Great Bird Island — Eco-Tour and Snorkeling in Antigua

Monday — December 7

We had a very pleasant dinner on the veranda a bit earlier — I’m really going to miss dining al fresco when we begin return final leg of the cruise to Baltimore and the nights grow chilly once again.

The ship’s daily bulletin promised a “stunningly visual and intensely daring acrobatic performance” tonight, so Mui’s gone to check out “Duo Velikovi” in the Celebrity Theater. No need to ask my whereabouts, of course. I’m getting my nightly veranda fix as I write about our day in Antigua, one of the two islands that makes up the nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

As you can tell from the name of the island, we didn’t visit a “saint” today. No worries; we’re only about 91 nautical miles (~105 miles/169 km) from the one we’ll be visiting tomorrow.

This Google Earth map shows where we docked in St John’s and where we played at Great Bird Island.

Our day started with a beautiful sunrise that made the clouds look like they were on fire. We grabbed some food from the Palm Springs Café and settled on the veranda for breakfast. We were still enjoying our morning meal when the colorful houses that dot the Antiguan coastline came into view. A couple of raindrops fell while we were watching the passing scenery, but there wasn’t enough liquid sunshine to warrant going inside. An added bonus from the brief shower (if you can call it that) — a complete rainbow that spanned the entrance to the harbor. I’m afraid we didn’t find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but this time I had my camera handy!

From a beautiful sunrise to a colorful rainbow.

Our first visit to Antigua was on Celebrity’s Infinity in 2002. Back then, we wandered around St John’s and did an off-road jeep safari that concluded at one of the 365 beaches the island lays claim to. I suppose we could have just gone to another one of those beaches today, but instead we went on an eco-tour with snorkeling as a bonus.

We disembarked Mercury around 8:45a and used the spare hour before we had to meet our tour operator to photograph Mercury and our companion from yesterday — Ocean Village — which had docked right on our heels. By the time we found our way to a perfect vantage point, a third ship was pulling in — Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas.

Left to Right: Mercury, Explorer of the Seas, and Ocean Village.

The slight breeze that was keeping the waterfront temps comfortable was non-existent just a few steps inland. Giving up on the idea of wandering around downtown, we headed to the designated meeting spot on the Redcliffe Quay. As it turns out, that was a good thing. The Adventure Antigua crew arrived at the dock about 20 minutes early and we were able to get a head start on our water adventure.

Our catamaran transport is dwarfed by Mercury.

We were joined on the power-cat by just one other couple from our ship and soon we were off to pick up guests from nearby resorts. The couple at the first resort did not show; two couples and three young Jamaican women boarded at Sandals. With so few people aboard, we had ample space on the 52-foot (~16 m) power-cat — nice for us, but not so good for the tour operator. Four people opted for the front deck, leaving the rest of us to spread out around the covered portion of the boat where we had plenty of protection from the hot Caribbean sun. The extra space was especially handy when we encountered a few squalls along the way. Rather than try and outrun the brief showers, the skipper slowed down each time and let the squall pass us. None of us minded the occasional sprinkles as they had a nice cooling effect.

That’s a lot of boat for just 11 passengers.

The ride out was quite bumpy but thanks to the protection of the barrier reef, it didn’t get too rough. By the time we reached Long Island, where we stopped for a few minutes to check out the luxury houses lining the shoreline, we were in calm waters.

Long Island, Jumby Bay Resort — way too rich for our wallet!

En route to our destination, we made a couple of stops where the skipper and his mate explained a bit about the ecology of the area. The channel of red mangrove we sailed into was especially interesting. Here the mangroves had filtered the water to amazing clarity and it was possible to see the bottom without difficulty.

When we reached Great Bird Island, we collected our water shoes from the mate (no shoes allowed while on the boat) and used the steps at the bow to disembark into ankle-deep water. Following a narrow trail, we went on a nature walk that culminated on top of the island. I have to admit to a bit of disappointment here — there were no birds to see whatsoever; apparently we hit the island at the wrong time of the year. (Glad I didn’t tote my long lens on this adventure.) Mui did see the “Antiguan Racer,” a harmless snake that can only be seen in the wild on this island. Not sorry I missed that encounter — snakes give me the willies, harmless or otherwise

On the upside, we had beautiful views to enjoy from the summit.

The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.

And we were able to catch a glimpse of what would be our second island stop of the day, Hell’s Gate.

This Google Earth image shows Hell’s Gate in relation to Great Bird Island.

After our short trek, we returned to the catamaran for a swim break, followed by lunch onboard — pasta salad, green salad, barbecue chicken, plantains, and banana bread (for dessert). All very fresh and yummy.

Mui never says no to a dip in the warm Caribbean waters.

Then we were was off to Hell’s Gate Island for snorkeling and a look-see at the portal carved out of the cliff. Had the skipper been able to pull closer to shore, I probably would have done the short trek on the island, but we were a bit too far offshore for my comfort. So, I stayed aboard, sitting on the aft ramp to dangle my feet in the water while I enjoyed the scenery. Mui swam over to take a peek at the rock portal and then went off to do some snorkeling.

Mui heads over to Hell’s Gate Island.

Mother Nature has the power to carve a portal out of solid rock.

After a while, we moved onto the second snorkel spot where the proximity to the barrier reef provided calmer conditions for the snorkelers. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case at a lot of snorkeling sites around the Caribbean, a great deal of the coral at both spots was dead, although Mui did see indications of a comeback and there were some colorful fish to enjoy. His rating (compared against Sapphire Beach on St Thomas) — “C” — on par with Buck Island in St Croix, but not as good as Trunk Bay in St John on this cruise.

The second snorkeling stop was cut short by a fast moving squall. By then, however, it was time to head back to St John’s anyway, so no one missed out on their time in the water by much. The skipper slowed down to let the squall pass us, and once we were in the clear, we enjoyed a nice cruise back to St John’s.

We were back aboard Mercury by 4:15p, well before the 5:00p sail away. As it turns out, it was rush hour for cruise ships — not that three ships cause too much of a traffic jam, but the narrow entrance to the bay did mean that we had to wait our turn to maneuver away from the dock.

The ships left in reverse order of this morning’s arrival, putting Mercury in last place. The passengers on Ocean Village were all out on the open decks again, waving British flags provided by the ship’s staff. With their sail away party in full swing, they gave Explorer of the Seas a royal send off. Then, as Ocean Village started to maneuver away, the passengers did the “wave” to wish us bon voyage. Quite a sight it was — a “wave” the length of the ship! I’m afraid the response from Mercury was pretty lackluster, but the few of us who were on the open deck above the bridge did our best to reciprocate by waving our goodbyes.

Then, it was our turn to leave Antigua behind. With three toots of the ship’s horn, Mercury maneuvered out of the harbor and turned towards our last port call.

Next Up: Sint Maarten / Saint Martin