Cruise 2011 Day 13 – Antigua

We awoke to our ship slowly making its way through the narrow channel that leads into St John’s harbor.  The island, although not as hilly as some, was lush and green in color. Numerous beaches were in sight as we approached the dock in the downtown core. We moored right at the front of the town site so access to all the amenities is very quick and easy. We grabbed a bite of breakfast and it was off to pick up the car rental. It took a few minutes but soon we were on the road in our Jeep Wrangler. The side windows were removed so the “air conditioning “ was on full blast LOL. It was my turn to drive so I obtained my Antiqua Drivers license and Mark did the map reading. Robyn steered us to the caches from the rear seat as we headed across the island to Nelson’s Dockyard. This famous location was the hub of the British Naval fleet and it’s well guarded harbor gave lots of protection from wind, waves and of course attack.

We headed for Shirley Heights that overlooked the entrance and provided complete views of the ocean and harbor entrance. It was spectacular!

 

Looking down on the harbor where the dockyard is.

Next we headed back to the dockyard were we made our way out to the point that housed the garrison and gunpowder storage. We took some photos and headed to a nearby cache after some easy computations using the cannon as information. Numbers on the cannon transformed into Lat & Long for the GPS.

We got the cache and then headed across to Half Moon Bay and Smiling Harry’s Bar. Both Mark and Robyn visited this island in 2008 and had fond memories of the bar. They have never told me what those memories are though. There was a cache there as well so the stop was a bonus!

 

Harry poses with Kelly and the cache.

Mark then guided us to a well known snorkeling beach at Long Bay. We grabbed some chairs and settled in for some serious R & R. The snorkeling was good and the variety of fish amazing.

 

Long Bay, Antigua

We headed back to the ship as we had to be boarded by 1630 today. The first glimpse of the ship is always comforting at this point in the day! A few stops at the kiosks along the waterfront of course. Yet another amazing, exhausting day for us! I had hoped to grab the laptop and upload pictures but just ran out of time.

A quick snack and we were out on deck for the sail away. The harbor is very narrow but the crew did a great job of maneuvering this huge vessel out as we backed away from the town. We watched numerous large fish jumping and the local sea birds dive into the waters chasing smaller fish.

 

Leaving port.

We went to the 7 PM show featuring a comedy magician and I have to say he was very entertaining. He had us in stitches and the illusions he created amazed everyone. He has been in Vegas for many years and was even on Oprah at one point. Mark remembered seeing him on the show and was impressed then.

After the show we headed downstairs to dinner then I watched Mark have a nice run at the roulette wheel in the Casino. It’s was nice to see someone win LOL

We wandered through the ship and ended up in the Safari Club where a audience participation game called Quest was just getting started. This game pitted teams against one another in a scavenger hunt kind of format. For example the host Mark the cruise entertainment director would ask for a man to be dressed in a bra, lipstick, purse and shoes. Points were awarded on which team could do it the fastest. It was hilarious to watch full grown men get dressed up in a matter of minutes and parade around the floor. Even funnier watching the women offer up the items! I am not talking about one or two men but twenty or so! We laughed a lot as the Quest demands became even funnier. If you’re on a cruise and they play this game just make sure you go and see it for yourself.

After the mayhem ended we headed for bed as we will be up early to plan the day in St. Lucia. This will be our second to last stop on our amazing vacation.