Gravenor Bay Barbuda

A great sail, just what the Caribbean is all about

After 3 nights off Low Bay, on Thursday 20 December we decided to move around to Gravenor Bay on the south coast of Barbuda.  We motored south along the west coast – cautious again in case we should meet any uncharted shallows (though again there was no need) – and then hoisted the sails for a couple of hours’ beat to Cocoa Point, about half way along the south coast.  It was a great sail – a good breeze, blue skies, little puffy cumulus clouds and lovely turquoise seas.

Motoring in towards Cocoa Point

Our chartplotter chart showed an apparently clear sector leading in towards Cocoa Point from the south, marked by a couple of transits on the point, so we were sailing hard on the wind up into this sector when Nicky, keeping a sharp lookout using polarised sunglasses, saw a shallow reef fairly close ahead of our track (shallow reefs show green and brown through the water).  Time to get the sails down and start motoring slowly through the coral heads!  We moved to the eastern side of the ‘clear’ area and followed the transit in on 035ºM.  Happily, we saw no more unexpected heads though we knew that we were quite close to Palaster Reef out to the east of us.

Cocoa Point

Once we were inshore of Palaster Reef and close enough (but not too close) to Cocoa Point we turned due east towards Spanish Reef, the southeastern tip of Barbuda.

Eyeball navigation amongst the reefs. Use polarised glasses and go in down sun, or with the sun overhead.  The turquoise water is safe – about 6m deep.  As the water gets shallower it becomes paler and paler.  The dark patch to the right of BV is an area of reef. Though most of it is probably quite deep, this one is charted as having some dangerously shallow points.  Areas of very shallow reef show up as green/brown

We were in about 6m of water and with the sun high on our starboard side (it was about 1230) so we could see the safe water as a beautiful turquoise.  The route across Gravenor Bay is generally quite easy in good light and though we took it very slowly, looking carefully for the reef areas, we had no particular problems.  The most difficult bit was the last half mile or so working our way into White Bay, the most easterly part of Gravenor Bay.  There was a yacht in the inlet in the reefs just before White Bay, but the latter had been recommended to us by fellow OCC members, Alastair and Ester on Cranstackieso we wanted to try to get there if we could.  In the entrance area there are a few coral heads which we threaded our way between and we also saw several areas where the water looked somewhat shallow with, possibly, coral or rock as well.  Cranstackieis a catamaran with a much shallower draft than BV so Nicky was rather concerned that we might end up in too shallow an area.  In the end, however, it became clear that the bottom there is sand with a light covering of seagrass and it is the colour change caused by the weed that was deceiving us, making the water look somewhat shallower than it actually is.

Anchored off White Bay.  BV’s anchored in about 3.5m here so the water’s a pale turquoise.  The very pale coloured water off the beach will be too shallow for us (but perfect for Alastair and Ester’s catamaran).  To the left of the bow is the beach on Spanish Point and ahead and to the right is Spanish Point Reef

The dark shadow between BV and the very pale water off the beach is an area with a light covering of sea-grass

We made it in and anchored in about 3.5m of water a surprisingly long way off the beach.  It’s a beautiful spot, right on the edge of the ocean but protected from the swell by the reef.  It reminded us rather of Clifton on Union Island, which we had visited at the beginning of the year just without the people and the myriad kitesurfers. And the reef, whilst a fair distance off, was quite close enough to swim to, so no need to go through the faff of inflating the dinghy either!

We’d not really appreciated it in BV but we found a surprisingly strong current flowing through the anchorage – perhaps wind-blown perhaps part of the East Caribbean Current.  Either way, it made for a good work-out getting to the reef. We spent a good couple of hours exploring.  Before we got to the main body of the reef we came across a number of large coral outcrops with some lovely arrays of sea rods, sea fans and corky sea fingers.

We found about 6 spiny lobsters hiding under this overhang

Looking under one overhang we found half a dozen spiny lobsters hiding from us….

Reef views.  Bottom: to the left of this picture is a Doctorfish (brownish with apparently blue fins) and a French grunt (yellow with wavy blue lines). Near the centre is a Blue tang. The juveniles of Blue tang are yellow, so there may be a few young towards the right of the picture

…..and in other places there were myriad reef fish – lots of colourful blues and yellows.

Nurse shark – a rather grainy photo as the shark
decided not to stay around to pose for a better shot!

We swam out to the main body of the reef but it was shallow and there was little to see ……… right up until Nicky spotted a Nurse shark snoozing under a ledge.  I swam over as quickly as I could but the shark moved on before I could get into a good position for a picture.

Top: more sea rod and what we think might be leaf coral (looking like leaves on small bushes).  Bottom:  A couple of French grunts (yellow with wavy blue lines), a Blue Tang (bright blue, close to the rock), a juvenile Beaugregory or Cocoa damselfish (part blue, part yellow) and, presumably, an adult Beaugregory or Cocoa damselfish (far right of picture, dusky brown)

We returned to the coral heads to enjoy the reef fish……

We saw several stingrays.  We even saw one buried in the sand with only its eyes exposed

…..and over the sand between them saw several different sting rays swimming around and even one buried, waiting for something interesting to go past, with just its goggling eyes sticking up above the sand.

Reef views.  Bottom left: hermit crab in a Conch shell (though by the time I got the picture the crab had gone into hiding).  Bottom right: Spiny lobster

Reef fish and spiny lobsters

We swam back to the first outcrop where we had found the lobsters.  A few had moved on but there were still 4 or so waiting there for us. 

BV floating in a swimming pool – and look who who’s sharing that swimming pool with her!

And then, with a whoosh and a zoom we returned down current back to BV, spotting yet another stingray en route.  Remember the scene in Finding Nemo where Nemo’s dad meets all the turtles in the East Australian Current?  That’s how I felt playing on the current in and around the outcrops and swimming back to BV!

Lobster linguini – thanks George!

For dinner we pigged out on the last 3 of our lobsters from George and made a delicious lobster linguini.  We should probably have kept some for lunch the next day but it was just too tasty and with a glass of white wine was the perfect way to round off a perfect day.

Gravenor Bay, Barbuda