By Peter Herlihy

On the morning of December 27th, we went for a snorkel on a sunken ship in Deep Bay, Antigua. Then we sailed to Barbuda, it was rough. The Babbitt family, on Lady Suzanne, went with us, although they were faster. When we started getting closer to Barbuda, I could see the turquoise water reflected in the clouds. Barbuda is not high, it’s like a sandbar, and the highest point is only 125 feet. When we got there, we anchored off the most beautiful beach in the world. Once we were settled, Mira went up in the Bosun’s chair to find Codrington, the main town, which was over a bluff and across a lagoon. I went for a swim, it was awesome with the blue water. We went power surfing, the Collins family gave us the idea. Dad towed us on the paddle board with our new tow rope from Santa.

IMG_3531Then next day we jumped up and ate a quick breakfast and met our guide George Jeffery for a special tour of the Barbuda Frigate Bird Colony. The boat ride was really cool because because the boat had a deep v and was comfortable in the rough waves with 13 people in. The lagoon was rough because it was very windy.It is 7 miles long.

We pulled up to a big mangrove with a few frigate birds. George told us all about the birds. Then we went further in to the colony where there were abut 20,000 frigate birds. The largest colony in the Eastern Caribbean and larger than the Galapagos! Then we saw a couple of babies. The birds were mating, it is mating season. That means they find a partner to have a baby. The male birds puff up a pouch under their beak to attract a female. It looked hard for them to fly with the red pouch. Most birds were sitting in a bush. Sadly, we saw a dead one.

George picked up some jellyfish for us. They don’t sting. They float upside down because they plants growing in them that need sun. I like touching them, they were squishy!

IMG_3532After the tour we paid and went to the main town, Codrington. It was very festive. We walked to the Art Cafe. We also went to the grocery store. It is very small. Me and Mira got a cold drink, gatorade! That night we went to dinner on the beach and met kids from the UK. They gave us funny nicknames, they called Mira Agent M! They said my name really funny.

The next day we dragged our dinghy across the sand bar to the lagoon. It was hard. We went across the lagoon again to town, it was really bumpy. Not as good as George’s boat. I felt like I broke my back!

DSCF1145We rented bikes from a sketchy man. Then we road out of town on to a dirt road with thousands of wild donkeys and horses (not wild). It was very hot and far. Mom thought is was 2 miles, but it was farther. Dad had to get out the gps to see if we were almost there. We were. We arrived at 2 foot bay in the national park. There were lots of big waves, not that great for swimming. But it was cool, I was the only one to swim. Then we had lunch. Then we went in a cave that was huge. I thought there were going to be bats but there weren’t. We climbed up through the cave and we came out on the top of the headland, which is a cliff. It made me dizzy! Then we rode back to town. Mira almost got hit by a horse running across the road!

The next day we sailed back to Antigua for New Year’s Eve. Barbuda was one of my favorite islands because it was fun and it had prettiest water.

FUN FACTS-
Frigate Bird- They can’t go underwater because their wings are too big and they are really light. So they eat flying fish when they jump out of the water.
The Barbuda colony is the largest colony in the Caribbean.
They only 2-3 pounds with a 5 foot wing span.
Males show off by puffing up their pouches under their beaks.
Babies rely on their parents for 2 years.
Males are black, females have a white chest and juveniles have a white head and neck. 🙂