We left Barbados on Thursday lunchtime for an overnight sail here. Conditions were not so good as per normal it seems! The sea was lumpy and it rained but, still, we got here after about 16 hours.
This is rather a nice spot on a marina berth, yacht friendly with free wi fi and lots of things to do and see so we are going to make the most of it while we are here..... until Tuesday. The yankee is being repaired ( sacrificial strip has been sacrificed!) and so we have to wait for that to be done.
Some thoughts on Barbados....... it was mostly rather expensive probably because most touristy things are geared towards the cruise ship passengers who arrive by the ten thousand just about every day it seems. Carlisle Bay is full of bars playing very loud music til all hours and the bay itself awash with day tripper catamarans, speedboats, jetskis etc. There is apparently nowhere else to go on the Island except Port St Charles and possibly a little place called Holetown which we didn't see. Anyway, once we had left, that was it, as it is very hard to get back there under sail!!
Getting ashore and coming back again in the dinghy became a bit of an issue as there is usually a lot of surf on the beach and I didn't manage it once without getting wet!! Thank god for my waterproof bag for all my paraphenalia needed ashore, camera etc.
The insects were a menace especially to me and especially at night...... I need to toughen up a lot still!
A couple of days before we left, a delightful lilac painted traditional fishing boat about 30' ( Veracity from Penzance built in 2004) appeared & anchored nearby, photo below I hope. The owner/builder, Marcus came and said hello and we subsequently had a brilliant evening bbq ashore eating fresh local fish prepared by a Brit gone local, (Dave) together with lots and lots of rum!! After chatting, we found we had several people in common ... the traditional boat world is like that. Marcus and Jess had crossed the Atlantic together from the Cape Verde in just 14 days, quite a feat! They are bound for Dominica soon and then Antigua for the Classics in April. We have agreed to stay in touch.
A story we had been following via the noonsite and "Herb" ended a couple of days ago when we heard that a man sailing alone across the Atlantic and about 150 miles away from us at one point had died at sea, presumably from natural causes, during the crossing. His boat washed up in Trinidad on Thursday. He had called up Herb saying that he felt unwell so any boats nearby were asked to keep a watch. We listened in for a few days and tried to contact him but he didn't respond. There was nothing we could have done in the circumstances but very sad all the same.
Today is Sunday ( I think!!) and we are hoping to find a local bus to take us on an island tour but if we can't find one today, there's always tomorrow....
I have just bought 3 books, one on local trees, one on local birds and one on Caribbean cookery.
I hope I can now put names to some flora and fauna and some experimental meals then for the future!
Thats all for now except for the photos.........
