Barbados Visit N13 16 W59 39
Gryphon II
Chris and Lorraine Marchant
Sun 6 Dec 2009 20:40
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We had to leave Barbados almost as soon as we had arrived
to be able to meet our date with Hattie., Peter, and Ben in Grenada and to
give us time to get the boat prepared and provisioned. However, we had time to
re-acquaint ourselves with this laid back country, and time to share tales of
the high seas with the crew of Attitudes.
 Attitudes left from the Canaries about a week before we
left the Cape Verdes and, via our mutual friends aboard Spruce, we knew we were
185 miles behind them. Gradually we caught them up and we arrived at the
Carlisle Bay anchorage only 1 hour after them. The
surprise for us was that we were nearly the only cruising boats in the
anchorage. Before we had shared the anchorage with 150 other boats. Sadly the
reason appears to be that Barbados has done nothing to promote sailing in the
meantime. There are few facilities for yachts, except for the super yachts
accommodated in the north of the island. In contrast the town is dominated by
providing for cruise ships, with duty free shops crowding the high
street.
 However, the beach has changed little and we remembered
when we had played Christmas games on the beach all those years ago. Barbados
has a charm that I am sure would grow over time. The Bajuns have an interesting
idea of the "hard sell". We only wish the Arabs in Morocco had had a similar
approach to selling when we visited there last winter.
 After a quick couple of days we were off again downwind to
Grenada over a rather lumpy sea which gave us the roughest sail we had had
for a while.
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