Best Beaches in Caribbean (so far)

Barbuda, West Indies

With the wind just forward of the beam, we sailed about 25 miles North to Barbuda (Bar-bew-da) Unlike most of the islands in this area of the Caribbean, that are tall volcanoes, Barbuda is a low coral atoll. The highest point on the island is less than 200 feet. We anchored off of Coco Point with eight miles of pink sand beach off the bow and only one other boat.

This was the most beautiful beach we have seen so far. The sand is powdery and a pink/champagne color. It was so soft that puling the dinghy up onto the beach was almost impossible, as it sunk into the sand and there was no way to get a foothold in the soft sand.

We took a tour of the island with John’s Taxi’s which included a trip to the Atlantic side of the island. He showed us where an early settler (Codrington) used to set out lights that caused the ships to run up on the reef so that he could help rescue them and keep their cargo. He was driven to do this because while Barbuda has plenty of water (uncommon for a Caribbean atoll), it did not have adequate soil to support the agriculture that he planned when the Queen of England leased the island to him.

While officially part of Antigua, Barbuda is very independent. The people are very self sufficient, living off the fish they catch and growing limited produce of corn and sugar to survive. While there is some tourism, the island only has one resort that has less than 50 rooms. The main export of Barbuda is sand. The Barbuda sand is sent to many of the Caribbean Islands so that they can have sand beaches at the large resorts.

Barbuda is home to the world’s largest frigate bird colony. This sanctuary supports over 16,000 of these majestic birds, with wing spans in excess of eight feet. The red pouch on the male birds is used to attract females and to scare the other males away. Each year the males return to Barbuda to mate for the season.

We were there at the end of mating season and many of the young birds were still in the nest, waiting for their feathers to come in so they could fly off.

We toured the colony with George, a local lobster fisherman who really new his way around Codrington Lagoon and the bird sanctuary.

At the end of our tour, George (our guide) sold us some local lobster that he had caught. At US$6 per pound it was a great deal and we will be eating lobster for a while.