Leaving Guadeloupe, Oso and her crew cleared through customs and immigration into the new country of Antigua and Barbuda. After a night at anchor, the bow pointed north again – destination Barbuda.
Located about 35nm from the rolling green hills of Antigua, Barbuda is a low, sandy island, only visible above the horizon from a few miles away. Sparsely populated and less-visited than its larger sister island, Barbuda is known for its frigate bird colony and for miles of mostly undeveloped sandy beaches.
And what beaches they are. Fine sand with a consistency just coarser than powdered sugar, faintly tinted pink from ground shells of foraminifera, stretches unbroken for miles. The bright pinkish-white of the beach forms a startling contrast with the teal blue of the shallow water, and the result is a postcard brought to life.
While we’ve done a lot of our sailing in higher latitudes, we’ve also been on the move long enough to see more than our fair share of tropical beaches. And it’s not a stretch to say that the beaches of the west coast of Barbuda are the best we’ve seen anywhere – perfect sand, perfect weather, perfect views.
For many years, the vast majority of Barbuda’s beaches remained completely undeveloped. Today, some residential development has started, along with a restaurant and plans for hotels. So we’re happy to have visited Barbuda now and seen this remarkable place.
