We departed Ile St. Joseph off
the coast of French Guiana early on March 23rd, en route to
Barbados, 635 miles away. The first day
out was rough with short period, steep waves that are typical in the shallow
waters off the South American coast. We
had NNE winds at 12-15 knots with 6-8 ft seas, and we were hard on the wind to
get offshore and into deeper water. We
still had a boost from the current, so we actually made great progress,
knocking off 156 miles the first day, but both of us were seasick and ready to
stop pounding into the waves.
By the second day, we were in
blue water again, and the wind shifted to the NE, enabling us to fall off to a
more comfortable reach. We averaged 6.5 knots for the following two
days in what turned out to be very nice sailing. The ITCZ was now behind us, and we had very
few squalls and mostly clear skies.
By day four, the winds lightened
and shifted to the east and our speed dropped to 5.5 knots. This worked out well for the timing of our
arrival, and we sailed into the lee of Barbados and the Caribbean Sea on the
morning of March 27th. By
noon, we approached the deep water harbor where we were required to tie up for
clearance procedures.
Barbados is the most windward
island in the Caribbean and is very popular for cruise ships. Unfortunately, the port, customs and
immigration offices were all located around the deep water basin that was built
with these large vessels in mind. The
tall concrete walls used by these huge ships are not so good for a little
sailboat, but the port requires all visiting yachts to come alongside to
complete clearance.
The port officials communicated
our docking instructions to us over the VHF when we arrived, and after one look,
we decided against it. We radioed them
for another option, which was just as bad.
After a bit of back and forth, they contacted a local tug boat that
agreed to let us tie alongside. This was
not ideal, but a big improvement.
It was a difficult approach, as
the tug was tied up in a corner, underneath the bow of a cruise ship, and it
took a couple of passes before we were alongside. There were two men on board who helped secure
our lines. We positioned all of our
fenders for maximum protection and tied off additional lines to keep us from
coming up hard against the tug. This
took 15 minutes of adjustments before Saviah was finally secured well enough. By then, the crew of the tug said they had to
leave to help a cruise ship out, and we would have to untie.
There was another tug in the
harbor, so we moved up and re-tied. Di
grabbed our documentation and ran around to the various offices, while Andrew
stayed onboard to adjust the lines and fend off. Thankfully, the clearance was quick, and 30
minutes later, we were on our way.
The next morning, we finally
reached someone at the harbor master’s office, and were happy to learn there
was room in the Careenage for us. We
rowed to shore and headed into Bridgetown to fill out our paperwork at the
office and scheduled our arrival time for later that afternoon.
The Careenage is a narrow inlet
in Carlisle Bay that connects with the Constitution River. Later that afternoon, at our scheduled time,
we motored in, and the drawbridge was raised so we could pull into the inner
basin. Boats in the Careenage tie stern-to
the concrete wall along the perimeter, and the bow is tied off to moorings in
the middle of the channel. Since we
don’t have a good way to get off our stern, we used the dinghy to get to and
from shore.
Having unlimited freshwater at
the boat was really nice. We had spent a
cumulative 43 days at sea since leaving South Africa two months prior, and
Saviah was in desperate need of a deep cleaning. We washed the boat inside and out, flushed
out our water tanks, did lots of laundry and even washed the interior
cushions.
For the most part, it was nice to
be in Bridgetown, which is the capital and largest city on the island. We could walk two blocks to the grocery store,
and there were lots produce stands across the street, as well as a fish market
nearby. We were also only a couple
blocks from the white sandy beach that stretches along Carlisle Bay. We spent most mornings running on the beach
and then cooling off with a swim in the bay.
The locals seem to be very active, and many people ran along the shore or
played paddle ball on the beach. People
were quite friendly here, and we found that to be the case all over the island.
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| Careenage, St. Michael's cathedral, fish market |
Barbados is an independent
country, and has been since 1966. They
were under British rule for nearly 340 years before that, and there is still a British
feel to the island. Cricket and polo are
popular sports, and English is the official language, although most of the
locals speak a variant, called Bajan, in everyday life. Although it is based on English, we had a
very difficult time understanding it.
Most of the people of Barbados
are descendants of the African slaves that the English brought over to work in
the sugar cane plantations. Sugar is
still a big industry here, but with half a million visitors every year, tourism
is now the most important part of the economy.
It seems that most of these tourists arrive via cruise ship, and there
were usually two or three in port at a time during our first week on the
island. After that, the Caribbean cruise
season came to an end, and there was a huge difference in the amount of
tourists we saw around town.
Getting around Barbados
is easy and cheap, as busses run around most of the island and cost only $1 per
person. The major bus station was across
the street from the Careenage, so we decided to hop on and do some sightseeing.
Our first trip was down to the south
coast, which is the center of tourism on the island. There were miles of hotels, condominiums and
restaurants as well as some really nice beaches. We also visited Bathsheba, on the windward
side of the island. This was a nice area
that was not really developed yet, and the coastline is rugged, with some big
swell coming in.
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| Bathsheba, St. Lawrence Gap, Paynes Bay |
We also traveled up to the
north side of the island and around some of the inland areas. Sugarcane was growing in many fields around
the countryside, and it was nearly time for harvest. We hopped off the bus at the Morgan Lewis
Mill, and took a tour of one of the largest intact sugar windmills. We then walked up the road a ways to St.
Nicholas Abbey, which is one of the oldest plantations in the Caribbean, built
in the 17th century. The
whole property has been very well restored, including the mansion with lots of
the original furniture and fixtures and some beautiful gardens all around. The plantation still operates and is
surrounded by fields of sugarcane, which they use to make rum and
molasses.
After a few weeks on the
island, our friends Eric and Cristi, their kids Jadyn and Logan, and Eric’s mom
Kim arrived. They rented a really nice
condo right on the beach in Paynes Bay and invited us to stay with them. We had been looking forward to their visit
for a long time. It was nice to catch up
with our good friends again, and the deluxe accommodations didn’t hurt
either. Kim and Cristi are both excellent
cooks, and we enjoyed some great meals together.
We had a very relaxing
week, spending our time lounging on the beach or swimming and snorkeling. This stretch of coast is home to many sea
turtles, and rarely a day went by without us seeing one. We also rented stand up paddle boards and
played a lot of paddle ball on the beach, a very popular game on the island.
One morning Brian, a local tour
guide, picked us up on his Hobie Cat. We
sailed down the coast and stopped at several good snorkeling spots. There were quite a few turtles around and a
decent assortment of fish as well. It
was especially fun just sailing in the flat calm ocean.
On Friday night, the two
of us along with Eric and Cristi headed out to see the south side of the
island. Our first stop was for drinks at
the Crane Beach Hotel, which sits at the top of a cliff with beautiful views of
the pink sand beaches and beyond. Oistins
was our next stop, which is the center of the island’s fishing industry with a
large active fish market. They are known
locally for their Friday night fish fry, which has all kinds of music and
dancing with vendors selling delicious and inexpensive seafood. One of the popular local dishes is flying
fish, which we tried and were pleasantly surprised. Maybe we should have added them to the menu
on ocean passages instead of tossing them overboard.
