Arriving in Barbados
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 26 Jan 2009 14:00
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Arriving in
Barbados
A blog I / we have been looking
forward to writing for many years. A ten year plan in fact.
 Two days out skipper put the precious
Cristal Champagne in the fridge ( bought for us by
Pete and Sue Lawrey - own blog to follow )
 Barbados
is the most eastern island and if you don't start there, you tend not to visit
as it is against the wind. Right map. Start at the
top of the map, go a little down the left hand side. We are just south of
Portland and a little north of Heywood's Beach.
   Nearing
Port St Charles, the first thing that struck us was the colour of the water as
it got shallower. Port St Charles Complex. The beach opposite where we are at anchor.
We fancied visiting knowing that it
is a fifty-fifty split of people liking or disliking Barbados. We know if we do
not like somewhere we can move on quickly. At anchor we can stay in our own very
private world. Now we are here we love it, but, for the rain. Which is daily.
Lots of it. But at least it's warm.
   Our boys, the grandsons. Joshua, Kaiser and Jack, you all look like
smashers.
As soon as we could we got internet
access. It is so important to keep in contact and catch up. 43 emails. Thank you
all for the telephone calls, text messages and emails of congratulations, they
mean so much.
 Beez Neez has her followers too.
These are the soft barnacles we have picked up since
being in warmer waters - strangly only the back half of the hull and high up on
the wake line. My flipper comes in as a handy removal tool.
As we arrived in the bay of Port St
Charles an American catamaran gave us a huge welcome, crew jumping up and down
and cheering, a BIG thank you, it meant so much.
We tied up on the jetty at 13:20
local time, 17:20 UK time. Within seconds a turtle the size of a dinner plate
circled around us to say "hello".
It took us 16 days, 23 hours and 20
minutes or 407 hours and 20 minutes or 24,440 minutes to sail the 2,258 miles
from Mindelo to Port St Charles. That means we achieved an average of 5.5 knots
an hour, mostly just on Genoa ( front one ). We only used the engine for
motoring for 3 hours and 10 minutes ( other times just on to top up the
batteries and to give us hot water for showers ).
As a first attempt we feel very
pleased with ourselves.
After Bear had trotted off to 'do the
paperwork', I got stuck in to chores. It can take hours to clear in but skipper
came back after about an hour proudly clutching his newly stamped passport. He
topped up our water tanks and off we went to anchor. The books say it's a bit of
a palarver getting permission to anchor, Bear was told "do it in
sand".
Cool drinks and a dip off the back.
By now it was early evening. Too shattered, emotionally drained but feeling
celebratory we went off for supper in the yacht club. I made quite a job of
getting out of the rib and onto the rubber 'Lego' pontoon. Bear had to help me
up the steps and an American asked us outright "Are you both pi--ed". No we have been at sea for a while and the floor isn't
still.
Honestly, I have never been seasick,
I have always got land sick on day three. Then I have to hold on to the taps
when I clean my teeth because the sink pitches and rolls. I have to hang on to
the table with one hand when I eat. I am not physically sick but nothing stays
still, it's just like being on a Super Waltzer at the fair. I dreaded standing
up from my meal, but, the waiters said they would cover for us.
Having seen so many flying fish -
Bear had a Bajan, Barbadian in full, or Baj ( pronounced Beige for short )
delicacy of stuffed flying fish, followed by pork ribs and bread and butter
pudding. I had deep fried, breaded calamari with Cajan sauce, followed by loin
of beef and a Bajan coffee ( Russian with a big dash of vodka ). A bottle of
Zinfandel and a jug of water. Marvellous.
We made it back OK without too much
help and fell into bed - only watching the start of a movie.
Total miles since leaving on 6th June
2008 = 5125.1
  The crew of Callisto on the left waved us a welcome, the boat on the right, Nero, they may look posy, but Beez Neez holds
her head up jauntily in amongst these "others" at anchor. She knows they are not
loved as much as her.
 Skippers face says it
all.
ALL IN ALL - a wonderful blog
to send.
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