due to have our baby in November, but baby didn't want to wait. New plans had to be organized and I decided to buy a ticket for Adventure Antigua's best eco guide, Nicola Nash.
Nicola was happy to jump on a plane last minute and in no time was representing Antigua and Barbuda at this very important marine mammal conference.

She gathered so much info and made great contacts with other organizations from around the Caribbean and further. Together with the Antigua Conservation Society and The Environmental Awareness Group, Adventure Antigua has come up with a list of guidlines for people and tour operators here in Antigua that many come into contact with Dolphins and Whales.
(If you want to download a larger version click here)

We will be on the radio today from 11am speaking about whale and dolphin watching as well as other aspects of this interesting topic. To hear us speaking on 91.1 fm click this link. from 11 am Antigua time today.

Wish us luck and call in if you can.

www.adventureantigua.com

A fun blog post from Sugar Ridge Resort.

2012-03-08T09:41:00.000-04:00

I usually don't re-blog other people's posts but this one is a great blog post from Sugar Ridge and is speaks (just a bit) about Adventure Antigua's Xtreme Circumnav tour and some of our team mates. Stephanie Mack is a great Antiguan web publisher and I bump into her all over the new media highway. Sugar Ridge is lucky to have her writing for them. I didn't ask her permission to post this, but it is in the public domain so here goes:

What Goes Down, Must Come Up

March 6, 2012 |

You know how it always seems that no matter where you’ve gone, the return trip – though equal in distance – feels shorter? Some say this “return trip effect” is the result of “familiarity” while others say it is a mismatch of expectations, meaning that in the beginning, we are so optimistic about getting somewhere, that the initial journey seems disappointingly long. Regardless of what they say, we can assure you: when it comes to the Rendezvous trail, the “why” does not matter as the “effect” Does. Not. Apply. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
The story starts with us returning to Wallings Dam, this time to explore the Rendezvous trail. It started out well: flat in the beginning so that we were able to catch our breath after the trek up from Wallings, and then gradually rising and falling at regular (and comfortable) intervals so that we were getting a good workout without overexertion. Having never been to Rendezvous, we were feeling especially good: not only were we getting our exercise in for the week day, we were going to explore a new beach for the first time! I even dared to suggest that we had discovered the perfect hiking trail.

And then the trail started to slope…and slope..and slope some more, until forty minutes into the hike, we came to this point.

You can’t see the sliver of sand in this photo, but that little whitecap wave in the bay beyond the valley? That’s Rendezvous Bay – our destination. And that long, green stretch of hills and valleys in between? That is an area of Antigua some of us are content to never experience again. From this point on, the Rendezvous Trail becomes a very steep downhill trek, and our thoughts are consumed by the fact that when it comes to hiking: what goes down, must come up.
Despite this, we forged on, refusing to let our mission to “experience Antigua” be defeated by one ridiculously ambitious hike. Pushing thoughts of the return trek out of our minds, we instead focused on the sounds (was it the ocean or wind we were hearing?) and sights, which included “Alice in Wonderland-like” intertwined archways and soft grass that was an unusually bright, mint green color.

At the end of this pathway, the trail becomes a flat, dirt road which had us thinking we had made a wrong turn. We wandered around for a bit, eventually jumping over a chain that we at first thought was designed to keep us out. We walked in silence for a few minutes, wondering if we were on the right path, (and if not, who was to blame!) until finally we saw something: a faint blue color just beyond the trees. Was it just the sky again? A mirage? We glanced at each other in anticipation, and quickened our pace until it was clear that we had reached our destination.

And then we saw the jeep. Apparently you can now drive in to Rendezvous (we had always heard it was only accessible by boat, hike or horseback) and while the hike down was nice, we’re not going to lie: thoughts of the hike back up had us contemplating whether or not we should ask the owners for a ride out. In the end we decided
our car was at Wallings
we couldn’t quit halfway, so we simply said hello, and then spent the next hour exploring the beautiful Rendezvous Bay, an adjacent stretch of pink sand, and another small beach just beyond.

Within a few minutes of our arrival, our friends at Adventure Antigua showed up. They were kind enough to share some much needed passion fruit juice so we’d like to say thanks to JD and Natalie; that sugar helped us on our hike back up! (Note: one water bottle is not enough!)

The guests off the boat were amazed that we had hiked in, asking how long it took (an hour and a half) and how long we thought it would take us to get back up. We looked at the hill, looked at each other and said a silent prayer before confidently answering: about an hour and a half.

We were close; it took us about an hour and 55 minutes…but it felt like three and on at least two occasions, I had visions of my heart exploding. But you’re probably in better shape than I am, so if you’re accustomed to hiking and think you’d enjoy an hour-long vertical ascent, then we recommend this hike as a great adventure/beach day. Just pack plenty of water and energy bars. Or you could also just visit Rendezvous Bay with Eli’s Adventure Antigua. It was a nice day and all, but when we come back, it’ll definitely be with these guys!

Another amazing video out of Antigua

2012-03-06T14:50:00.000-04:00

Acquafilms, the local film company run by my great friend Roddy Grimes-Graeme and his partner Iain, did the Adventure Antigua videos and has just released another fantastic video. This one is of the recent Super Yacht Regatta. All of the yachts have to be over 100 feet and many in this years regatta were considerably larger than that. With some great shots from taken from the helicopter, this video does a great job of promoting the regatta and Antigua. Well done to Roddy and Iain. Aquafilms gets better and better.
Antigua Superyacht Challenge 2012 from acquafilms on Vimeo.

Great Review of our Xtreme tour

2012-03-01T04:51:00.001-04:00

From: Vicki [#%$$€$))$#@kc.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 12:11 PM To: Adventure Antigua Subject: Wonderful Excursion Hello Adventure Antigua.....What a wonderful excursion we had on Mon., Feb. 20 with Ross, Treavor (sp. ?), and Jordain (sp. ?). What a sweetie Ross is and so knowledgeable for such a young age. All the guys were polite, helpful, and pleasant. Please relay how pleased we were with them - I was the fat blonde in the blue swimsuit sitting at the very front. What A Ride!!! I was surprised and shocked when Ross mentioned he got motion sickness yet here he was driving the boat. The lunch was awesome and a refreshing change from the ship food. I was leery from what I had researched for Sting Ray City as I had done this before but in the Cayman Islands. It was so much better than what I was expecting and was nice to be the only excursion group there at the time. I hope I can find my receipt for the pics that were taken. What a beautiful island with beautiful beaches and would love to come and visit sometime. Thanks Again! vicki nunemaker

a few photos to warm you up

2012-02-28T09:03:00.004-04:00

Quite often I get asked for photos of Antigua by those who are suffering in the middle of cold winters. Thankfully winter is well on it's way and soon spring will be showing signs of it's arrival. There are still many cold days to come though and I figure you could use a nice warm image to help you plan your next holiday to Antigua. Here is one of the Eco Tour guides out doing what they do best....snorkeling:

Snorkeling is a big part of all of our Adventure Antigua tours and we give special attention to those people who have never tried it before. Lessons are done on the beach and on the boat. We almost never have people who can't enjoy a little snorkeling. Another thing people love to do here is spend time on the beach of course. The closest beach to where I live is Jabbawock Beach and it's where I started a kitesurfing school with some friends. One of my oldest friends and long time Adventure Antigua team member is Ty Brodie.

Originally from Antigua, Ty works in New York City at the moment and manages to come and visit quite often. When he's here you will see him giving kitesurfing (kite boarding) lessons on the beach. This was a photo of him posing while he was taking a short stop on the beach in between a nice light wind session. Also joining me on the beach that day were my son Skye and my wife Mykl.

He enjoyed having a swim too! Anyway, I hope these recent photos help ease the effects of the cold and grey that is typical of so many wintery days and nights. See you soon here in the Caribbean! www.adventureantigua.com

A sailing trip on your Antiguan Holiday in the Caribbean?

2012-02-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

This lovely little video was done by one of our recent guests. On this day I had two of the Adventure Antigua Captains running the boat. JD was the captain on this Classic Yacht Tour and Noel was First Mate.

www.sailing-antigua.com

www.adventureantigua.com

“A Great Day in Antigua”

2012-02-24T08:46:00.000-04:00

This is our latest review on tripadvisor
and we are all liking this one. Thanks!!!

Ernie M

Cleveland, Ohio

Reviewer

5 reviews

4 helpful votes

“A Great Day in Antigua”

Reviewed February 21, 2012 NEW

We took the Eco-Tour as an independent tour during our cruise on Serenade Of The Seas. Booking online was easy and you get a discount for doing so. We met at the pre-arranged pick-up spot very near the cruise dock , about a five minute walk, at 9AM. We met Captain JD and his crew Nichola and Natalie who would be our guides for the day. After 2 quick stops to pickup passengers from resorts along the way we headed to the North Sound area of Antigua. We had a stop near Long Island where Nickie told us about the island and the on going turtle project there, then we cruised through the mangroves looking for and seeing a turtle and some starfish. Next up was the highlight of the tour , a stop at Hell's Gate. This is a coral formation that only the Eco-Tour goes to. There we were given choices of going over to Hell's Gate and climbing through the cave and up to the top, just sitting in the natural jacuzzi, snorkeling/swimming in the area, or just hanging out onboard. A very good lunch was served with BBQ chicken, pasta and green salads,plantains and a choice of drinks, water, soda, and fruit juices. After lunch it was off to Bird Island for a little hike up to the top, or a swim at the beach. Last up for the day's activities was the longer snorkel at a nearby reef. At this time of year the North Swells can make snorkeling a challenge , so Natalie took the less experienced and kept them nearer to the boat while Nickie took the more experienced out farther. You could see where the coral is starting to recover from the bad storms over the years and reef fish are becoming more plentiful. It was then time to head back to the dock and the Rum Punch and Banana Bread was served on the ride back.
To address some issues brought up in other reviews - We never felt crowded and everyone had a place to sit if they wanted. This is not a "Booze Cruise" or a snorkeling only excursion so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. This is one of the most unique tours offered on any of the islands that we have cruised to and we look forward to going on the other excursions offered by Adventure Antigua when we return to Antigua.

Adventure Antigua - Eli Fuller's Office on the Caribbean Sea by Tim Cotroneo

2012-02-21T18:58:00.000-04:00

Eli Fuller’s office isn’t like yours and mine. One day his workplace is a 32-foot speed boat. Another day it’s a 52-foot catamaran. This 40-year-old native of Antigua conducts business and meets clients on the Caribbean Sea.

Eli Fuller captains his Xtreme speedboat while touring passengers along Antigua’s coastline.

Fuller discovered early on that being indoors wasn’t for him. After graduating from college at Florida Institute of Technology, Fuller tacked a variety of jobs that kept
reminding him what he didn’t want to do. Over the course of a post-college decade working in restaurants and hotels, Fuller kept his sanity and competitive outdoor juices flowing while competing as a world-class wind surfer.
In 1999, Fuller coordinated an agreement with Antigua’s Sunsail Colonna Club to take hotel guests snorkeling on his rustic 21-foot boat. About the same time, Fuller bonded with a friend who was developing a web design business. The moons were starting to align for Fuller as he began combining his twin passions of a life at sea, and anything to do with the Internet.

Fuller and his crew prepare to leave for a six-hour excursion from St. John’s Harbour.

Water and Web

Fuller immediately crafted a website called www.adventureantigua.com and absorbed whatever his friend would share on search engine optimization, link building, and Internet marketing. Fuller’s water adventure business inched forward as he kept his eyes opened, looking for a bigger boat.
Around 2000, “an English lady” suggested that she and Fuller attempt a 50-50 business split, with Fuller operating her 34-foot Wellcraft Super Sport based out of Antigua’s Jolly Harbour. Luckily, this new business arrangement coincided with the demand for boat excursions increasing on the island. The partnership remained fluid for about a year until Fuller eventually purchased the boat outright.
In those early years, Fuller “worked like a dog” to keep his excursion business at full capacity. Fuller felt he was developing a competitive edge, in part, because of a growing response to his content rich website. As much as Fuller enjoyed managing a one boat business, he began scouting for another, even bigger boat, to meet the demand stirred by some of the larger hotels on the island. Financing for this potential purchase would arise from an unlikely source.
“I was telling an English gentleman on one of my excursions that I was considering the purchase of a 52-foot catamaran. After knowing me for just a few hours, he very casually offered to lend me $195,000,” Fuller said.

Adventure Antigua has operated as an excursion business since 1999.

Only as Good as Your Team

As important as his boats are, Fuller noted that a boating business is only as good as the people who work for you. Eli’s Mom and sister handle the administrative side of his company, while many of his crew members are people he has known since childhood. The common denominator for all of Fuller’s Adventure Antigua hires is that each individual has a passion for sailing or an overall love of being on the water.
As for dealing with customers, Adventure Antigua is committed to keeping it real. “I believe in treating people like a best friend visiting here on a special holiday. People can
tell when you’re being corny or scripted. My goal is for Adventure Antigua to make a connection with our customers. We believe our tours offer tremendous value. That’s how you develop a good word of mouth and referral business,” Fuller said.

Eli Fuller’s business goal is to make each excursion a memorable experience for his passengers.

Instant Feedback

Value is also about giving customers more than what they bargained for. During the course of a six-hour Xtreme tour, customers snorkel twice, view dozens of dreamy oceanfront hotels, have lunch on a pristine beach, see the mega-yachts at Falmouth Harbour, swim with stingrays, and catch glimpses of celebrity homes like those belonging to Eric Clapton and Georgio Armani. Throughout a day skittering along the Caribbean’s turquoise water, Fuller regales guests with stories of Antigua history, geography, and shipwrecks.
Being an entrepreneur in an era where you are only as good as your last customer is something not lost on Fuller. “With today’s Internet, gone are the days when you can get by running a mediocre business. With Trip Advisor, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, we receive instant feedback over the web regarding our tours. If a customer has had anything other than an exceptional experience, you hear about it,” Fuller said. Early on, Fuller snared “Antigua” as his Twitter handle, and he stays connected with followers on a daily basis.
When one’s office is on the Caribbean Sea, it’s important to anticipate the next big wave. Whether he’s navigating passengers along Antigua’s coastline or researching the latest in Internet technology, Eli Fuller is one happy entrepreneur, as long as he’s not too far from the water.

Tim Cotroneo is a freelance writer from Lino Lakes, MN, with a passion for travel and a future Caribbean zip code. www.timcotroneo.com

The Adventure Antigua Team

2012-02-18T11:29:00.001-04:00

Adventure Antigua has needed an updated crew blog for some time. Many of the old team have moved on to bigger and better things with skills they gleaned with our team and today we are proud to have another excellent fresh team who have been getting nothing but excellent, rave reviews on Tripadvisor and other online sites.

I am still here of course and in case you are new to Adventure Antigua, I (eli fuller) started this company using a small open, locally built boat back in 1999. I took a max of four people a day out on a tour i called "the eco tour". The tour is carefully designed to replicate adventures that I got up to with my siblings and cousins in the North Sound of Antigua. That's me on the far left sometime back in the very early 80s.

Also shown in the image above and in a better one below is Nell Fuller, my sister, and the person who maintains a link between the hotels and our company. Nell has been with Adventure Antigua for years and years and know the internal mechanics of it better than anyone. It's not always easy getting info about our tours to the guests that visit Antigua and Nell's job is a very challenging one indeed. She also takes most of our bookings that come in over the phone. She answers the phone 24 hours a day!

Also involved in working with the hotels but more involved with working with guests before they actually get to Antigua is Julia Fuller, my sister in law. Julia answers most of the hundreds of emails we get each week and spends quite a bit of time behind the computer as you can imagine. It's been a while since I have seen her on the boat actually (makes note). Here you see her with her son and my nephew, Alexander Jr., a third generation North Sound Fuller kid.

Also not getting on the boats nearly enough is the person who really keeps the business glued together. My mom, Jill Fuller, runs the office side of things. Thank goodness because I am not nearly as good as she is at keeping track of everything that is going on behind the scenes. She is one of those people who finds a few more hours in each day and when she's not working for us she manages to find time to do councelling. Read more about that part of her career here. She also finds time to be an artist too!! See some of her work here.

Another family member who is part of the team is Ross Bloomfield, my (slightly) younger cousin. Ross was born in Antigua and grew up on Dutchmans Bay like the rest of us had done and spent his time as a youngster exploring all the islands and reefs of the North Sound. Like most of my team, he is more at home on the beach and in the sea and on land. He spent quite a bit of time in the UK going to school and then came back a few years ago with a Yacht Masters under his belt. He is a great captain and a natural guide showing people his beautiful home out on the water.

Another skipper on the team is Captain JD Hall. JD is a veteran Adventure Antigua hero like Ross spends most of his free time out on the water. I mean, you know you are in the right type of work when you go boating on your day off and that is what you do when you work! His family has a long tradition of going to sea here in Antigua and I don't think there has been a fishing tournament at any time over the past 40 years when one of the Halls wasn't taking home a trophy. They all learn about boating as kids and JD is probably one of the best at it. He's comfortable at the helm of either a powerboat or a sailing vessel.

Another Adventure Antigua veteran and one of my oldest friends is Trevor Erskine. Trevor and I spent quite a bit of time racing against each other during windsurfing competitions both here in Antigua and internationally. Trevor is another person who is at home on the water. That being said, you will also see him on land wherever there is a good cricket match going on. Until recently he spent most summers in the UK playing county cricket. On the pitch he's an all rounder scoring sixes and fours with ease and then later will be smashing wickets with fierce bowling. He now plays with the Stingray City gang for Seatons here in Antigua.
He has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years and is the perfect tour guide while you are visiting Antigua. We are lucky to have him with us in our team because just like when he's playing cricket, Trevor is an all rounder on the tours as well.

Nicola Nash joined the team a few years ago and we are so lucky that she did. Nicola is our main Eco and marine biology aficionado. She has represented Adventure Antigua at a recent Whale Watching conference in Panama, sits on the Environmental Awareness Group as a board member, spends heaps of time volunteering at night for the Turtle Project here in Antigua, and is always there to help when there are any eco type things going on. She loves nothing more than snorkeling and being in the water though. Her favorite thing in the world is the octopus, but she's passionate about all the other marine and terrestrial animals. She is our main Eco Tour guide and is perfect for the job as you can imagine. Originally from the USA, she lives full time here on island now.

The other lady team member working on the boats full time is Natalie Fuchs. Natalie also grew up spending most of her time in the North Sound. I remember seeing her take some of her first steps on the beach where I grew up. Dutchmans Bay was where her Dad and I windsurfed most days and Natalie was often there with her brother and her mom. She is an extremely talented and artistic makeup artist and cosmetologist but after quite a bit of perseverance we managed to get her to join the team. She is a natural tour guide on our tours because like JD, Ross and I, she grew up doing this. Showing people the beautiful aspects of our off shore islands, secluded bays and interesting reefs is something that she has done all of her life and you can see her passion when you are on the tour. This kind of "work" is fun for her!

Jourdain Smith also joined the Adventure Antigua team recently and has shown to be very dedicated. Jourdain was working with the luxury Galley Bay Resort but wanted to be on the water more. He would see us passing the hotel each day and after getting powerboat course under his belt he approached us about being part of our group. We were happy to have him and like the rest of our team, Jourdain can be found on the water when he's having a day off. He owns a small powerboat which he goes fishing and snorkeling from whenever he gets time off work.

Noel Dubery is the newest member of the team. I first met him when I was general manager of the sports center in Jolly Harbour way back in 1998. He was a 15 year old kid who spent all his free time on the beach or out boating. When he was 17 he got a good job working as first mate with one of the premier private charter boat companies. It didn't take long before he was skippering and within a short time he was traveling with the owner to work with their day charter operation in Italy during the summers. Within no time he learned fluent Italian. After a few years he went on to work with the St. James club and ran many of their boats but the was the main skipper for Suzie Q, their sport fishing boat. Deep sea fishing is Noel's favorite thing to do and he is an excellent fisherman and boat skipper. Recently the St. James Club decided to get out of sport fishing charters and Noel parted with them to do some marine mechanic courses. We convinced him to come and be part of our organization and Noel is currently working in various positions within our company. He is as comfortable driving the boat as he is snorkeling or guiding. He is a great all rounder and we are delighted to have him with the company.

Itano Bachelor is working part time with us at the moment as he has started a little company of his own. I first met him when he worked at Sunsail's resort on the island here. He is a sailing lover and is an excellent tour guide. He worked full time with us for a few years and is now a great person to call on when we need an extra hand.

Of course there are many others who help to make it possible for us to provide what we feel are the best tours on offer here in Antigua. Thanks to you all!

www.adventureantigua.com

Great reviews of our Adventure Antigua Eco Tour and Xtreme Circumnav trips

2012-02-17T15:41:00.001-04:00

We have had some great reviews come in recently on Tripadvisor. Thanks to those of you who took time . Check them out here:

jevotm

Baltimore, Maryland

Reviewer

4 reviews

“Best tour I have ever done.”

Reviewed February 15, 2012 NEW

If you want local knowledge, great photo ops, a little adventure, a great boat ride, and great Caribbean food, all while being surrounded by absolute beauty than do this tour. The staff is fantastic, the gear is in great shape and everything about this tour is first class. In over 20 years of cruising this is the only tour my wife and I have done twice. Thanks Eli and Natalie!

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

Nancy E

Chicago, Illinois

2 reviews

“What a great day!”

Reviewed February 13, 2012 NEW

Spent the day with Eli Fuller on his Extreme tour of Antigua. Swam with the stingrays, snorkeled, explored a bunch of different beaches, saw Nelson's Boatyard, etc. And had a blast bouncing on the waves on the Atlantic side of the island. Everyone in our group, ages 14 - 60, had a great day! This is a fabulous tour!

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.

timbuck2

Minneapolis

Contributor

20 reviews

72 helpful votes

“Everything You Could Hope For”

Reviewed February 12, 2012 NEW

If you want a tremendous way to experience Antigua on the water, look no further than Adventure Antigua. Last week my wife and I had the pleasure of joining Eli Fuller and his crew on his Xtreme Tour. During our 6 hour tour -we snorkeled twice and stopped at two deserted beaches. The first beach (Green Island) was right out of romance novel. On one side were kite surfers who provided great photo opportunities. On the other side we had a wonderful lunch on the beach. The second beach was later in the afternoon. Again, very isolated and very picturesque. The highlight was finding some cows that mystically appeared on one end. On the other end were a couple of topless bathers that I appreciated, but my wife not so much. :) We cruised into Falmouth Harbour and checked out the luxury mega-yachts. We also spent time in Sting Ray City. We viewed the homes of Eric Clapton and Georgio Armani. Eli and his crew really know the history, the geography, and the secret niches of the island. This trip is an excellent value. We had the pleasure of enjoying out trip with a group from Montana who were aboard one of the cruise ships. They were a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. We were fortunate that the water was a special shade of blue on the day of our trip. Thank you.

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hidee97

Reviewer

3 reviews

5 helpful votes

“Fabulous Adventure Antigua Eco Tour”

Reviewed February 11, 2012 NEW

person found this review helpful

Reservation made via the Verandah Resort. Picked up by taxi with four other guests for the drive to the North Coast, where the boat picked us up at the beach next to the Sandal's resort. Seeing two enormous catamarans coming to the beach at the same time was impressive. We had to wade through the water to climb on board. The crew was enormously helpful taking shoes and bags, and in general helping people up the ladders. The group was small, 17 people total, and we could freely move around. The trip was quite interesting with lots of info about the turtle project on Long Island (and no, Oprah does not own a house there), the mangroves, the Sahara dust hanging over the main island. I would highly recommend Eli's website with tons of information and links! The brown pelicans on Great Bird Island, the quick hike uphill, the snorkeling, Hell's Gate, more snorkeling and the most fabulous BBQ chicken I ever had. You have a great neighbor, Eli, if she still makes the chicken. And great t-shirts - love the logo! The only down point was that we had to wait 20 minutes in the blazing sun for our taxi to take us back to the Verandah. And I also would suggest to have maps on board. So many offshore islands. I had to go to Google Earth to try to retrace our steps, which was fun too. Thanks Nikki, Noel and captain. Great trip!

http://www.adventureantigua.com/links.htm

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Zinkmom

1 review

“We loved our trip around the island on the Xtreme!”

Reviewed February 8, 2012

We took the Circumnavigation tour on January 10, 2012. Ross was our captain and Trevor and Natalie were our crew. They were very accommodating and so knowledgable about their beautiful island. Our day was perfect, weather was great even with a small rain shower, lunch was delicious on Green Island, snorkeling at the Pillars of Hercules was fantastic! Really, we can't say enough! We hope to bring our family back to Antigua someday and we will absolutely be taking another tour with Adventure Antigua! We are thinking Eco-Tour next time! Thank you for a memorable day!

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www.adventureantigua.com

The yachties have discovered The North Sound in Antigua

2012-02-15T21:25:00.002-04:00

My Grandfather arrived in Antigua in the 1940s and set up The Lord Nelson Beach Hotel on Dutchmans Bay in 1950. The North Sound is where he and my grandma raised their 7 children. Then there were grandchildren and now many great-grand kids. The North Sound is where we all grew up and the dozens of little islands and thousands of reefs and coral heads which have scared mariners for hundreds of years were our fun filled playground. Of course The Eco Tour is modeled after adventures that my cousins and I got up to as kids and that tour was and still is the backbone of Adventure Antigua.
For so long charts had red navigational warnings printed on them for this area and most yachts steered clear of the beautiful bays and secluded anchorages, but things are changing.
More and more "stink pots" (mega yacht powerboats) as they are nicknamed are mooring off Long Island's Jumby Bay and I have also seen considerably more cruising yachts anchored up in the lee of Great Bird Island. I'm also seeing way more large luxury sailing yachts and this week I saw the lovely sight of a massive one sailing up into the North Sound right up around Maiden Island and tacking toward the South East side of Long. She was the beautiful yacht Salperton. Seen above, Salperton is the biggest sailing vessel I have ever seen cruising along within the North Sound. It was a fantastic sight and something that I am sure others were impressed with.
EDIT
I wrote the above earlier today and had to go to the Verandah Resort and the St. James Club. On the way back I saw a huge StinkPot cruising right through the middle of Kettle Bottom Shoal. I couldn't believe my eyes. This section of coastline is what keeps atlantic waves from coming into the bottom end of The North Sound, and it's very difficult to navigate through. We always use other deeper chanels to come into the North Sound. I was surprised to see it and as it happens I bumped into my Uncle Nick, owner of North Coast Salvage. He was equally surprised and we spoke about seeing Salperton earlier in the week.
The first big boat I had seen up there in the North Sound was the Maltese Falcon back in Jan of 2007. Seen here it was the biggest yacht I had seen in the North Sound.

A night shot from the same place just below Jumby Bay.

Few followed her until now and it seems as though the flood gates have opened when it comes to mega and super yachts. I guess those that make it up here are surprised at how pretty this side of Antigua is. They are surprised i guess because they have all been coming here for years and staying clear of this amazing spot only to visit Green Island on the East side of the island and Five Islands harbour on the West coast. I expect that within a few years the North Sound will be as busy or even busier than the traditionally favored anchorages. It won't happen without a few boats running into trouble. This area will always be difficult for mariners and even the best skippers with the most sophisticated electronics will make mistakes up here. "Grief on the Reef" happens from time to time and my uncle Nick will be waiting to pull them off in the event that one of these big yachts runs aground.

www.adventureantigua.com

A lovely Review on Tripadvisor about our Eco Tour

2012-02-13T07:39:00.002-04:00

“Fabulous Adventure Antigua Eco Tour”

Reviewed February 11, 2012NEW

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