Catalina Sunshine: ENGLISH HARBOUR

1115 hours, March 13, 2015, English Harbour, Antigua: We entered the relatively narrow entrance to English Harbour with Fort Berkely built on a narrow spit of land enclosing the Harbor to our Port, and the massive rock formation known as the Pillars of Hercules with ruins of the upper and lower Fort Charlotte, on our starboard. As we turned to port into the Harbor around Fort Berkely Point, we could see stern tied yachts lined up around the quay wall at Nelson's Dockyard with its two story stone 17th century barracks and other dockyard buildings behind. We were instantly transported back in time. It was as though you could almost see and hear English sailors tending to their ships at the quay wall, and the marching of troops around the barracks with a glimpse of their bright colored uniforms in the distance. History was alive in this beautiful special Harbor with its green foliage on the steep hills that surrounded it, with its white sand Galleon Beach which greeted us just inside the Harbor entrance, and with its turquoise colored water in Tank Bay behind the Dockyard.

The only anchorage available in the Harbor (with the exception of stern tying at the quay wall) is at Freeman Bay adjacent to Galleon Beach just inside the entrance to the Harbor, except one spot I had seen at entrance to Tank Bay when we were their earlier in the week. As we rounded the Dockyard on its back side I crossed my fingers as the entrance to Tank Bay came into view. It was vacant! This was a tight spot for our boat. We were at least 20 ft. longer than the sailboat I had seen in this spot earlier. We had to find a place to drop the anchor with out interfering with the anchors of the boats stern tied to the quay wall, and not swing into the shore on either side with wind shifts. It took us two tries but we got it. Tucked back in the Harbor as we were it was flat even though the winds were blowing 25 nmph. It was a pleasant relief from the hour we had spent "easting" directly into 8 ft. seas along the south side of the Island on our trip from Jolly Harbour.

What a perfect anchorage. On the Dockyard side we had the Admiral's Inn with the Pillars Restaurant, and on the opposite side we had the Admiral's Inn Gunpowder Suites and pool with the poolside Boom Restaurant on a hill overlooking the mangroves at the shoreline next to us. The Admiral's Inn is in an historically renovated. 1700 century two story brick and stone building with the Admiral's Bar on the first floor. The Pillars Restaurant is an open air restaurant between the Inn and the water with a garden and small beach on both sides of a line of massive stone pillars and a moat like channel that are part of the ruins of a dockyard sail loft. The Gunpowder Suites are in a rehabilitated building that once housed gunpowder and was set across Tank Bay to protect the Dockyard from explosion. A small outboard passenger ferry ran the 150 ft. between the Inn's facilities on both sides of Tank Bay. The ferry, which ran on demand, passed within 15 ft. of our stern.

We ate our first meal in English Harbour at the Pillars Restaurant with a dock side table looking out on English Harbour and Catalina Sunshine. It was a great meal, and for us at least, a spectacular view.