IMAGE – James at the Mount Gay Rum Distillery
We arrived off Bridgetown, Barbados on Friday 7th December on the 4 day of our passage from Guyana. We had a good sail, thankfully the currents were with us in mainly light winds under a full main and genoa, but we did have some mighty evening squalls up to 30 knots on and off for 5 hours one night – but La Aventura handles all this in her stride. We had always wanted to visit this iconic ‘Mount Gay’ island, but because its location is so far east it is a difficult (impossible) passage from many of the Windward Islands, so this was the ideal opportunity to make a visit whilst on this passage – with our final destination St Thomas USVI for Christmas. Our arrival time was excellent – early afternoon, therefore with plenty of time to do out check-in and then anchor in Carlisle Bay. The pilot book specifically stated that we must enter the commercial harbour/ Cruise Ship Terminal to attend customs, immigration and health authorities. There were 3 large cruise boats in the terminal, and this was a totally unsuitable and non yacht-friendly arrival dock. We were told to go alongside the tug wall ! – anyway –with lots of fenders out and many long shore lines and thankfully with some assistance from the tug dockhands we tried up, but I couldn’t get ashore. James finally took his life in his hand and clambered over the large mooring post to go ashore and deal with the paperwork – leaving me to fend off the boat in this bouncy swell and this very nasty mooring situation. We did bend a stanchion during this whole exercise. 11/2 hours later James returned hot, and frustrated with all the paperwork completed (same form 3 times for 3 different official departments) and $US50 later – very expensive indeed – and for what – permission to anchor after the joys of this arrival dock! On motoring into Carlisle Bay we noticed a familiar boat – The Southern Cross – with Catherine and Peter on-board. It was lovely to see them again – they had just recently arrived here from their Atlantic crossing – and the last time we had all been together was Easter in Rhodes, Greece in 2011. Although we were invited over to The Southern Cross for a drink and chat we declined, and instead had a quiet and early night and a good sleep after our 4 days at sea. Barbados is one of the more developed of the Caribbean territories, and many of the rich and famous, and celebrities have holiday homes here. The highly popular singer Rihanna is a local girl. The countries economy now is firmly international tourism based, not like the old days of colonial sugar, tobacco and rice production. The Bajan people are a mix of African slaves brought into the country to work the sugar plantations, and descendants of the first European settlers.

After a quick chat with Catherine & Peter on Saturday 8th, we took the dingy up into the small Careenage docks right into ‘downtown’ Bridgetown. This boardwalk area was lively with bars, restaurants and tourist day-tripper sailing catamarans. We had an enjoyable few hours walk and wander of the city. Barbados The town was slowly filling with cruise boat tourists – all far too interested in all the Duty-free shopping than looking around the historical centre. The Pelican Arts and Crafts centre was full of colourful little shops – some just with tourist tat, but others had great local handcraft and art works. The municipal fruit and veg market, and street stalls were full of excellent produce – and the locals were all out and about. As Independence day – 30th November had just past – the historical buildings and main Heroes Square Park were still ‘dressed’ in the national colours – blue and yellow, plus the Christmas decorations – it all looked a bit Disney-like overdone. The beautiful public Parliament buildings house the third oldest parliament in the world after Britain and Bermuda were well restored and interesting to see the local art and history museum. During out walk around downtown Bridgetown we felt safe and were not at all pestered by street vendors, taxi drivers for tour guides. We enjoyed a long walk along the beautiful soft white sandy beach of Carlisle Bay. Barbados is a small, flat pear shaped island of only 166 square miles, measuring 22 miles long by 14 miles wide and home to approx 280,000 Bajans. It was great to have ‘proper’ sand between our toes again. We wandered past the several beach bars with umbrellas and loungers for hire to the very end of the beach to reach the Barbados Yacht Club. We had a lovely cold local Banks beer, together with a snack lunch of Flying Fish sandwich. This sandwich is one of the local specialities – and amazingly the flying fish in the emblem of many local firms and sporting clubs. We were not that impressed with the sandwich- but the beachfront bar and elite ambience of the Yacht Club was excellent. The Barbados Yacht Club hosts the famous annual Mount Gay Regatta each May, and we asked at the bar to purchase one of the highly sought after Mount Gay Rum Red Caps, to be told( what we already knew) that a cap is a badge of honour and not able to be purchased! We have collected enough flying fish over the years on our deck during our various passages, and also here in Bajan waters to make 100’s of sandwiches. In the afternoon James was able again to listen to the broadcast of the BBC on the local radio station for the sports programme. It was refreshing to be in a Caribbean island and not to be pestered by the pirogues and local vendors. We had a great catch-up chat with Peter and Catherine over late afternoon drinks on The Southern Cross, but back on-board the rain showers forced us inside for our dinner – something that has not happened for so long now I can’t remember.

Sunday 9th was an overcast, windy and cloudy day. We were woken very early – 4.30am with the announcements in association with a yearly Barbados International marathon and 10k running event being held around the local streets –with the finish line on Carlisle Bay. We enjoyed a late Sunday Breakfast well after all the noise and event had finished for the day. It was interesting to watch the local horses being swam for exercise off the beach off our anchorage. It was obvious that a few more yachts had chosen Barbados as their arrival port from there Atlantic crossing overnight – with 6 more yacht coming into the anchorage. Cricket in Barbados – Yes- well it is THE national sport, and at the iconic Kensington Oval. On Sunday was the final of a local T20 competition, so at $B5 ($US2.50) each - all 4 of us had a great evening out.

On the final day of this very short stop in Barbados - Monday 10th we visited the Mount Gay Rum distillery in search for some special merchandise that only sailors in regattas acquire – yes we were successful. While waiting for the local bus it was interesting people watching – the older ladies wearing chintzy little dresses and prim little hats and the strong Afro-Caribbean presence. After a quick food shopping trip we spent some time at the library getting our emails, podcasts and weather forecasts done – its looks like we will have plenty of wind for our passage north to St Thomas. We both had hair-cuts and had a long walk to and from the cruise ship terminal to check-out – there was no way we were going to actually take the boat back into the terminal again for the departure formalities.
We said our goodbyes and Christmas wishes to our Aussie mates Catherine and Peter over morning coffee on La Aventura before we set off on Tuesday 11th.

MARTINIQUE – we had a brisk and lively 100 mile run to Martinique, with lots of forecast wind and squalls. We made excellent time – arriving just on dawn. Thankfully we had visited this island earlier in the year and could follow our plotter track into the entrance. We had very poor visibility in rain showers trying to miss the numous fishing markers at the entrance – I do wish that the EU could make a law about standardising fishing markers!! Whilst crossing the channel between St Lucia and Martinique, we crossed tracks with 3 ARC yachts heading for their Atlantic crossing finish in St Lucia – how exciting for them. We anchored off Marin, just like our last visit again with 100’s of other yachts and after a quick breakfast had a few hours rest before getting in the dingy and going into the supermarkets. Marina has 2 excellent supermarkets within easy reach for the dingy and we were able to get most items on our Christmas food list – plus the champagne. After a quick internet stop to check our emails and get an updated weather forecast we set off back to the boat for a gourmet French feast for dinner. It’s just fantastic to have been able to sail into France whilst in the Caribbean for this quick ‘wine and cheese’ 24hour stop.