Antigua Boating Excursion
Scott and I arrived in Saint John’s, Antigua on Friday January 15, 2016, for a 10 day stay. This was our 3rd visit to the island and was one of the best vacations we have ever had. The following day, we found out that the weather earlier in the week was rainy and cloudy, but we had nothing but sunshine our entire stay. We stayed at Sandals Resort and the first few days, we simply relaxed by the pool and went sailing on the Hobie Cat.
Then on Monday, we had our first boating excursion with Antigua Adventures on their “Adventure Xtreme Antigua” boat, which went around the entire island. This took us from the Caribbean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and back to the Caribbean. It had three 250 hp Yamaha engines on it, so it was fast! We stopped many times for different activities. This was one of our favorite trips we’ve taken and the crew Sean, Trevis and David were fantastic!
We started at the north end of the island at Dickenson’s Bay and stopped at Long Island for a quick history lesson. There are a number of small islands between reefs that line the northern eastern part of the island.
First stop was Hell’s Gate (more on that for our next excursion).
Then we stopped at Sting Ray city, which is southwest from Hells Gate.
We were not in the waist high section, but almost neck deep (for those of us only 5′ 3″). Figures our GoPro HERO5 Camera had a dead battery and we didn’t know it, since it’s new to us. The key was to shuffle your feet in the sand, so they knew you were present. They would then swim past you touching your legs. I admit, it was a bit weird and creepy, yet cool. Friends we met, Tony & Nicole took a bunch of photos with their Go Pro, so once they send us some, we’ll post some photos. Instead, this is what I took from the boat.
Then the folks at Sting Ray City also took photos of each of the guests holding a sting ray.
From here we traveled to a small island and had a wonderful lunch with great views of some catamarans anchored in the bay.
This cat had a cute german shepherd on board, but I couldn’t get it in the photo
After lunch to traveled south to Nelson’s Dockyard, located on the south end of the island in English Harbor. First we passed by Eric Clapton’s home, situated up on the cliff’s of the island. I will tell you that the swells were very large as we turned the south east corner of the island. Luckily our boat was fast, but it certainly went up and down, getting through them.
(The following land based photos were taken on our land tour with our guide a few days later).