Caribbean Compass Sailing Magazine

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It’s the first full moon of August tonight. This time
of the year, this time of the month, sea turtles are
laying eggs.
In the evening, as we go on the beach for a walk, we
spot a black shadow in the water slowly approaching
land. A hawksbill turtle pops her head above the water
and looks around before emerging, her wet dark shell
shining in the silver moonlight. We freeze and watch in
awe from a distance as the big creature makes her way
up, painfully crawling in the sand. Up on the sandbank
across to the mangrove maze.
The narrow 12-mile, pink-sand strip of a beach on
the west lee side of Barbuda is separated from the
island’s mainland and biggest village by a shallow
swampy area, Codrington Lagoon. The water inside
the lagoon is dark-colored thanks to the mangroves
and with high salinity. The only way to access our
pink beach from the mainland is by small boat, and
it is not a short ride. That is why there is no one here
and the place remains secluded.
The remote mangroves on the northwest side of
Clockwise from above:
A hawksbill turtle rushing back to the sea after a nesting
attempt; Mira, dancing with the bonfire at sunset;
watching a frigatebird watching us
NOVEMBER 2014 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 18
MIRA NENCHEVA (ALL)
near a bush she stops for a while. Did she see us? Did
we spook her? Or she simply didn’t like the spot and
started heading back to sea? I can’t resist and snap a
picture before she enters the water and disappears in
the ocean even though I know it is not a good idea to
flash the poor creatures in the dark. Forgive me, mama
turtle. Hope you found the perfect spot to lay your eggs.
May all your hundred babies hatch healthy, reach the
sea safely and live to be a thousand years old.
The next day we jump in the kayak, all three of us,
and start paddling in the shallows parallel to the
shore for about a mile and a half to the north end of
the beach. We reach a spot where there is a strange
art-like installation: a piece of driftwood adorned with
conchs and all sorts of plastic garbage the sea has
spewed ashore. It is the marker indicating a cut
Barbuda, where humans rarely venture, provide
habitat for the largest Magnificent Frigatebird breeding
colony in the Caribbean, one of the biggest frigatebird
sanctuaries in the world. With about 1,700
nests, the site has been declared a national park.
The Magnificent Frigatebird, also known as man
o’war bird, is a long-winged, fork-tailed black bird of
the tropical seas. An agile, silent flier he snatches
fish off the surface of the ocean and pirates food
from other birds. Being unable to take off from the
water, frigatebirds never land on the sea and thus
take their food in flight. They spend days and nights
on the wing, with an average ground speed of just
over six miles per hour, covering up to 139 miles
before landing.
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