Barbuda - Cocoa Point & Canal Anchorages

Hi everyone,

Today we motored from Cocoa Point anchorage in the S of the island to Canals anchorage.  We spent three nights and two days at Cocoa Point.  We expect to explore the W side of the island over the next few days.

Zen Again and some big boats

Cocoa Point anchorage had a steady flow of large yachts, both motor and sail.  Some of the sailing yachts were very easy on the eye.  There was also a steady stream of regular cruising boats.  One of them anchored close to windward and then sat over our anchor.  Luckily we got out this morning during a wind shift.  Why do people do that?

Superyacht with water-slide

Occasional rain showers

On day 2 we went for a ride in the dinghy, hoping to find some good snorkeling.  Unfortunately the low ground swell coming into the anchorage seemed to be stirring the sea bed and the visibility was poor.  So instead we continued cleaning the hull, watched by a large school of 30cm fish and a couple of larger 75cm fish.  The hull's now pretty clean!

Searching for snorkeling spots

Mid-morning today we weighed anchor and headed W towards Palmetto Point.  Around the point is Nine Foot Bank and we motored carefully across its outer part.  They're right, it does get down to 3.0m.  We found the shallowest area to be along its NW edge.

Here's our overall track and a 2015 GE 'chart'.  The latter shows the sand waves of Nine Foot Bank and the sandbank on the W side of the lagoon.

Track

Old GoogleEarth view of Nine Foot Bank off Palmetto Point

At Cocoa Point we'd had no mobile coverage.  Here at Canal we have a weak but adequate signal.  Once anchored I used the VFkaps plug-in in OpenCPN to download a 2022 image of the local area.  It shows the loss of part of the sandbank which previously separated the lagoon from the sea...

New GoogleEarth view of the opening into the lagoon

The colour of the water here at Canal reminds us of anchorages in the Wessel Islands, off the Northern Territory coast of Australia.  Stunning aquamarine.  But no crocs here!

View ashore from the Canal anchorage

Tomorrow we expect to move north a little, closer to the channel into the lagoon.  We hope to dinghy across the lagoon to Codrington to explore, shop and hopefully clear-out of the country.

Trust all's well where you are.