The Antigua Nutz Big Adventure.

Eli's was an excursion we'll always remember. This was a multi faceted trip on Eli's boat. You get to see and do a few different things. His boat was so new that he wanted everyone to take their shoes off so he won't get scuff marks.
We assembled on the pier right by the ship. It doesn't get any easier than that. He pulled away and in moments we were at speed.

Being an Island Native he was very familiar with all the features of the waters around Antigua and could offer an informative narrative as we went. We had the opportunity to sea a lot of it. We saw a shallow area where the bottom was loaded with Starfish. We cruised inland waterways looking for turtles and other wild things. Plus we saw LONG ISLAND. This is a playground of the rich. This is where Jumby Bay is.

We stopped at Bird Island which we climbed to see the views from the top. Rarely have I seen such a sight. On one side is the dark blue Atlantic Ocean. On the other is the multi blue and greenish Caribbean Sea. Beautiful!

Eli had the novice snorklers get a chance to practice in the shallow beach area of Bird Is. A little later we got the chance to snorkle in deeper crystal clear waters.
But our main target was.....Hells Gate....a natural bridge....and more.
But first we had a lunch provided by Eli. It was home cooking at its best. We really enjoyed it.
During the snorkling in deeper water, Sandy and Carol bumped into each other.....looking face to face through the masks and said, "who is this?" They did not recognice each other in snorkle disguise....LOL. A short time after that Carol was swimming alone not far from the boat. I was on the boat and I heard her scream from UNDER WATER! She popped up....yells to Eli....."JELLYFISH!"
"What do I do?" Eli points to the left and says...." swim around it." I guess you had to be there....lol.
Eli anchored his boat offshore from the small island. To get there, you had to swim for it. Not too far....not too close.....but still for me....more than I usually would attempt. You had just a small sandy beach to land on, otherwise it was all rocks. So there we were, our group assembled on this little beach.... with nowhere to go......so we thought.
Off to the side was a somewhat hidden entrance to a cave. Not a particularly big and wide cave, but with a little crouch and twist, you can navigate it easily enough. The ladies were mostly afraid there would be Bats inside..... there was not....... only Spiders....YUCK!!!!! Why did it have to be spiders. Luckily, they were content to stay in their webs, which we did not disturb.
The cave was not very long and it opened up to a chamber that was sloshing with water which Eli said was the waves from the Alantic. With each wave the water would rise then fall......rise, then fall.
We had to climb a natural rock step ladder which brought us to the top of the natural bridge. Once on top, we crossed over the natural rock bridge. The whole formation was not very wide, not too high but was very steep. If you should fall off the edge it would be a very bad thing. Everybody stayed away from the edge. After crossing over, there was a steep rocky trail to get back down to the little sand beach. Everyone made it...slowly, as one wrong step could result in a fall or a twisted or broken leg. Once we were all back down, we swam for the boat.
Once back in the boat Eli swiftly headed for the pier we started from. This was an adventure we will never forget.