Land in sight
Around the Atlantic: ✔ Next stop: Circumnavigation
Ron Noordhoek
Sun 6 Feb 2022 22:43
Sunday February 6
After 2 whole days and nights of motoring the winds finally picked up enough to set sail again. For most of the day that is. In the afternoon we had to start the engines again to maintain a decent speed.
We’re getting close now, about 70 Nm to go. Nicole called the marina at port St. Charles on the sat phone to let them know we’d be calling in at around 7 am. They told us that they’d have a slip but that they had closed the customs office there and we should go to Bridgetown to clear customs. That’s in the south. So we changed course.
Because of that, our CPA with Daniëlle, a vessel we saw on the ais was less then half a mile.
Since Daniëlle was doing only 2-3 kts, we thought she was a sailing vessel. We couldn’t see any sails though. Then she called us over the radio and wen we finally saw her it was a rowing boat!
They had rowed all the way crossing the Atlantic. They were already 40 days at sea, now hoping to get into Barbados Tuesday morning. Wow!! I’d heard of people doing that but never actually seen it. Ian suggested to give them a beer but I guess that wouldn’t do much good for the rowing …
Instead we applauded them and gave them a cheer. Soon after they disappeared from the ais.
When the sun set we saw the first sight of what must be land. Just above the horizon there was this tiny strip that wasn’t moving as the waves. Barbados was in sight!
10-11 more hours and we’ll be in Barbados