Part I HERE.

Back in the boat, we took a shower, ate, grabbed snacks, and then planted ourselves on the balcony as we waited for our departure from Antigua.

By the way, the buffet had an endless supply of breadsticks. In fact, they were very similar to the Stella D’Oro Breadsticks I now can’t find anywhere . . . and me without my jar of Nutella, for which I compensated by eating chocolate cookies.

Anyway, here’s what I could see from our room’s balcony . . .

A closer look shows the clock facing this way has the same time as it had in the morning . . . I guess tempus no-fugit here . . .

I spent the time by looking at houses (I switched between the 18-200mm and the 80-400mm as things caught my interest) . . . for instance:

. . . those are two, or possibly three expensive-looking homes . . .

. . . with a questionable view. One of the home might have a better view on the other side of the hill, but even so . . . if that plant is running, where is the stacks exhaust going.

The fortress (or fort; not sure of the gender just by looking at the photo) that once guarded the harbor is also neat . . . except for the stuff just under it.

When bored, I would switch to my favorite subjects . . .

. . . and then back to houses . . .

Oh, look! The remnants of another Sugar Mill. Those look like nice, relatively modest homes. Visiting these islands would show these to be somewhat rare . . . you either saw obscene monuments extolling the wealth of vain individuals, or houses standing as reminders not everyone is doing well.

And, of course, the sea is an almost invisible in its constant and ubiquitous presence . . .

Many of the boats I saw were associated with the tourist industry.

Some of the streets were less crowded than they had been . . .

. . . probably because we were nearing the sailing time, and most people had returned to the ship.

Some of the tourists were cutting it close . . .

. . . unless the excursions were associated with Princess. The ship will wait for people running late if they are on one of the Princess Excursion. If you booked on your own, and you don’t get back in time, the ship will not wait.

They say that, but I remember on the Alaska Cruise we did wait for a family that was running late, and were obviously not on a Princess Excursion. Still, they will not wait as long.

I don’t see the attraction of getting off a big boat and getting on a little boat and going on an excursion. Then again, I don’t see the attraction with many things people do.

I had missed it before because of the lighting, but both sides of the harbor had forts . . . it stands to reason.

Those look like places I would have liked to visit and explore. I did not see any excursion that mentioned them.

As we waited, I shot Frigatebirds . . .

. . . boats . . .

. . . hotels . . . or maybe apartments . . .

. . . and boats and hotels or apartments . . .

. . . overviews of St. John’s . . .

. . . of the church . . .

. . . more Frigatebirds . . .

At one point, banal dock fixings grabbed my interest . . .

I was not sure if this next building housed offices, apartments, or condos . . . maybe all . . .

I should mention, there’s nothing fantastic about any of these; just me snapping away, and I’m not even showing all of them. Many more photos in the SmugMug Gallery HERE.

Or you can click on a photo, and a larger size should open in a new tab or window.

At one point I even considered this might be interesting . . .

Here’s another shots of homes . . . notice the discrepancy between the home in the background and those in the foreground . . .

Many of these photos are a bit on the dull side as the sun was staying behind clouds . . . but if it did peak out, I jumped at the chance to shoot . . . the same stuff.

Even the Frigatebird would occasionally catch one of the sun’s rays . . .

Sunlight makes even storage areas look nicer . . .

But the sun was going down quick, the boat itself casting shadows on the town below.

And then we saw . . .

That’s right. We were getting close to leaving.

Let me mention, briefly, the ships propulsion system . . . these ships have a lot of control, able to move sideways, rotate in place, and pretty much move almost anyway they want (not up or down, of course . . . well, they could move down, but only once).

You don’t have to watch the whole video if only interested on propulsion; start at the 28 seconds mark.

I had been seen a male Frigatebird all day, soaring off in the distance. The light was poor, but he finally came within range of the lens . . . barely.

They are elegant fliers, but . . . yeah, not all that cute.

As the ship moved away from the dock, I snapped away . . .

But you probably want to see the last light on Antigua . . .

Of course, the birds were not to be denied their chance of Internet near-immortality.

 

We were now clear of the pier (or is it dock – whatever, we were clear). We had been moored to the one on the right.

This shot clearly shows the churning of the water and silt . . . remember, the ship only drafts 28 ft.

And yet the birds hounded us . . .

Antigua was now beyond our reach . . .

. . . but not beyond the reach of my lens . . .

It looked as if the evening rush was in full force, with or without the tourists.

Here’s a last shot of the Pilot Boat heading back as Antigua receded from sight.

The SmugMug gallery has a number of additional photos, most close versions of what I showed here, and hence only for the curious.

For an interesting article on Frigatebirds and Albatrosses, click HERE.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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