It is very hard to believe
that at the end of this week it would be one whole year since I left Perth and
moved onto Passages. So much has happened since then. When I start reflecting
on the year that has been, many, many different thoughts, emotions and
experiences pop into my head!
Information taken from the
Cruising Guide to Trinidad and Tobago (plus Barbados and Guyana) by Chris Doyle
4th edition 2012 pg 179
“Barbados has a very British
feel to it. The buildings found in Bridgetown are a mixture of Georgian and
modern buildings. Bridgetown is built around the mouth of Constitution River
with a board walk along the river.
Barbados is only 21 miles long
by 14 miles wide and has a population of just over 300,000 (2013) who are
mostly of African descent. The rest of the population came mainly from England
and India.
Barbados was under British
rule for over 300 years and is often called “Little England”. In 1966, Barbados
gained independence from Britain and today it has a very stable democratic
parliamentary system and is an active member of the Commonwealth.
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| Bathsheba |
Barbados is the only Eastern
Caribbean island that is not volcanic and due to its remoteness from the other
islands it was not involved in the many battles between the British and French
so it has been left up to its own devices. This is particularly evident in the
distinctive accent that the English speaking Bajans have evolved.
Columbus missed Barbados –
phew! Many people wonder what dead Catholic saint Columbus would have named
Barbados after ….. instead the word “ Barbados” came from “bearded one”, a name
given to it by a Portuguese explorer , Pedro a Campos. In 1536 when he stopped
off at the island, he was impressed by the fig trees and their thick aerial roots
that gave them a bearded appearance.
In 1625, England claimed
Barbados by Captain John Powell. It was colonized two years later by his
brother Henry along with 80 settlers and 10 slaves. They built a settlement
calling it Jamestown, in the area now known as Holetown. When they arrived the
island was uninhabited but archaeological evidence shows that it had once been
inhabited by the Kalinargo people of South America.
Before the introduction of
sugar to the island, there were many small farmers but things changed around
1650. Many small holdings were bought by very wealthy landowners who started
importing slaves to work on their lucrative sugar plantations. This continued
for many centuries.
In 1639 the first legislative
assembly was formed which opposed Cromwell when he took over England after
beheading King Charles 1. Cromwell sent over an invasion force, but the Bajans
managed to negotiate a surrender in which they accepted governance by a
governor and a “freely” elected assembly. They were given freedom from taxes
without local consent.
This obviously only applied to
the rich landowners and not to the slaves or workers who lived in terrible
conditions. In 1834 slavery was abolished but changed only happened in the late
1930’s/40’s when sugar became less profitable and the formation of labour
unions similar to the issues facing the U.K.
There were many street riots,
serious arrests and many heroes were made particularly Clement Payne who in
1937, was one of the leaders of the labour unrests and is now one of the
country’s national heroes.
With the decline of the sugar
industry, tourism has now taken over as the number one industry. The Concorde
often flew to Barbados and there is the “Barbados Concorde Experience” at the
Grantley Adams International Airport.
Sunday evening we enjoyed our
Mahi Mahi – Ivo, Mira and Maya joined us, plus Marcus from Finland.
Marcus had just arrived from
crossing the Atlantic solo. His plan is to circumnavigate the world as quickly
as possible.
Monday we caught the bus to
Harrison’s Cave. The public transport in Barbados is efficient and very cheap -
BD$2 (US$1) for any bus ride anywhere on the island no matter what the
distance. It is a standard price.
Harrison’s Cave was 11km NE of
Bridgetown – it is a series of limestone caves carved out over millions of
years by seeping water from the surface.
Information taken from
Eyewitness Travel Caribbean 2009 pg 469
“The caves comprise of a
series of crystalized limestone subterranean caverns with underground rivers
waterfalls and uniquely shaped stalagmites, stalactites and columns. The cave
is named after Thomas Harrison who owned the land in 1770’s. It took over 200
years for the caves to be fully explored and mapped by a Danish engineer and
cave adventure Ole Sorensen.”
We decided to take a walking
tour instead of the usual tram tour as we wanted to get up and personal.
It was quite beautiful and
tranquil in the caves.
After spending some time in
the beautiful gardens we made our way back to Bridgetown and enjoyed the lovely
atmosphere of this wonderful city.
Tuesday we decided we would
catch the bus to the east coast to Bathsheba which we had been told had
beautiful huge boulders and was a very popular place for surfers.
It was lovely – very
picturesque! We had a picnic lunch in amongst the many boulders playing games
like “What does that boulder resemble now?” and finding interesting designs and
patterns on the beautiful pebbles found along the beach.
Wednesday, Mel and I decided
to catch a bus and head along the south coast of the island to Oistins. As we
were making our way to the bus terminal we saw the police band and a whole
procession pass over “the Bridge”. It was heading for Nelson’s square where the
main Christmas tree was. We saw that it was the “opening ceremony” for Barbados
Tourism Week so we decided to stay for a while and watch.
We saw some traditional
dancing and characters like Shaggy Bear and Mamma Sally. There were stilt
walkers and dancers and a limbo dancer. This lady made a bee line for Mel and
pulled him up into the main performance area where, along with a few other
people from the audience did the limbo. Mel had a great time – laughing the
whole way through as he knows he has very little rhythm but he was a” good
sport” as the British would say and enjoyed himself. I couldn’t stop smiling
and giggling as it was fun to watch.
Back to Oistins……. This little
fishing port was named after Austin, the area’s first land owner. It has a long
history as well because in 1652 a treaty was signed at the Mermaid Tavern which
led to Barbados accepting the authority of Oliver Cromwell, Britain’s military
commander and Lord Protector”
Wednesday afternoon we checked
out of Barbados as the weather looked fine for us to head west to Bequia in St
Vincent and the Grenadines.
Mel and I are now on pretty
tight schedule as we plan to be back in Grenada by Christmas, as we are meeting
up with our friends John and Linda on Blue Moon. We are aware that we don’t
want to rush our time in the Grenadines as there are many islands to explore
but we also know that “when” we return to the cruising lifestyle when can
always head back up to explore the Grenadines fully.
Ivo, Mira and Maya on Fata
Morgana are on a totally different schedule – they don’t have any commitments
so can go where ever the winds takes them. It will be a very sad day which is
not very far away when we will have to say “Bye” to Fata Morgana as we have had
an amazing 4 months of sailing with them.
Thursday at 1.00pm our anchor
was up and we were heading west towards Bequia. The winds were behind us –
first time EVER and it felt quite different! The swells were higher than what I
would have liked – 2 – 3metres and we were cork screwing along. Mel realised
that Passages is not really equipped for downwind sailing – the shopping list
is growing longer by each sail!
We experienced winds of up to
24 knots and sea swells of 3 metres and Passages handled them well. At times we
were surfing down the swells at over 7 knots! We both found it extremely
difficult to sleep though, so we ended up taking turns to doze in the cockpit.
By sunrise, Friday morning we
were we were heading towards the channel between Bequia and St Vincent. By
8.00am we were entering the entrance to Admiralty Bay, Bequia and the main town
of Port Elizabeth and as we were putting our anchor down we were greeted with a
very enthusiastic welcome by Bev on Aseka who we had last seen in Rodney Bay St
Lucia.
We were exhausted so once the
anchor was down we had about an hour’s snooze before Mel went into Customs and
Immigration to check us in.
Bequia is part of St Vincent
and the Grenadines. It has long been associated with sailing and boat building
and one can still see the traditions of old along the beach front.
Information taken from the
Cruising Guide to the Windward Islands 2013 -2014 by Chris Doyle 16th
edition pg 242
“The island has an active
whaling station in a low key and traditional way. By IWC agreement,
local whalers can take four whales a year, but in some years they do not get
any. The whaling season is from February to April.
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| Semplers Cay |
There are only a few people
left who have the necessary traditional skills of harpooning the whales using
hand thrown harpoons hence there only being a very few whales caught and
killed. When a whale is caught, it is taken to Whale Cay or Semplers Cay for
butchering.
Many of the Bequians are
descendants from settlers who came from North America on whaling boats, from
farms in Scotland, from France as freebooters and as slaves from Africa”.
Friday evening I didn’t feel like cooking so we went off to a local restaurant called “The Fig Tree” run by Cheryl who does the cruisers net on channel 68 every morning. Every Friday they have a fish bbq so we thought we would go and try it out. Bev joined us along with Mina a 62 year old single hander lady from Canada. I realised I had seen her before in Grenada when we did the Hash Harriers race through the Rum factory.
Now that we have returned to
the main part of the Caribbean islands, we are seeing many yachts that we have
seen in other anchorages up and down the island chain. This is now (November –
April) the main cruising season so there are plenty of yachts out there going
whichever way the wind takes them.
Cheryl from the restaurant
“The Fig Tree” also runs a reading group every Saturday for the local children
to attend and always she needs people to volunteer to help her, so before
leaving the restaurant I said to her that I would be willing to help her. I was
to report back at the restaurant at 2.00pm on Saturday afternoon and Mel was
more than willing to come along with, as she had very good and fast Wi-Fi!
So Saturday afternoon after
spending time on the yacht doing some chores off I went to help with the
reading program at The Fig Tree. Cheryl said that more children usually attend
but since school broke up for the Christmas holidays the numbers have been
down.
I was given two very lively
little 6 year old boys whose attention span was nil! I read them two stories.
It always feels good dealing with little ones even if they were very naughty!
Afterwards Mel and I went for a walk up to Friendship point. We could see the other side of the island and saw Whale Cay or Semplers Cay down into Friendship Bay.
Sunday was a lazy day just
enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Admiralty Bay, although we did go
snorkelling at Devils Table which is the point at the main entrance to the bay.
There were plenty of fish from snappers to flounders, plenty of fans and hard
and soft corals. It was lovely!
| Cay |
It is times like these that
make me realise just how extremely fortunate we are to be doing what we are
doing and have done this year. At the moment I am experiencing many mixed
emotions as our time with Fata Morgana draws to an end and our time sailing and
living the dream comes to an end. Funny how things change!
Captain Mel and Admiral
Caryn/xx
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| Harrison's Cave |
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| Bathsheba |
