Christmas time....
Chelone's travels.....
John and Susie Blair.
Mon 24 Dec 2012 21:39
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Here's an update on our stay in
Bridgetown....
Susie and myself have been very busy since being here with sightseeing and pottering around taking in the sights and sounds of busy Bridgetown. Moored alongside in the centre of town at the 'Careenage' enjoying free electricity and freshwater as well as the luxury of free berthing too. It's a short walk to the Fish market, vegetable market and the mad 'Swan Street' with it's many colourful characters selling all sorts from Caribbean spices to sunglasses. After our Atlantic crossing we had the usual repairs to deal with, some tears in Chelone's sails were repaired by the local sailmaker and problems caused by bad fuel remedied too. The autopilot is now working again after I fitted more spare parts. Other yachties we met had bigger problems, two with rigging failure mid Atlantic which meant the worry of their mast coming down, two with gearbox failures, there's always gonna be something breaking or malfunctioning....that's cruising. One evening we took a 'ZR' mini bus to nearby Oistins to try the legendary fish fry up of every kind of local fish..Marlin, Bill fish, Sword fish, Mahi-Mahi, Barracuda, Snapper, Tuna, Kingfish to name a few. Susie tried flame grilled Red Snapper and garlic prawns and I had the local BBQ Pork with Bajun spices both served with Macaroni cheese and fried Bajun garlic potatoes with salad and I also tried flame grilled pigs tail (surprisingly nice, more like a delicious BBQ spare rib!). There was live music on the big stage so we joined in with everyone for a bop to the reggae beat which went on into the small hours! We've also explored St. Lawrence Gap and visited Pisces restaurant with it's fabulous outlook over the bay and romantic ambiance, the ZR mini bus ride too and from these places is an experience in itself with the blasting music and erratic manoeuvres, I'll leave that to your imagination though maybe I'll take some video or summat at a later date. We've attended a few nights entertainment at the nearby Waterfront Cafe with live jazz music (See pics/video) chatting with locals and other yachties etc. At present we're on a free mooring just 100 meters off the Barbados Yacht Club and the Cruising Yacht Club with their free facilities (moorings/hot showers/wi-fi) where Susie sunbathes and I snorkel or surf the internet. There are five wrecks in the shallow waters nearby which are teaming with sealife of all sorts, corals, colourful fish, turtles etc, I took some bread in and the fish ate from my hand (see video). Other than that we've been making sure we have a full larder for the Xmas period just like everyone else! we avoided the queues by going yesterday morning just as the big supermarket opened and got everything on our list so today we're just relaxing by the Yacht club in the shade of the big Almond tree at the waters edge and watching the world go by, there's plenty of entertainment on the agenda at the club so we'll not be bored that's for sure. Over the last few days there have been beautiful classic yachts arriving, part of a 40 boat race from Cascais in Portugal. Last night s/y 'Blue Peter' arrived, I chatted with her owner/skipper in Cascais when they were moored next to us at the visitors berth. There's a big 'Round the Island Race' here next month but we're leaving for Grenada before the end of the week to see in the New Year so will not be around for that. That's all for now folks, we'll catch up again when there's something interesting to report. Happy Christmas to everyone, John & Susie. PS....photo's & Video to follow asap!
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