When you live on a yacht,
particularly a monohull, you HAVE to get used to the constant movement of the
boat. When you choose an anchorage there
are certain requirements you have to take into account - the wind and the swell,
plus the depth of the anchorage, as you want as much protection as possible.
The better the protection, the more comfortable and enjoyable the anchorage
will be as that will mean a smooth, gentle movement of the boat and a good night’s
sleep! Unfortunately not all places can offer all of these requirements.
Store Bay in Tobago, where we
started the week off, offered very
little protection from a NE swell so there were times when we rocked and rolled
quite a bit, but not enough to make us not have a good night’s sleep.
Unfortunately this is not always the case. More later…..
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| One of the lovely beaches on Tobago |
I have mentioned this a few
times – we were keen to get to Barbados and were watching the weather quite
closely. Monday morning the weather forecast predicted that the weather looked
favourable for us to head NE to Barbados on Thursday/Friday. An opportunity we
were not keen to miss, as there would not be many chances in the remaining time
we had for the winds to blow south of east or as close to SE as possible. This
time of the year, the Christmas winds set in – these blow from the NE which
would make it extremely difficult and to tell you the truth quite silly to even
try to sail to Barbados from the south, when these winds are blowing.
BUT…. We hadn’t explored
Tobago yet so Mel and I decided to hire a car for the day and travel around the
island. The weather wasn’t great as it was pouring with rain and it would have
been better to just spend the day on the boat, relaxing.
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| Jemma's Tree Teahouse |
As we drove up to the top of
the island, it became progressively hillier- the western part of the island is
quite flat but the north is extremely hilly. We stopped off at Speyside which
is Tobago’s dive capital, for a cuppa tea at Jemma’s Tree Teahouse. This was a
lovely quaint restaurant built around a tree.
We also saw some fishermen
cleaning and preparing their catch. They gave Mel and Ivo some advice on how to
fillet a fish.
After Speyside we were now
heading down the northwest coast line where there are a few bays where one can
anchor. When anchoring in some of these lovely bays, you hope there isn’t going
to be a northerly swell, plus the anchorages are very deep which means you have
to put out a lot more chain.
We stopped off at
Charlotteville, Bloody Bay, Parlatuvier Bay where we took a short walk along a
trail to the Parlatuvier Falls.
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| Charlotteville |
We went for a walk along
Englishman’s Bay which is surrounded by lush vegetation. Just as we were about
to turn into the entrance of Englishman’s Bay, we saw the fly-infested remains
of a python that had been driven over by a car. Its head was crushed flat
against the asphalt of the road.
At Castara Bay we stopped off
at the main beach where the school is located and saw how they were using all
the natural resources around them to make veggie gardens. They were using
bamboo to construct raised flower beds, with banana leaves as a base layer for
holding the soil and coconut husks as mulch. |
| Castara |
We carried on driving along
the coastline to Plymouth, where we saw a fishing boat had been flooded with
water and was being swept up along the sea shore. We hate to think of the
damage was being done to the two HUGE outbound motors attached to it. We also
stopped off at Fort Bennet and walked around the Fort.
A bit of useless information
that Tobago has to offer – it has the world’s fanciest and the largest goat
racing stadium at Buccoo. On the Tuesday after Easter Monday, the village of
Buccoo hosts the national and annual goat race.
Wednesday afternoon we went
into Scarborough to check out of Trinidad and Tobago and had an early dinner,
ready for an early start on Thursday.
Thursday morning our anchor
was up by 6.00am and we were heading NE towards Barbados. We were rather
excited as we had been planning and preparing to sail to Barbados since St
Lucia but the opportunity never presented itself.
After sorting out the fish –
Mel cuts the head off and guts it, throwing everything overboard, we then put
the fish in a big black bag which goes into our freezer – we cleaned up the
cockpit as it does get a bit smelly and messy with the gutting before we went
back to relaxing and enjoying the sail.
Like in most cases/experiences
in life, things do not always go according to plan….. the winds were not as
strong as predicted which meant we were going A LOT slower than anticipated and
they were not as far SE or south of east as predicted. Originally we thought we
would arrive in Bridgetown Barbados by noon on Friday but it was looking more
like 3.00pm. Our concern was the conflicting information we had on customs and
immigration overtime charges and rates. Some info said over time charges start
from 10.00pm while others said from 5.00pm and these rates can be quite heavy
and make a HUGE dent in the budget.
It was a magical night as we
had a full moon. A container ship passed our way at about 2.00am – we are
thankful we have AIS that alerts us when a commercial vessel comes within close
proximity to us.
Mid Friday morning we started
to see a vague outline of Barbados and we thought that we would get to Barbados
by 4.00pm but then the AIS alarm went off warning us that we were on a
collision course with a 199m cargo ship.
On the AIS we can see the
name, MMSI number, speed, length, final destination, CPA = closest point of
approach, TCPA = time of closest point of approach and a few other bits of
information about the vessel.
When we were about 4nmiles
away from the cargo ship, Mel radioed the ship to say that we would go behind
them, which they were very grateful for as it is not easy for a vessel that
size to alter course quickly. This unfortunately meant that we would be
arriving in Bridgetown 30 -45 mins later than schedule now. Better to arrive
late in one piece than not at all!!!
Technically speaking any
vessel that is under sail has right of way so we could have just carried on
sailing and the cargo ship would have had to get out of our way but in this
instance and in most times when it comes to big cargo/ container ships, it is
better for the smaller sailing vessel to keep clear of these HUGE vessels of
the sea.
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| Fata Morgana leaving the Customs Dock |
The wind played ball and we
picked up speed which was a relief so about 1nm Mel radioed the Bridgetown port
authorities for permission for us to enter the port for clearance.
We have noticed that in the
predominantly ex-British islands/countries, there are quite strict rules and
regulations for entry into the country. It seems that these ex-British colonies
have still maintained some of the British naval requirements and etiquette.
Like in Antigua, in Barbados
you had to tie up to the Customs and Immigration dock. You could NOT anchor off
somewhere and then dinghy in like in most other countries.
The docking area was the area
used by cruise liners so the fenders against the dock were HUGE and very high.
We put out all of our fenders to protect Passages as much as possible. Fata
Morgana were there to assist us which I was relieved about as it is quite
difficult having to jump off the boat as quickly as possible to tie up the boat
while Mel is trying his best to get as close to the dock as possible and as a slowly as possible.
After quite a long procedure
we were eventually all legal and were allowed to proceed to the main visiting
yachts anchoring area in Carlisle Bay. There was a HUGE cruise liner in the
harbour and we felt quite small in comparison to them.
Barbados though is the first
port of call for many yachts arriving from Europe, particularly between
November and March. They sail down to the Cape Verde Islands, then across to
Barbados. While we were anchored in Carlisle Bay, we saw many yachts, at least
10 -15, arriving from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Belgium to
name but a few.
Anyway, we knew that there was
a 10km and a 3km run on Saturday, organised by Run Barbados.
Mel and Ivo have been getting
up early in the mornings and going for runs on whatever island we happen to be
on. Ivo had only been running since meeting Mel, nor had he ever run 10kms let alone
entered a race, so he was so excited when he found out about the 10km run.
The race took place at 4.30pm
opposite the Prime Ministers Offices. Mel and Ivo did really well although Mel
is a bit concerned about his fitness level as he has entered into Comrades for
next year and he is not as fit as he should be at this time of the year. Mel’s
time was 46:26 and Ivo’s time was 53:25.
Sunday we decided to see
Bridgetown and look for Synagogue Lane which we found. Apparently quite a few
of the graves found around the Synagogue were pirates – Jewish pirates! We
admired the beautiful buildings, found out about the public transport as we
wanted to see a bit of the island while we were here, found a great place that
sold delicious ice creams and just took in the lovely friendly atmosphere of
the people.
SO here we are in sunny
beautiful Barbados – rolling like mad in the anchorage, feeling very tired from
lack of sleep but happy to be in such a beautiful and friendly place.
Until next time. Take care.
Love
Captain Mel and Admiral
Caryn/xx
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| The Parlatuvier Falls |
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| Bridgetown |
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| Nelson's square |
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| Synagogue |
