Camelot? - no it's Barbados
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Wed 9 Feb 2011 17:46
from the largest sailing ship currently doing the cruising circuit,
Windsurf, it was a really nice change for us to have a visitor. Tamsin is
currently training to join the merchant navy and has a placement on
Windsurf until April. Before that she spent some time on the new Queen
Mary 2 and on a bouy tender in the slightly cooler waters off the UK for
Trinity House. We had a nice afternoon chatting and catching up,
particularly as her sister Lou is marrying David White from Westcliff in
Essex. Last Sunday Tamsin arranged for us to see her ship – a whole order
of magnitude in scale different to Andromeda – the lunch was very nice
too! The ship was being prepared for the next 7 day cruise - this time a
charter for wine tasters, so we were able to see the lounges, the pool,
the restaurants, the “marina” where kayaks and other sailing toys are kept
– it’s larger than we are, Tamsin’s shared cabin – larger than ours! and
the bridge- with lots of switches and dials- where we also met her
captain.
Windsurf has 4 masts plus a mizzen and uses her sails most of the time.
Huge hydraulic motors furl and unfurl the sails, move the booms and the
sheets – all push button controlled from the bridge, which is where Tamsin
mostly works. The ship also has water ballast to stop too much heeling
when the sails are in use (have to keep the guests from rolling around too
much) – the nearest we can come to this is to fill buckets and move them
from one side to the other – so we don’t, but it might be tempting
someday. After the Caribbean season Windsurf cruises the Mediterranean.
Although she appears huge to us Wind Surf is dwarfed by some of the cruise
liners that visit the island. There is a sister ship called Club Med 1
which also cruises these waters. Windsurf and Tamsin will be visiting
Barbados on a weekly basis for while yet so we hope to get together on a
regular basis while we are all here. It was nice to see another side of
cruising particularly as we can see the cruise ships coming and going from
where we are currently berthed.
We also have some fantastic news – Jenny is expecting a baby in August so
we will be grandparents once again – she is absolutely delighted and we
are really pleased for her and Paul. Susan has already started on the
crochet and shows the scan to everyone – it’s on her phone.
The insurance company has now agreed to us getting a replacement for the
Parasail so we are now investigating just what this will entail in terms
of cost and logistics- more on this in due course.
We have been getting quite a lot of rain here this last week, and up until
a few days ago it was a bit like Camelot where it only rained at night but
this week we have been caught in it several times and valiantly done our
drowned rat impressions – especially when we got caught on the way to the
yacht club. On the plus side the temperature doesn’t really drop and once
the showers pass we seem to get dry very quickly.
We are looking forward to catching up with some of the folk from the ARC
soon as Barbados has an American Embassy and some people are looking to
get visas and, so far, there would appear to be three lots of people
heading our way so we will have a chance for a good old natter.
Pictures below of Andrew (before and after his date with the razor),
Tamsin and Windsurf and some views from around the island. Enjoy..........
More in due course,
Susan and Andrew
s/v Andromeda of Plymouth
