Grown Ups Gap Year

We spent both Christmas and New Year in Barbados, at the same anchorage, off Port St Charles Marina and apartment complex. It was in such an idyllic location. It had its own private beach with soft sandy white sand and some small reefs in which to explore the aquatic wildlife. The Marina was not in fact in a port but on its own man made island with room for about 6 super yachts. It had no facilities but the yacht club had restrooms and showers for its patrons. The deal was that if you frequented the restaurant or bar you could use their facilities but and provided a safe dingy dock for visiting anchoring yachts. However they also had some large mooring buoys where massive super yachts could anchor. The reason we stayed longer than originally planned, was because we were joined by our friend, Jim again, who had previously sailed with us across Biscay at the beginning of this adventure.

The first morning in Barbados was spent clearing immigration and customs and having a well deserved drink with other Atlantic Crossers in the Bar of the yacht club! The remainder of the day used for cleaning and organising Mirage. As you can imagine below deck resembled a world war 3 battle zone as my first mate had not been up to her usual boat chores! The constant rolling had thrown items which had normally stayed in place to be scattered across the cabins and add to our ever increasing laundry pile. Naturally we couldn't resist having the all important swim into the first crystal clear aquamarine sea water, which incidentally was now 27 degrees. Needless to say, unsurprisingly we were not late to bed.Luckily for the first few days in Barbados we had rain showers every day which we could use to wash the salt from Mirage. With so little rain on the Atlantic crossing there was a considerable amount of sea salt covering Mirage that needed washing away. We did consider brushing it all up, packaging it and selling it on-line as Mirage Sea Salt Flakes at some obscene price!

The second day introduced us to the buses in Barbados! There are three types of buses, excluding the expensive taxi's. They all have the same fare price of $3.50BD irrespective of how far you travel on the route. The first are the blue government buses that run to a rough time table, are free for OAP's and bus pass holders but otherwise you have to have the correct fare as they don't give change. The second type are the 35 seater yellow buses and the third are 17 seater white mini-buses, they run when full or almost full but do give change. Our introduction to local civilization after 2 weeks of no social interaction was on a yellow bus to enable us to travel through two local towns to find a launderette. The yellow buses, and their loud Reggae music, vibrant internal decor, and big personalities was initially a total sensory overload! We soon realized for them it was not about the comfort and safety of their passengers, but more about how many people they could encourage onto their bus, lots of horn blowing to attract passengers attention, including the pretty girls, make the journey as quickly as possible to maximise profit. With no speed limit and lots of these yellow buses of varying degrees of disrepair on the road it made for a very interesting ride, absolutely the perfect choice for us! We asked the bus driver were the nearest launderette was but our ears were not in tune to the Barbadian accent. We were encouraged to a seat and it was like being on a theme park ride.The huge bus driver was not to be reckoned with as one local found out to his peril when challenging his fare was physically thrown off the bus by him. We had no such treatment as we were not only dropped off right outside a launderette but our heavy wet bag with 4 loads of washing crammed inside was carried to the door by the bus conductor!

Having returned to Port St Charles Yacht Club we started chatting with a couple from Suffolk, Tim and Julie, who amazingly were very good friends with a groups of sailors Sally and I had joined about 4 years ago on a sail around the Channel Islands and parts of the French Normandy coast and ended in a video chat with one of the couples from the group, what a small world! They kindly invited us to sundowner drinks on board to learn more about their sailing adventures.

We deliberately made sure we didn't fill each day up with 'doing something' which gave us time for walks on the beach, swims and generally relaxing and walking around the area of Port St Charles. It took Sally several days for her land legs to return and get her appetite back and for us to catch up on our sleep so we could enjoy some Christmas festivities.

The local beach side town, Speightstown, pronounced Spice Town, was a favourite walk for us and had a mixture of shops, roadside market stalls selling almost everything, (including rolled up tobacco with a very sweet smell!), various bars and restaurants (playing reggae) and several churches. Just ask Sally about the sweet potato mash we ate in one of the small bars when you see her next! Speightstown was only a 10 minute dinghy ride away but we usually walked the 30 mins from Port St Charles as landing on the beach was tough due to shelving sand and surf. The one day it was calm enough to take the dinghy ashore we ended up having our fuel siphoned from the outboard fuel tank!

Another favourite place for us was a small fishing village to the north of the anchorage called Moon Town. It was off the tourist track, full of small shack style beach houses, which were in various stages of repair/disrepair or construction. We visited here and the local bar both on our own and with other boaties as the drinks were cheap but the ambience wonderful with different styles of music played on different nights such as Reggae, 50's American Country and more modern music. One evening a group of us ate here and had a great fish meal caught by the fishermen from Moon Town that day, so you can't get much fresher than that! We got the impression that the men folk tend to congregate at the bars unwinding, drinking rum and beer in copious amounts playing dominoes and smoking together.

One afternoon on our return to the dinghy dock we gave a hand to a couple of fellow cruisers with their shopping who promptly invited us onto their large cameraman for a dinner as they now had some provisions. Julian and Deb had been cruising for almost 2 yrs already having bought their boat in France, sailed up to Scotland via Penzance, south and north wales, across to northern and southern Ireland, down the French, Spanish and Portuguese coast and into the western Mediterranean, before crossing via the canaries to Barbados. A 45 foot cameraman certainly has lots of space compared to us with three double bedrooms, three en-suites, a large lounge and kitchen area and massive outside dining area and much more stable at anchor. Not to mention a washing machine,tumble dryer, freezer and small dish washer! Poor Sally was green with envy, we could never afford the mooring costs not alone the initial cost of purchase! They are on their way back to New Zealand and then Australia as that is where they are from. During our visit I spotted a couple of ukuleles and mentioned that I was also learning to play so consequently on a later visit we ended up having a group jam session with Julian also playing his flute. We spent quite a bit of time with Deb and Julian and they are such a wonderfully warm, hospitable and generous couple who EVEN gave me an alto-saxophone! Julian hated it with a passion after he acquired it from a friend struggling to make the correct shape and breath combination to play it. In conversation after discussing that played the clarinet, he skipped below and almost flung it at me and insisted I take it otherwise he was flinging it overboard! So now I have a clarinet, ukulele and an alto-saxophone on board and amazingly Sally has yet to jump ship!

We used the buses to travel around the island and for the majority of routes you had to go via the bus depots in Bridgetown, the capital. Whilst exploring we took a look at the anchorage as we had thought about sailing there for New Year. However, when we looked. it was crowded with other visiting yachts,quite rolly, with jet skis buzzing continuously through the boats and the beach was swarming with hotel guests with their designated sun loungers strategically placed in between bars. Not our idea of a quiet anchorage, so we decide against it. Bridgetown is by far the largest town on Barbados. Formerly is was called The Town of Saint Michael as it's located within the parish of Saint Michael, hence the original name. Similar to Speightstown when in comes to market stalls on it's extremities and around the bus depots were it appeared that the poorer Barbadians were trying to make a living, but nearing their commercial and economic centre, extremely large department stores targeting the visiting cruise ships with their tax free incentives and a lot of jewellery shops boasting Cuban emeralds with security guards outside. I kept a very tight supporting arm around Sally in case she tried drag me in! The assistants have a great pride in their appearance and are extremely attentive. It was a fascinating, but loud, place to visit. The UNESCO heritage site is near to the water front and old dock areas, or creenage, at the heart of Bridgetowm with Constitution River entering the sea. The Careenage is now a marina for fishing boats but a couple of yachts were also in there. The UNESCO area is located around the Garrison, apparently it is the best Caribbean example of British colonial architecture consisting of the old town built in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries however sadly it was extremely run down with a lot of areas in need of refurbishment. It was whilst here that it started to dawn on us that Christmas was fast approaching as they had dozens of Christmas tress decorated by the local school children representing all the different Commonwealth countries. Fascinating to see how they had made them all so individual to that particular country.

On Christmas day we opened each other cards and a few presents from family and friends videoing it so we could share it later via whats App, before heading off with our snorkels for a Christmas swim from the boat, towards the reefs along the shoreline. I must say it was just a little bit warmer than the Weymouth/Swanage Christmas day swim! It was here we had our most memorable and precious Christmas day treat as a huge turtle came gracefully swimming by as well as the usual kaleidoscope of colourful fish. After our swim and solar shower we managed to make a few phone calls home to family, which left us feeling a little homesick. Emily and Richard had brought us out a Christmas cake, Xmas pudding and mince pies whilst in the Canaries so we invited Tim and Julie to share in our festivities. We were due to have Tim and Julie join us around 4pm but unfortunately Tim was not well but Julie still came as we collected her from their boat. Sally managed to rustle up a roast chicken/turkey meal with some of the normal Christmas trimmings, including sprouts for a lovely evening meal once the sun had gone down. It was definitely strange to be having Christmas in the sun in temperatures of over 30degC.

On New Years Eve we decided to try and explore the south east side of Barbados travelling to Sam's Lord, or at least that's what we thought as the termination point for the buses was not actually where it was stated but a couple of miles further on at Shaftsbury. This resulted in a walk back to Sam's Lord, in the midday sun, where we discovered a small beach about 20m wide called Sharks Hole. This was popular with the locals as it was probably the only one for quite a few miles and they were happy for us to join them but warned us not to leave the bay as it had dangerous under currents that could sweep you out to sea. We noticed that not a lot of the locals could swim but were happy to wade around or use woggles as flotation aids. The Atlantic side of the Island is very rocky and has fast currents and good surf. It attracts kite surfers but can be very dangerous for bathers. Needless to say there aren't any safe anchorages on this side of the island. We returned exhausted after our long walk and lots of fresh air for supper before planning to be in SpiceTown to see in 2020 where they have a massive street party. We celebrated English New Year 4 hours before with messages back home and then thought we would have a little nap only to be woken at midnight local to two different firework displays. One off Port St Charles and the other we think from an exclusive resorts further along from Spicetown. It was difficult to know which way to look as there was so many different displays. Very spectacular and our photos certainly didn't do it justice. Some of the locals had an all night party on the beach so we were able to enjoy the music and laughter from the comfort of our cabin.

We met Jim at the airport on the first Saturday in January and introduced him to the joys of the yellow buses on the island as we travelled back to Mirage, an eye opener for him! This was two buses with a change at Bridgetown. We needed to walk from one bus depot to another as the two depots cover different sides of the island. This gave Jim a chance to sample Bridgetown and even included us stopping at the band stand in the centre of the town to watch the Barbados Police Band play a medley of tunes, including some Christmas favourites, all with a distinctive Caribbean twist. Once Jim was on board he handed us the new AIS unit, and taking just over an hour it was installed, tested and passed fully operational returning this much valuable safety feature to Mirage for our onward travels. This was made much easier as I had done all the preparation work for the fitment before Jim's arrival.

On our final full day in Barbados Jim, Sally and I went for a walk towards the North West corner of Barbados and came across a derelict lighthouse, at Harrison Point. It was open and could be climbed all the way to the top. This would definitely not have been possible in the UK due health and safety regulations! The views were amazing but care was needed so we didn't fall through the rusty hand rails outside the remains of the glass windows at the top! In the distance we could see a large number of buildings that were also derelict. After talking to a German couple who had also climbed the lighthouse we were informed it was an old temporary prison so we decided to investigate. It did indeed turn out to be an abandoned prison complete with cells, watch towers and accommodation blocks,. however both Jim and myself thought it had had previous uses due to the layout and look of the buildings. After a bit of searching on the internet it turned out to be originally a US Navy base that was used to listen to Soviet submarines. The derelict buildings had been converted into a temporary prison when the original prison on Barbados was severely damaged in riots. It was very strange looking around the deserted building but from looking at safety certificates in electrical cabinets it appeared to be still operating as a prison in the 90's. We have added some photos of both locations for you to get a better look.

The final morning was spent clearing immigration and customs in Barbados, filling Mirage up with fresh water and buying 22 litres of fuel. This replaced all the fuel we had used since leaving Gran Canaria and sailing to Barbados via the Cape Verdes. A typical car would probably cover 250 miles with the same amount of fuel and we had sailed over 3300 miles! By 1pm we were under sail from Barbados and heading for Carricou, in the Grenada Island chain for our next adventure.