We pulled into port at St. John's, the capital of Antigua. We pulled up to the same pier as we did last visit - and that was good because we arranged to meet with our driver, Latoya at the same taxi pick up stand at 8:30 am.
We had talked with some Cruise Critic people who suggested Deep Bay Beach for snorkelling in Antigua. So we asked Latoya to drive us to Deep Bay Beach. The final mile of road was of very questionable quality, so many taxi drivers don't want to drive it - but Latoya drove nice and slow to prevent any damage to her car!
Once at the end of the road, we had to climb several steps to cross a pedestrian bridge over a waterway, then walk a fairly level path to the beach. We chose to take the steep path to the right to climb up to Fort Barrington. The Fort was built in 1779 and received the name of Admiral Samuel Barrington.
Fort Barrington sitting atop a steep little climb of about 300 feet.
Looking down on Deep Bay Beach from Fort Barrington
A panoramic view from the top of Fort Barrington
We chose to hike down the far side of the Fort to see where we were told the Atlantic meets the Caribbean. That was cool to see.
This vantage point also allowed us to see how far out a white buoy marker was off the shore to snorkel to a sunken ship - the British steamship, the SS Andes, sank June 9, 1905. It is said to be a good artificial reef now with aquatic life. I decided from atop the hill, that I would not be snorkelling out that far to see a wreck. We hiked down the trail and J had to hold my hand at steep parts to help me get down. That whole excursion took us 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Now, fully dripping with sweat, we made our way to the beach.
Our little patch of shade on the right side of the beach to allow us to snorkel along the rocks, out to the same point where we had hiked to.
We got dropped our few belongings and went into the water with our snorkelling gear on. I wear a little waterproof bag that I put my phone in, along with my cash and a credit card. If anybody steals our ship's towels and sandals we can live with that!
The Royalton Hotel shares the beach (but not their road to access it!) and they are situated further to the left.
Snorkelling was not stellar - J would rate it a 4 out of 10. The water clarity was a problem and there were not too many fish. We heard from another snorkelling couple that the water was clear yesterday, so we got unlucky today. We also talked to some paddle boarders and found that there were turtles in the bay. That would have been cool to see!
J swam out to the sunken ship - and felt a bit unsafe once swimming away from the shore and going to the buoy for fear of getting hit by a jet ski.
The rocks at the end of the point. Photo taken by J with our waterproof camera.
One of the masts of the sunken ship (the deck of the ship was 8 - 12 feet below the surface).
We had arranged to meet Latoya at 1 pm so we packed up our belongings and walked back to the parking lot at 12:45 pm where she was ready and waiting!
Once back aboard the Caribbean Princess, we showered and cleaned up and went for lunch on the Lido deck. We were both tired and dehydrated so we had a little nap while watching an HGTV program.
After dinner in the dining room, we went to a Platinum and Elite member appreciation night. We learned that there are 3,171 guests on board. 1300 are first time Princess cruisers, 729 gold (2 cruises), 343 Ruby (5 cruises or less), 479 Platinum (6 - 14 cruises) and 320 Elite (15+ cruises). The top three cruising people had 850, 1375 and 1750 days cruising with Princess! J came with me tonight so that made it more fun than last time!
And now my blog is finished for the night. Two more sea days to report on!
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