Arrive Barbados. 13:05N 59:37W
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Mon 8 Jan 2007 03:20
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Finally we arrive in Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown,
Barbados. We checked in via the deep water ships harbour and we were
welcomed, yes welcomed, by a very friendly bunch of officials. They mostly
wanted to talk about how the English cricket team had just been thrashed 5-0 in
the Ashes. I dont give a toss about cricket but they live & breathe it
here and they seemed to be quite enjoying our crap performance. I just went
along with it and things went swimmingly. We might have even got away with out
paying our entry fees if we had had Pete with us who can talk it big
about cricket and match these guys yarn for yarn.
We are now anchored in Carlisle Bay and are taking
regular trips ashore to regain our land legs and to sample the delights of Mount
Gay Rum, very yummy in a cocktail.
Our first treat ashore didnt quite go as planned.
The idea was for the 4 weary sailors to dive into a cocktail bar and recant the
trips high & low points while slowly getting mullered. Shaun however
had other ideas. During the trip, Shaun became a love sick puppy and the
temptation of Cara being so close was too much for him to resist. He jumped ship
into the arms of his loved one and disappeared into the sunset. Very romantic
but not the soldier boy I remember.
All in all the crossing was a success. We made it
here in one piece, no breakages, just the loss of the outboard fuel tank. We did
it in reasonable time too.
The stats:
Total miles 2845.
Time 18 days
Max boat speed 15.5knts
Max wind speed 36knts
Best 24hr run 203M
Av boat speed 6.6knts
We had everthing from light & fickle winds to
steady trades blowing up to a good F6. But mostly we had what was forecast, F4/5
from the E to NE quadrant. We found weather routing the most important element
to get right. The grib files down loaded via weather {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail proved quite accurate,
provided you bear in mind that the max wind in gusts can be up to 40%
higher than forecast. We began by choosing a route closer to the African
coast and then a turning point 100M NW of the Cape Verdes. This produced a
longer track than the rum line but higher and steadier winds, which I believe
produced dividens but will only be able to be confirmed when I have had a pow
wow with the other boats that left around the same time.
After our first 12 hours of motorsailing, the
motor was switched off till we arrived in Barbados. This was great 'cos we
didnt burn much fuel but we did carry half a tonne of it around unnecessarily.
It didnt seem to slow us up much though, we were the first boat in and overtook
boats that had left up to 2 days prior to us.
The best sail plan for us proved to be reefed poled
out head sails at night and poled out head sails or spinnaker during day
light hours. The loss of speed at night was more than made up for by a
comfortable nights sleep. We tried using a mainsail & poled out head
sail or genneker combination and whilst it
gave good boat speed, it was a bit 'roly poly' and very difficult to reef the
main at night if needed.
With the fear of boring you further with more trip
stats, we over provisioned the boat by a factor of at least 2. We all ate well
and will continue to do so on the food still left for many weeks to come.
Keeping fruit & veg fresh is a bit tricky in the heat. We tried storing
fruit outside over head under the solar panel array, which is ok if the net used
was better fitted. Being hit on the head by a big Granny Smith apple at night in
the middle of the Atlantic was a bit bazaar. The apples, oranges and lemons
lasted ok but even green bananas only lasted just over a week. Spannish tom's,
onions and potatos were ok but everything else just shriveled up & went
black & slimey in no time. Still there is always pasta & tinned
tomatoes and the old fav'e, corned beef!
After only a few trips ashore,
Barbados appears to be like a little Old England in the sunshine. There are
quaint stone churches that chime to the tune of Big Ben and the super
markets are full of things like cheddar cheese & Bisto. Cant be bad. Will
let you know if our views change if we get any further afield than the
beach bars.
PS. Cheers Pete for keeping a watchfull eye on
us while we crossed the Atlantic. You can relax now, unless you are concerned
about our livers!
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