Barbados: Bridgetown
17 March 2008 | Downtown Bridgetown from the Constitution River
On Monday morning we were unsure of whether to make a 96-mile overnight passage to Barbados, an island we did not have in our original plans to sail to. Kim got quite interested in sailing to it because of many good reasons, including giving us an opportunity to make a practice overnight passage and being in an island with a long (English) history. But there were also many reasons not to sail to this very developed island, a primary one being the heavy north swells (12-14 feet waves) that were expected to hit all of these islands starting on Wednesday. The anchorages in Barbados are someone exposed with the one off Bridgetown being the best. In addition, sailing to Barbados is something most boats sailing around the Caribbean islands do not do because the passage almost always against the wind - the trade winds come from the east, exactly where Barbados is located - and the seas tend to be rough with large waves and currents. But we saw a "weather window" on Monday, particularly for sailing at night when the winds were expected to clock a bit more from the north. After Kim talked on the phone with a couple of people at the Barbados Harbor and the Yacht club (whom were not aware of the approaching weather conditions) and reviewed all of our weather information we decided to set sail at around 4:15 PM from Soufriere.
The winds were fairly light but once we rounded the south end of St. Lucia the winds increased to 15-17 knots giving us a beam reach and a good sailing speed. We were hoping that these conditions will remain for the entire trip but, unfortunately, at around 2:30 AM the winds had shifted sufficiently to the East to make sailing impossible unless we tacked. We tacked for a while but decided to motor-sail to make a decent arrival time. We arrived at Barbados harbor, where all the big cruising ships dock, at noon time. Docking in such a large harbor was a bit intimidating but it is Barbados' customs and immigration requirement. Before leaving the harbor we docked at a corner to put water in our boat. This was quite tricky as we had to dock Kikuyu amongst the largest buoys we have seen (for large cruise ships) and against a cement wall with gigantic fenders. Oh, well, thanks to the captain and crew's sharpened skills we left the harbor with Kikuyu unscathed and motored around the corner to anchor in Carlisle Bay off Bridgetown.
Unlike the history of most islands in the Caribbean, Barbados was owned only by the British for about 300 years - no battles were carried out by the Europeans to take possession of the island. The English found Barbados uninhabited (though there is evidence that the Caribs were there) and claimed the island for England. This was never challenged by other Europeans because the island was nearly impossible to reach from the other islands due to the winds and seas. In those days, boats had a difficult time sailing to Barbados under these weather conditions. Barbados, however, proved to be a great strategic place for the British as they set up their military headquarters in it and could quickly launch attacks on the other islands while Europeans in the other islands had a rough/impossible time getting to Barbados.