Lean on Me An Island Parish

4,000 miles south-west of the British Isles,

where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean sea,

lies the island of Anguilla.

Colonised by English settlers in the 17th century,

it was quickly abandoned because of its poor soil.

So the African descendants, many of them former slaves,

became landowners rather than plantation workers,

fostering an independent spirit and close connection to the land

that still flourishes.

Today, just 3% of the population is white,

and it's now one of the 14 British Overseas Territories

with its own government and the Queen as its head of state.

Fire!

It's very similar to growing up in Cornwall,

everybody looks out for each other,

and it's just a really nice way of living.

I've been here 23 years, and I still think I'm kind of British.

With an average temperature of 80 degrees,

British expats have been lured here by the beaches,

low taxes and relaxed way of life.

We have a tradition in Anguilla of going to take a sea bath.

This is the epitome of paradise.

You know, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

But this delicate island's future is precarious.

With few natural resources,

Anguillans have always had to be inventive to make ends meet,

competing with larger nearby islands like Antigua and St Kitts

for the tourist dollar.

Here, the threat of hurricanes is ever present,

and in the eye of these storms is a rock,

the Anglican Minister, Bishop Errol Brooks,

who presides over the island's largest parish.

As a people, we stand strong when things get rough.

This paradise is extremely fragile.

On your marks, get set, go!

In the days to come,

Anguilla plays host to one of the Caribbean's top cycling events.

I hope an Anguillan can win, that'd be nice,

because an Anguillan never won the race.

The fisheries department hunt down an unwelcome predator,

threatening the local fish population.

They've got lots of spines and the spines are poisonous.

They corral reef fish and eat masses of them.

PHONE RINGS

Good morning.

And wine merchant Natalie holds a tasting

to tempt more locals to savour the joys of the grape.

I think that Anguilla should have more indoor restaurants

with air conditioning.

Just to drink wine at perfect temperature!

With 19 churches and a population of just 14,000 people,

faith plays a pivotal role in Anguillan society.

At the island's main Anglican church, St Mary's,

it's flower arranging day.

This one goes on the rear altar,

two on the high altar,

and two in the pedestal.

One on the organ,

and one at the entrance.

And we enjoy...

making our arrangements.

Usually, flowers for the displays come from the church's own garden.

But today, there has been a gift from a member of the congregation.

These are anthuriums, and they were imported.

You do need flowers in a church.

It's the body.

They give back.

For Bishop Brooks, having active parishioners is critical

to the health of the church.

Ministry isn't just about ordained ministry,

so, if you're in the choir,

singing in a choir, that's a ministry,

if you're doing floral arrangements, that's a ministry,

if you're sweeping, keeping the premises clean, that's a ministry.

It's all, everybody working together.

As head of the Anglican diocese of the North East Caribbean and Aruba,

Bishop Brooks spends half his time travelling across his parish,

covering over 5,000 miles a year.

My patch covers 12 islands,

different nationalities - French, Dutch,

English, so it's quite a mix.

-Good morning.

-Morning.

Today's trip is going to take approximately 45 minutes to an hour.

Today, the bishop is taking a bumpy ferry journey 27 miles south

to the island of San Bartolome, commonly known as St Barts,

to make his annual visit to its Anglican Church.

At the moment, they are doing some repairs.

I am delighted to find out something about the work that's going on.

The volcanic island of St Barts is a quarter of the size of Anguilla,

and home to 9,000 people.

Over the years, many European countries

have had a hand in its governance, from the British to the Swedish.

But, since 1878, it has remained under French rule.

We're now in the port of Gustavia in St Barts.

It's a beautiful, beautiful town.

We have the church perching up there between the trees.

Almost on the water's edge.

On his way to meet the bishop is Philip Trangmar.

Originally from Lancashire,

Philip is the parish administrator,

overseeing the renovations of the Anglican Church.

We are part of the Church of England,

but on a French island with French influence,

but with a congregation which is largely from England

and the United States.

What we do is we meld it all together.

-Bishop.

-How are you?

-Nice to welcome you back to your French parish!

-Yes, sir.

-Lovely to have you with us.

-Good to see you.

Appreciate your visit.

St Barts Anglican Church was built in 1855 by the Swedish.

Its doors have been closed for four months

while £325,000 worth of vital repairs are taking place.

The roof originally was shingle, but it got blown off in 1995

by Hurricane Lewis,

and we couldn't afford at the time to replace it in quality shingles,

and we had to replace it in tin.

-Hey, Marjorie...

-Hey, Marjorie!

How are you?

Funds for the renovation have come from local fundraising

and tourist donations,

and the church is hoping to reopen in four months' time.

-And the floor is all...

-The floor...

-..filled in.

Originally that was soil, and the other problem we had

was these pillars were also resting on soil.

-Yeah.

-You can see...

As well as inspecting the work on the church,

this visit is a chance

for the bishop to catch up with his parishioners.

How is your sister?

Arlette? Clarion?

-Clarion, yeah.

-Clarion is in Miami since March.

OK.

By the way, I celebrated...

Well, my wife and I, we celebrated our 40th on Friday.

-Congratulations.

-I have to get to the pastry place.

What time do they close?

I have to buy some pastries to take home for my wife.

-Yes.

-Keep her happy.

Beneath the seas surrounding Anguilla

lies a coral reef spanning just under 20 square miles,

supporting over 100 species of fish.

And it's the job of the fisheries department

to monitor the health of these waters.

Today, a team headed by Deputy Director Stuart Wynne

is heading for Shoal Bay on the north-east of the island.

It's the site of a marine park

where they're conducting one of their regular programmes.

We have 15 sites,

five of them are seagrass sites and ten of them are reef sites

and we visit them on an annual basis and count the fish, coral cover,

algae cover, things like that.

Accompanying Stewart and the team is his wife Marlene,

a chef and passionate diver,

who largely shares his enthusiasm for marine conservation.

He is a complete fish nerd, books,

every documentary we watch is usually about that.

Marine things.

Which I like, you know, I love it.

But, sometimes I like to watch the Kardashians!

Do the anchor.

Er, yes. Where are the papers?

That's the most important thing.

Of special concern to the team is the increasing number of lionfish.

Hailing from the South Pacific and Indian Oceans,

this invasive predator can now be found throughout the Caribbean Sea.

They've got lots of spines and the spines are poisonous,

so the little tips have a sort of needly point on them.

Also, they are really voracious predators,

with their long spines they corral little juvenile reef fish

and they can eat masses of them.

To collect data the team use a tape measure to lay a grid

on the ocean floor.

Then, section by section, they make a record of everything they see.

This information will then be used to analyse changes

in the fish population, and gauge the health of the coral reef.

It's really important to keep an eye on what's happening over time.

Without that information you're managing things blindly,

so it's really, really important to do it.

In an ideal world, there'd be more fish than last year,

more coral than last year, and less algae.

To the best of my memory,

there looked like there were fewer large parrot fish here this year.

Parrotfish, along with sturgeon, fish like that,

they graze the algae on the reef

and that gives the coral a chance to grow.

They can move round.

They could be a little further down the reef,

but, you know, in an ideal world, they'd be everywhere.

With the survey complete,

the team's next job is to hunt down the unwelcome visitors - lionfish.

Back on dry land there is an exciting event coming up.

Once again it's cycle race around the island.

The John T Memorial Race.

A lot of islands come to take it, you know?

But we have to make sure that we win.

All right? Yes, Mr Cool.

Although boat racing is the national sport,

cycling is also hugely popular

because, although the island is small and flat,

the strong headwinds make it perfect for endurance training.

The John T Memorial Race is Anguilla's biggest cycling event,

attracting hundreds of cyclists and spectators

from all over the Caribbean.

Local cyclist Ronnie Bryan runs a car hire business

and has represented the island in three Commonwealth Games.

This is my baby here that I race on.

Sweet, light, fast, it's a great machine. It's a great machine.

With Ronnie unable to compete this year due to injury,

Anguilla's best hope for a trophy

lies with 27-year-old local boy Justin Hodge

from the Stingers Cycling Club.

Go ahead, I've got you. You're not going to fall.

Justin has represented Anguilla in two Commonwealth Games,

and he supports himself by working as a bicycle guide for tourists.

He wants to win the race so he can attract some sponsorship,

allowing him to spend more time training

and to get some new equipment.

Um...

This is my old bike.

Basically, the seat is broken.

As you can see, the bike is falling apart.

The pedal set is actually shaky, you know, all these parts...

I've actually had the bike for nine years,

so definitely it's been a long time having a bike.

But Justin is in for a surprise.

Ronnie and some fellow cycling enthusiasts have clubbed together

to support him in his dream.

-Justin.

-Yeah?

-I hope you're very excited, all right?

I've got to show you.

Take a look at your bike.

You will be excited.

Check her out.

Whoohoo!

We've got it set up. Hopefully we'll be able to put it together,

get it going.

-What?!

-All right.

-Gee!

-The business.

You catch me off guard.

This is 20,000 times lighter than my bike by far!

This thing is like paper!

It was fundraised for him because he's such a good cyclist

and he was going through a patch in life,

so everybody decided, well, you know what,

he's a good guy and we've got to look out for him.

And we're happy... We're happy to help,

we're happy to do that because that's what we do around here.

You know, the...

The costs of these bikes is so expensive.

It was like a surprise out of the blue, and I just give God thanks.

Basically if He allows me to have this,

I guess He allow me to get a top place.

Boy, you catch me off-guard, you know!

I can't wait. I'm so excited!

On the neighbouring island of St Barts,

and with the restoration inspection done,

Bishop Errol Brooks is a man on a mission.

We are on our way to the pastry shop.

Exactly. You're on a French island, so what are you going to take back?

-I know!

-It's got to be French pastries.

Even here, the bishop is an instantly recognised

pillar of the community.

Hi, Bishop, how are you doing?

I've seen you before. So you're Shelly-Ann?

-Yes, I am.

-I knew Shelly-Ann.

-Yes, you did know me!

-Miss Tahira.

-How are you doing, you good?

-I hope so.

-All right. All the best.

-All right.

Finally, Bishop Brooks arrives at his destination.

-Boulangerie.

-Bonjour!

-Ah, good.

So, I need to buy some new pastry.

I'm looking...

That's flan. Flan wouldn't melt, would it, the flan?

The flan, no.

This is apple, an apple tart.

-If not, you've got the strawberry one.

-One each of those.

Which of these French bread is better?

-You want French bread?

-Yeah.

-Baguette. Good.

-That's good?

-Yes.

-Bye-bye.

-Merci beaucoup.

-Bye-bye.

We have the bread and we have our pastry.

-Yeah.

-I hope she would like this.

Back in Anguilla, in the west of the island,

Natalie has also been importing some French culture.

-PHONE RINGS

-Good morning.

Three bottle of Millebuis?

OK.

Millebuis.

Wine merchant Natalie, originally from Brittany,

has been selling wine here for over two decades.

Although rum and beer are still the local drinks of choice,

Natalie hopes she can encourage more islanders

-to savour the joys of wine drinking.

-Follow me.

I've got this, which is very, very nice.

The shop wouldn't exist if I didn't sell to hotels and restaurants,

but with our new location, we moved in here last September...

69.41.

..the shop is doing more and more business, so that's very nice.

-My taste is Zinfandel.

-OK, white Zinfandel?

-Good.

-The other one I think I tasted...

-Moscato?

-Yes, Moscato.

You like that, yes.

Noelle...

Let's try this one.

Later today Natalie will be hosting a wine-tasting.

-Good morning, Brenda, it's Natalie.

-'Good morning, Natalie.'

-We're starting at six o'clock.

-OK.

I'm always ready to open a bottle of wine

to make them try, because talking about the wine is one thing,

but when you drink it with that person, it's much better

and the sale is nearly 100%.

We're at 14 now.

So 14 people.

Out on the water,

Stuart Wynne and his team from the fisheries department

are preparing for another dive to hunt lionfish,

a voracious predator threatening local fish

and the biodiversity of the coral reef.

Yeah, this is what we'll be using to try and catch the invasive lionfish.

The idea is to try and keep them on the spear

so that you can then reload it without touching the lionfish.

Best to avoid contact.

It's only the spines that are toxic, but it's got quite a lot of them.

Fisheries Officer Carlos Sasso has first-hand experience

of being stung by a lionfish spine.

It stick me in those two fingers.

Those three fingers. One, two, three of these fingers.

I never, ever felt that pain before in life.

Never, ever.

I went to hospital and they gave me an injection in my hand.

You learn from your lessons, right? So I'm not going to go close to it!

I used to get worried about Stewart.

But he's got the best crew

anyone could have,

and they all look out for each other.

We try to keep the boat as close as possible to the divers.

So nobody run them over, you know?

Camouflaged in the coral reef are two lionfish.

With a life span of 15 years,

they can have as many as 18 spines,

and can grow up to 15 inches long.

It's impossible to eradicate something

once it gets into the ocean.

We're not under the illusion we're going to get rid of the lionfish.

We're just trying to keep their numbers down

to let the natural predators have a chance to acclimatise

to their presence and start doing the business themselves.

-It's a real big one.

-A real big one?

-Wow.

-It's a really good one! I think I'll eat good.

So we go down and we're swimming on the reef, and there's nothing.

I didn't see a lionfish, nothing. But I'm thinking, "OK, that's good."

I'm swimming along, then Ramone comes along, tugs on my fin.

And I just swam over the top of two, and one of them real big.

Well, I shot the big one first.

It was so big that it was really hard to see where you were aiming

for the second one -

It sort of struggled and swam away.

So, you know, the one that got away lives to fight another day.

It's been discovered that once the poisonous spines are removed

and the fish is filleted, lionfish are actually delicious.

Do you think Gordon Ramsay would be proud?

Local chefs are starting to put it on their menus.

So Stuart and his team are hoping the local fishermen

will also join in hunting them down

to speed up the eradication programme.

-Juicy.

-It doesn't get much fresher.

-No, it doesn't get any fresher.

Back on the mainland and in the island capital, The Valley,

organisers are setting up for the John T Memorial Bike Race.

Amongst the cyclists first to arrive is Anguilla's best medal hope,

Justin Hodge,

competing for the first time on his brand-new carbon fibre bike.

I feel good.

Very much good.

This annual race is in honour of the late John Thomas,

one of the island's first competitive cyclists,

whose passion grew the sport on the island.

Now it's one of the major cycling competitions in the Caribbean

with competitors coming from as far away as Aruba,

Trinidad and Barbados.

As well as a 1,000 prize in the top category,

there's the fiercely contested bragging rights.

Well, cycling is just like a religion.

We are fanatics. And today you're going to see battle.

And if you want to see the real winner, look out for my team.

All cyclists, please line up.

Welcome to the 17th John T Memorial Race.

Let's give God thanks and prayers for bringing us this far.

And allowing us to go from strength to strength.

And each rider that takes part in this race,

we should bless them and take them around the island in safety.

In Jesus we pray. Amen.

-Anguilla, are you ready?

-Yeah!

Ready to start?

On your marks,

get set,

go!

The men's individual pursuit is a gruelling three laps of the island,

taking around four hours to complete.

I hope an Anguillan can win.

That would be nice, because Anguilla never won the race.

But I hope Anguilla can win this time.

Eagerly following his countrymen's progress on the 80-mile race,

courtesy of his radio, is Ronnie Brian.

I'm quite sure the guys are pretty much looking at

the rivals from overseas.

They'll pay close attention to them.

Despite strong competition, Justin's in with a chance.

He's keeping up with the leading pack.

Further west,

wine connoisseur Natalie is getting ready for her tasting event.

She's worked hard over the past 20 years,

encouraging locals to love wine as much as she does.

Anguilla is a tourist destination,

all about beach, food and wine.

Why not?

We're in the Caribbean, but why not wine?

Not just rum!

With the wine breathing and some French cheese at the ready,

it's time for the guests.

A mixture of restaurant owners and local customers.

Welcome.

Last time I was here, I was just having a drink with a friend.

I stopped, and I was here...

I was going to the beach, and I got waylaid.

I was here for probably like an hour and a half!

Very bad, Natalie.

Valdobbiadene is an area in Italy

where they produce the best Prosecco.

They do the fermentation in vats.

OK?

Champagne, the second fermentation happens in a bottle.

That's why also it's more affordable.

You got green apple.

Very nice in enjoying wine for the beach.

For every time of the day, in fact.

LAUGHTER

After a Prosecco to clear the palate,

Natalie introduces them to a selection of wines

from around the world.

It's a very, very nice nose.

So, pinot noir, it is grape...

More on the cherries,

very nice strawberries.

It's trendy to have a glass of wine rather than have, you know, rum,

or beer... Which is still good!

I know it's difficult for the people,

you work in the industry, and when you have an open restaurant

and you see that bottle on the table and it gets warm fast,

it's hard, eh?

It's very hard.

That's why I think that Anguilla

should have more indoor restaurants with air conditioning.

BOOING AND LAUGHTER

Just... Just to drink wine at perfect temperature.

Listen to the waves.

I've learned that I need to do more of this tasting.

People are avid to learn about wine.

They just need to be encouraged to try new things.

So, yes, success.

Yes, it was a success.

In The Valley, an expectant crowd has gathered

at the finish line of the inter-island John T Memorial Race.

Who is the winner?

What's his name?

Respect, brother.

112.

With a time of just under four hours,

last year's winner from Trinidad comes in victorious again.

CHEERING AND CLAPPING

Justin Hodge, crazy legs!

Justin Hodge from Anguilla misses out on a trophy,

but comes in at a respectable eighth place.

I did my best I can.

Next year I just got to try to work on some sponsors to pay off my bills

so I can go and train.

Here in Anguilla, we have to work.

And when you're working, it's hard for you to train for cycling.

He didn't win, but he's learned a lot from that race.

-So good to have the bishop here.

-Yes.

It's been a fruitful visit to the neighbouring island of Saint Barts,

and the Bishop Errol Brooks is now homeward bound,

laden with his French pastries.

I have seen the renovations

and I'm very pleased with the work that's going on there.

They've done a tremendous amount of work in four months.

Although it's nice to get away,

for the bishop, there's no place like home.

Oh, the best part of my travel is coming back to Anguilla.

It's just wonderful to come back to the rock, as we say.

In the days to come...

Contestant number one!

..four island hopefuls battle for the coveted title of Miss Anguilla.

I am aiming to win.

I'm not aiming for first runner-up, or second runner-up.

Or no place at all.

On Prickly Pear Island,

Sue and Alan race to prepare a feast for a boatload

of hungry holiday-makers and their exacting Dutch captain.

John's a great character, but if the lunches aren't on time,

you won't see many smiles.

And Bishop Brooks receives a warm greeting

from the birds of Sombrero Island.

I got a welcome!

Somebody said it's good luck, so I'm looking forward to the good luck.