Charlotte Point, English Harbour Antigua

Since we were anchored right next to Charlotte Reef, we just had to swim out and snorkel on it, in fact it is doubtful that Charlotte would have forgiven us if we hadn’t! Between BV and the reef, the seabed was sandy with little to see. Very much in keeping with everything we had already seen in English Harbour, the first thing we came upon was a reminder of the heyday of the harbour – a large Admiralty pattern anchor lying just in front of the reef.

We pretty thoroughly quartered the reef, swimming over and around the shallows and along the seaward side too, almost as far as Lookout Point. We saw some coral and plenty of reef fish but we saw much less live coral here than we have elsewhere.

Fairly early on, as appears to be becoming a habit, Nicky picked up a follower – another large barracuda. It followed her for a while as we swam along the Freeman Bay side of the reef but then lost interest as we headed into shallower waters.

Whilst there wasn’t much live coral (and we had been warned that this was the case in Antigua), we found the shoals of small fish to be pretty and the seaward wall also very attractive.

Having swum back into Freeman Bay around the western end of the reef (deep water), Nicky’s tail rediscovered her and kept a close eye on her as we swam around the anchorage. It was somewhat disconcerting having such a close shadow but the barracuda was (almost) forgotten in the delight of meeting a couple of turtles which were grazing on the seagrass and generally just hanging out in the bay. And, by the time we had finished enjoying our own (distant) stalking, Nicky’s shadow had vanished, perhaps off to find something more his own size and tastier to pursue.

English Harbour Antigua