24/12/2016 14:00 11:59.82N 61.45.74W

After 23 days at sea, downtown Bridgetown was a welcome relief. But after about a week, the appeal was beginning to wane … too close to the traffic and the all night partying.

One of our “must do in Barbados” things was to get our US visitor visas. Apparently Barbados has one of the quickest turn around times of any US Embassy anywhere in the world and cruisers fly there from all over the Caribbean to benefit from this. Unfortunately I was slow out of the blocks, remembering only after we’d been in Barbados for four days that this had to be done. But from there it was remarkably quick despite the run up to Christmas … on Friday (16th), digital photographs taken in a local department store, online applications forms completed and photographs uploaded, and appointments at the Embassy booked for the following Tuesday; interviews at the Embassy on Tuesday and visa applications approved; passports with 10 year visitor visas ready for collection by Thursday lunch time.

With passports in hand, we were able to check out of Barbados on the Friday morning. I used the expediter who had ensured a smooth check in to ensure a smooth check out. He arrived with the required paperwork (six copies of the ship’s manifest and crew list) and we visited the customs office and the immigration office where there was much rubber stamping, dating and signing of the manifests and passports and the manual entry of our exit particulars in massive ledgers into which our arrival particulars had been transcribed from our arrival paperwork. This was in stark contract to the highly automated US Embassy visa application process and I wasn’t sure whether to be appalled that such an antiquated system was still in use or impressed that vast amounts hadn’t been spent building and running IT systems that would have struggled to be as effective.

Bridgetown to the south coast of Grenada is about 150 nautical miles, a 25 hour passage. That worked well with the only lifting of the bridge to Bridgetown’s inner basin at 12 noon each day. We left with four other Odyssey boats (all of which were going only so far as the Carlisle Bay anchorage just outside the harbour) and we arrived here in Prickly Bay at 13:00 on Christmas Eve.

As we are now in a different country, things started with a visit to customs and immigration, two desks beside each other in the same office near the marina. In addition to the EC$75 (£30) one month cruising permit and EC$8.10/person entry fee, we had arrived at the weekend and so there was the small matter of EC$20 per official by way of overtime payment, pocketed there and then, no receipt given and not declared as income so not taxed. (I was intrigued and had to ask.) Strange ways but I’d better get used to it as it is fairly standard throughout the Caribbean islands.

The immigration officer, a mere youth, also provided us with a map of the island and a run down of where to go and what to see. He was very enthusiastic and clearly very proud of his island. We are looking forward to our time here.

From the deck of Touch of Grey, anchored yachts in Prickly Bay with the cloud covered mountains and rain forests of Grenada in the background.