Well I gather that you all realise that we have made it. My last blog I think puts us somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic with a crazy German guy called Bernie and since I have not seen any news of anyone searching for us or our boat, I guess you all know we made it and are safe in the West Indies (That is until I get round to updating the blog).
We are now on St Lucia WI, our second Island in the Windward Islands enjoying the Rodney Bay Marina. But perhaps I should go back to our arrival. After a few calm days at the end of our crossing we decided that it was time to put the batten back in and pump up the knots a bit. Yes, while we were reefed two down, one of the battens (just above the reef) slipped out of the batten box and started sliding out of the pocket. Luckily we caught it, and with Bernie swinging off the main got it back into the cockpit. Karen, in her inevitable cleaning way, wanted it out of the cockpit and back in the main, so back it went when the seas were calm.
So battened with a full main and genoa, we started the sail around the north of Barbados to Port St Charles – our first Caribbean port of entry. I must admit our first view of the Caribbean, although very welcome after 19 days at sea, was a bit of a letdown – the island was covered with haze and it was only when we got close that we could make out the low profile of the island.
After calling Port St Charles numerous times with no answer we sailed into Six Men Bay and dropped the pick next to the neighbours, Callisto, (although they never seem to invite us over for sundowners).



It had taken us just on 19 days to cross the Atlantic. But at what cost you ask – well we lost a 6mm shackle holding the topping lift to the boom and used about 190l of the 1000l of diesel I put on board after reading the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) blog and none of the €2000 of additional spares I bought in France and Las Palmas. Of course the big cost was feeding Bernie...... and the cost of our 2 sundowners each night (Supersol beer at €0.18 a can)

I then gathered the boat papers and hopped into the dinghy to go to customs and immigration in the marina. There was also “Health” to talk to who asked if there were and communicable diseases on board or whether any of the 3 of us had died during the crossing but alas despite my desire to write “69 ways to kill your wife at sea” as my first contribution to the cruising lifestyle, I could report none (although Bernie gave it a good shot by surfing behind the boat at 6 knots).



Karen was also concerned one night when she could not wake Bernie. She came and got me thinking that he may have passed away and the rest of our trip would be like a Weekend at Bernie’s with a dead man with a sun downer sitting in our cockpit!
So after knocking and entering I met the Customs dude (only world I could use to describe him accurately) and he helped through the whole process. This was lucky because I thought I was in an English speaking country, but I understood more conversations in Spain! (After 3 weeks in the Bar (bados) I had however mastered the dialect and Karen could not understand a word I was saying).
Arriving back to the boat we started the normal program after every crossing, cleaning up the galley so we can enjoy our first sundowners without having to worry about wind shifts, whales or killer waves.... And so we did.



After spending the first 24 hours aboard sleeping and watching the anchor alarm we started to explore our surrounds and headed for Speightstown. A nice little village with a couple of Hardwares (we miss Bunnings) supermarkets, restaurants and of course the fisherman’s pub where Bernie shouted us to breakfast around 10:30 in the morning. Here we enjoyed, fried chicken and I think (remember at this stage we can’t speak the language) curried fish with rice and Karen being vegetarian ordered vegetable chow mien which came with curried flying fish– yes those suicidal fish that kept dying on our deck are main course in the Caribbean. Unfortunately the batteries died on the camera so we couldn’t get a photo of this salubrious establishment.

We spent a week in Port St Charles enjoying the surrounds and the entertainment. I would highly recommend any yachts making landfall on the Bar, clear in here and not Bridgetown. There is a marina here, but it only has about 6 berths suitable for super yachts and we did not quite make the grade. It has a dinghy dock which the harbour master seemed to discourage everyone else but us from using – maybe he saw the grace with which we enter and exit Debbie (the dinghy) and felt sorry for us.

The area around PSC was full of all inclusive resorts so getting a drink was not so easy, however Bernie seemed to find a way around it. We ran into him on the beach on our way back from town. Here he was chatting to his new friend Dr Love (to the tourists – he can get anything for you from ganja to girls) Polka dot (when he’s in the hood) or Rico (to his mum) and he had 5 rum punches in his hands or at his feet. When quizzed on where he had acquired these little gems (that he hastily distributed to us) he replied that a very attractive Scottish woman had approached him while innocently sitting on the beach and asked what he would like to drink, bought him back an abundance of alcoholic beverages and then returned to her husband. All of this was ratified by Polka dot and we later met the said lady and her husband. The sky provided spectacular value both day and night but after a week we upped anchor and headed to the bright lights and jet skis of Bridgetown.

We had an eventful sail of 2½ hours from PSC to Bridgetown with wind speeds of 5 – 30knots right on the beam! When the winds picked up Where II flew – much to Karen’s disappointment. But with the speed of wind changes, there was not enough time to reef so the genoa came in quickly and slowed us down and then the wind dropped off. That was pretty much the pattern on the way down until we anchored safely in Carlisle Bay along with the other 40 odd yachts and one turtle.


 
This turtle appeared at our boat a number of times while we were at anchor and swam out with us to say goodbye when we left!
Barbados is truly defined by its rum and rum shops. There are over 1000 rum shops on the island, many of them being the front room of somebody’s house. Often the bar will be covered in a steel grill with the barman safely ensconced behind it. It makes me wonder what a Sunday afternoon session looks like here.


 
And as a part of understanding the culture of the island I also visited the Mount Gay Rum Distillery and learnt of the history of the world’s oldest rum (300 years)– not that any bottle I bought seemed to age past about a week.



Barbados is about beaches, and Bernie loves beaches and does not I think believe in sun cancer (not certain but am taking a guess). We did do beaches here Carlisle Bay (where we were anchored) had a very nice beach as did some of the southern beaches around the south from Dover back to Hastings. These were nice but not yet the Caribbean dream we were imagining but we have a lot to see yet. Perhaps we have been spoilt by Australian beaches....




We did save the best beaches for our next visit when we come back for the US Visa interviews – Crane beach on the east coast is supposed to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world – which Bernie who did visit it confirmed.

A note on the US Visa – we were told before we left the Canaries that it only takes 7 days to process the visa, but if you are thinking of getting it in Barbados – that 7 days is from the time of the interview. The earliest interview we could get is in April – 3 months from when we got here. We are going to leave Barbados and come back for the interview.

The other thing that is highly recommended in Barbados (apart from Rum) is the Friday night fish cook up at Oistens. So we headed there, Karen hyped up to enjoy a nice fish meal. It is easy to get there – a $1.50 maxi taxi ride but the road in and out of Oistens gets jammed on a Saturday night – so be prepared for long slow ride from Bridgetown. There are literally 100’s of fish stalls cooking up mahi mahi, marlin, king fish, flying fish etc and of course some good loud reggae music. After a quick walk around we decided on a stall, placed our order and waited while Bernie took off and got some wine. The fish was superb and good healthy size servings – Karen and I ended up eating the marlin which was superb.



One warning about Oisten’s – never take advice from a German trying to put you on a bus – you will end up all the way out at Holetown – know what I mean Bernie?

Well with dinner out of the way it was time to sail again – we headed off to St Lucia to get a bit off Raymarine work done as we wait for the work on the boat to be done in Martinique.