Searching Antigua for 365 Beaches and Eric Clapton

[Ed Wetschler]

BOYS AND GIRLS, IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP

Before God created Antigua, He invented amoebas, and only after He'd gotten that right did He tackle this larger-scale project, an island whose an in-and-out, in-and-out coastline forms 365 C-shaped coves with beaches. Exactly 365? Sounds like hype, although certainly, Antigua has enough protected coves to make it a favorite of yachties and resort guests. I figured, maybe 150 of them.

One afternoon when I was staying at Carlisle Bay, a luxury resort on the south coast of the island (top right), I headed out to the main road for a walk. The road (second photo) took me past churches, chattel houses, goats, banana trees, and a bar called Caipirinha. Note to self: Go back when Caipirinha is open.

What really caught my eye, though, was something I noticed at the very start of the walk, soon after turning left out of Carlisle Bay's front gate: a local family's house, replete with chickens and a scrawny dog, situated right on the beach. I had driven past resort-worthy yet underdeveloped beaches on previous visits to Antigua, but if Antigua had so much unexploited beachfront that a humble home could survive smack dab on the Gold Coast, maybe there really was something to this 365-beaches thing.

Name that Beach

The next day I climbed aboard Carlisle Bay's 32-footer, headed west and then north, counting beaches. Some were occupied, but many more had either just a few buildings or none at all. These were splendid beaches, too, potential cash machines that had escaped the resort and condo builders; some of these coves don't even have names on the maps.

“All beaches on the island are public, and the government puts a lot of red tape in your way if you even try to build near the beach,” a European expat told me. He added, “That's not a bad thing!” It helps, too, that many of these beaches aren't even accessible by road.

Fort Charles et alia

No wonder my car-based trips around Antigua hadn't told the whole story. As Lord Admiral Nelson could have told me, one really has to see this island's coastline by boat, so on my third day I took another exploratory trip. This time some friends and I boarded a crewed 41-foot sloop (Ondeck Sailing offers charters from $450) at Falmouth Harbour, adjacent to Nelson's Dockyard, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We cruised past Fort Charles and then, turning east, Fort Isaac and Fort William. But as many forts as there are on this southeast coast, there are even more beaches. The surf is stronger than further west, and many of the beaches are backed by cliffs, but yes, they count as beaches, and some occupied such deep indentations of the coast that they had perfectly calm water. For example, Indian Creek -- a cove, really -- struck me as a dandy cove to moor your yacht for a couple of nights. Remember that when you buy your first yacht. Elsewhere, locals were surfcasting from beaches that were enclosed by cliffs. I have no idea how they'd gotten there.

Clapton's Villa

Approaching Indian Creek Point, we saw a sprawling villa compound (right), obviously owned by someone who is both unimaginably wealthy and determinedly private. “Who owns that?” I asked skipper Cheyenne Warner (above).

“Eric Clapton.”

Magnificent, and when he's not there, the villa, Standfast Point, is available for rent. Just one thing about his villa that seemed peculiar. Eric Clapton, who could have built his house anywhere, chose the highest point on this cliff-walled promontory for this compound. Beach? He picked an island with 365 beaches, but unless there's a very long staircase somewhere that I couldn't see, Clapton can't walk to any of them.