After
a rewarding season of island hopping all the way up from Trinidad to
as far north as Antigua and visiting all the islands in between , it
was time to turn around and start heading back south to Trinidad to
haul out at Peakes Yacht Services by mid-May .
Virtually
every boat that we met up north was going to follow the normal route
of island hopping back south to either Grenada or whichever marina
they planned to sit out the hurricane season , but our plan was a
little different .
Having
almost day-sailed the entire Windward and Southern Leeward islands l
was needing a decent passage with a couple of nights at sea thrown in
before we hauled out and effectively ended our 2017 season . The
thought of having to contend with the vagaries of inter-island
sailing all the way back with strong currents and inconsistent wind
off the islands didn't appeal to me at all . To put that into
perspective imagine the easterly trade winds along with the west
flowing current moving unhindered across the Atlantic and all of a
sudden being confronted with a chain of islands dead across their
path . Billions of litres of water now being squeezed through the
gaps between the islands and the trade winds now being forced to
climb mountains in order to continue on their journey west . The
result is strong currents through the inter-island passages and in
most cases either little wind or strong katabatic winds in the lee of
the islands .
My
thinking was that if we headed east of the island chain into the
North Atlantic we would enjoy some steady trade wind sailing and
although the current would be forward of our beam , it should be
weaker and not reduce our boatspeed that much . The big bonus is that
we could visit Barbados and Tobago on our way home which would
complete all the islands south of Antigua .
Our
boat (not because she is named Windward) sails really well when the
wind angle is forward of the beam but the trick was to wait for
either a ENE wind or first prize would be a north-easterly for two
days solid .
I
monitored the weather for a number of days and saw a window
developing that would suit this passage of 300nm particularly as we
needed to reach my waypoint 4nm east of La Desirade a little island
off the eastern tip of Guadeloupe . The only negative regarding the
weather forecast was a prediction of nocturnal rain squalls which are
squalls that occur usually between the hours of 3.00am and 9.00am in
the morning . Our plan was that l would be on watch during those
hours in order to reef and reduce sail while they passed over us .
To
improve our wind angle we decided to sail to Green Island which lies
off the east coast of Antigua and overnight there and then set off
the next morning for Barbados . This short passage of 11nm would
prove to be the hardest slog of our entire trip but we sailed into
the beautiful little anchorage and settled in for the night . Modern
weather forecasting is a wonderful thing as the next morning a little
north had crept into the easterly trades and we set sail for Barbados
. The first leg of 70nm was a little tight but with our new genoa we
made good progress and by late afternoon we turned the corner and
eased off on course for Barbados . That's when the magic set in with
a steady 15/18kns on the beam we took off and had one of the best
passages ever close-reaching all the way to Barbados . As for the
nocturnal squalls they appeared as predicted and apart from one
intense downpour , we either passed slightly ahead or behind them
avoiding the strong winds and rain that they produce . With a bright
moon both evenings at sea giving us a clear view of their approach we
never touched the sails once , the first time being when we dropped
the main and furled the genoa off the entrance to Port St Charles
Marina . It was an amazing sail knocking off 2/3rds of our passage
home in 44 hours at sea as against hopping down via numerous islands
.
It was
wonderful being offshore again and we had some interesting moments on
the way with groups of dolphins , one in particular hanging in with
us for over 20 minutes . Another little encounter with nature came
during the downpour while a squall was passing over . The moon had
disappeared but in the dark while looking ahead over our spray dodger
l became aware of something moving alongside me in flight . It was so
close l could have reached out and grabbed it . Turning on my
headlamp it turned out to be a brown gull of sorts who appeared to be
trying to land in our cockpit . He had his landing gear down ( legs
hanging vertically ) but with the boat being rather lively in the
squally wind and such poor visibility in the pitch black , he seemed
to be having a major issue with judging the distance between himself
and the boat . I switched off my headlamp to improve his night vision
but after half a dozen attempts at landing he threw in the towel and
disappeared into the night . Maybe he had plans of sitting out the
intense downpour with me in the cockpit .
Another
interesting encounter was with the only ship that we came across in
the entire passage . It appeared on our chart plotter screen 10nm off
our starboard bow but my reliable AIS system calculated that our CPA
( closest distance between us ) would be approx 150 metres ahead of
us crossing our bow . I decided to wait until the ship got closer to
see if they would alter course and cross our stern but 3nm off they
hadn't changed their COG at all . I called up the ship with the radio
operator answering immediately and when l asked him if he was aware
of our presence he confirmed that they had picked us up on their AIS
a long way off and they now had a clear visual on us . When l pointed
out that we had a tight CPA he casually replied that all was under
control and that l need not worry . I replied stating that l was
under sail and would be holding my course . A few minutes later they
crossed our bows doing 19kns with lights blazing and for the first
time ever at sea , l could smell their burnt fuel being sucked along
in their wake . I found it strange that with all this open ocean
ahead of them they chose to cut it fine and not cross our stern . I
was tempted to remind them about the rule that “ motor gives way to
sail “ but at the end of it they relied on the accuracy of their
electronics which in my book is taking a fat chance .
Apart
from arriving in Barbados with Sargasso weed and a dozen flying fish
on our teak decks it was a straight forward passage , a great
alternative to hopping down south through all the islands .
Having
rambled on and on about our great sail to Barbados l almost forgot
that the topic of this post is all about the beautiful island of
Barbados . It started with the officials at Port St Charles Marina
who were very welcoming and courteous while clearing us into the
country . They handed me a pile of maps and tourism info on the
island and wished us a pleasant stay . Having not been in a marina
for months we thought we would treat ourselves to all the perks of
Port St Charles Marina which is part of an ultra luxury waterfront
development . Unfortunately it comes at a price and after one week's
stay our bill equaled that of our last year's annual berth fees in
our homeport of Port Owen Marina . All the same we had a very
comfortable stay hobnobbing with all the multi-smultis who hung
around the restaurant and pool area all day sipping on cocktails that
cost an arm and a leg . We chose to eat at local restaurants where
the Bajans dine and discovered local dishes like flying fish amongst
others . For years l have thrown dozens of these fish off our decks
while at sea never thinking they could be eaten because of their
bones . In Barbados they have competitions where people compete to
see how many flying fish they can fillet in a set time .
Wanting
to see the entire island we were advised that a company called Island
Tours was a great way to accomplish this so we booked a day tour for
the following day . We should have smelt a rat when our tour guide
arrived half an hour late telling us that he had been stopped by
traffic cops for reckless driving on route to pick us up . The
vehicle was a Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 with two rows of plastic seats
fitted with seatbelts . He explained that he still had to collect
another four people so he would have to put pedal to the metal to
make up for lost time . We took off wheel spinning out of the marina
but our thinking was that once he had all his clients strapped firmly
in their seats he would slow down to an orderly pace and let us enjoy
a proper tour of the island . No chance , we spent the entire day
hanging on for dear life with our fellow tourists particularly one
American guy praying continually that we would all survive the day
and get back in one piece . What made matters worse is that one of
his clients , a local Bajan guy thought our guide was an incredible
driver and kept on encouraging him to go faster .
The
idea of using 4x4's is that a lot of the route is off-road but the
only positive is that because of the speed that we traveled at around
the island we got to see most of it in one day .
Barbados
stands apart both geographically and geologically from the rest of
the Caribbean islands in that it lies isolated in the North Atlantic
161kms east of the Lesser Antilles island chain and it sits on top of
a submerged mountain of coral and limestone as against the rest of
the islands which are the peaks of a volcanic mountain range .
Without any volcanoes it is relatively flat unlike the mountains on
all the islands we have visited this season . Broad vistas , sweeping
seascapes and craggy cliffs that line the windward coast gives the
island a totally different feel to its neighbours .
One of
its biggest assets are its people . Bajans are warm friendly people
who know how to make you feel at home and they are very British in
their accents and mannerisms . The reason why Barbados is the “
most British “ of all the Caribbean islands is because unlike its
neighbours who had mainly the French and British continually having
repeated conflicts for control , the British ruled here uninterrupted
for 340 years . The British influence remains strong today not only
in their manners , customs and so on but also in their traditions
where afternoon tea is a ritual , dressing up for dinner is popular
and cricket is a national pastime . We were told by our guide (
Barbados's equivalent to Ayton Senna ) that in Barbados education is
free and the kids start school at five years of age . They are well
spoken and courteous and when the First Mate and l caught a bus a few
days later down to Bridgetown we had a number of fellow passengers
point out to us that we had arrived on the outskirts of the city ,
their concern in case we wanted to jump off early at a specific
location . If you stop a Bajan in the street and ask for directions
you will be kept for ages while they explain in detail just how to
get to where you are wanting to go .
Up on
the West Coast where we were based is very upmarket with fashionable
, luxurious beach resorts , expensive restaurants and some of the
most beautiful beaches we have seen in the Caribbean . In
Speightstown we found some well priced eateries where the locals
gather which is much more our style .
All in
all , Barbados is a sophisticated tropical island with a rich
interesting history whether you are British or not and according to
my First Mate , if she had to choose a Caribbean island to live on
this would be it .
