Sunday 16^th & Monday 17^th Jan

Sunday was firstly about getting some jobs done around the boat but the highlight of the day was our invitation to have an early evening  BBQ at Bob and Lynn’s house out on the west coast.

Bob collected all four of us from the waterfront at 3.00pm and drove us first to the beach close to their house with a short detour to show us ‘Sandy Lane’ which is where a good many of the rich and famous have their mansions. (The big stars though like Cliff, Cilla and the new addition, Wayne Rooney all live elsewhere in rather more exclusive surroundings far from prying eyes!)

There are no private beaches on Barbados as such, but some have easier access than others. This was a wonderful long sweep of soft sand with big but  gentle waves and several long established trees set back giving much needed shade. We had a long lazy swim before we drove the short distance up the hill to their house with its fantastic panoramic view due west of the Caribbean Sea. Here we enjoyed a dip in their pool and sundowners before changing and sitting down to a wonderful BBQ dinner. Finally Bob kindly ran us back to Bridgetown and we made our way back out to the boats at anchor in the bay.

On Monday we had a car booked for another of our ambitious ‘tours around the island with an inadequate map’. Bob had already warned us about the signposting here and the lack of much relationship between any maps and what actually happens on the ground!

The car was ready early for us, but unfortunately a very big squall of 30 + knots and torrential rain meant that we did not set off ashore any earlier than originally planned! I was today’s designated driver and it did not take long to master the controls of quite the smallest automatic car in the world. However it was fairly new and everything worked and so off we set on a trip carefully planned in principle by Sarah and Chris.

Coffee and cakes were taken in Speightstown (Steve though, had a cheese and ham baguette which inexplicably also contained very strong chilli!) before we moved on to Port St Charles. We went here as part of a cunning plan to do all our checking out of the country paperwork in this quiet office rather than have to make our way on foot to the main customs and immigration offices at the cruise terminal in Bridgetown tomorrow. There were a few frustrating delays here all the same, but in the end it was all done properly although there is the small issue of us now being required to have left the country by 11.30 am on Tuesday. (You get 24 hours to leave after doing the papers.)

Next stop was St Nicholas Abbey whose name is rather misleading as it is not even slightly religious! St Nicholas Abbey is one of the island’s oldest surviving plantations (founded in 1658) complete still with the Jacobean mansion house and outbuildings and of course – a distillery. It is well laid out and thought through for visitors, but the highlight is probably the 20 minute black and white home movie shot in the 1930’s showing life on the plantation as captured by the owner on a visit out here.

Lunch beckoned and we headed off to the east coast but first we stood on Cherry Tree Hill, surrounded by mahogany trees and enjoyed the breathtaking views down the dramatic east coast of Barbados with the massive Atlantic rollers crashing across the coral reefs that guard that side of the island.

Our expert navigator (Sarah) found her way to the Atlantis Hotel which was down some very narrow and steep tracks, perched above the waves breaking along the rocky shore below. The setting was wonderful, but the service was a bit slow and we spent rather longer than planned waiting for some rather overpriced meals!

In addition to all our delays, we were also now rather low on fuel which was rather foolish of us. We had seen so many fuel stations along the way up the west side of the island, we just assumed this would also be the case down the east side! But this was not the case at all and so we took detailed instructions at the hotel to find the nearest petrol station which needless to say took us miles off into the hinterland, up and down countless steep hills and the route seemed designed to run us out of what little fuel we had left. The weather also now changed dramatically and so as we pottered along and ground our way up the hills, the rain came hosing down and the winds blew with a force that had us more than a tad concerned about our boats back down in Carlisle Bay. We did however eventually emerge into a small town with a welcome petrol station and we were on our way again, but by now all our plans for the rest of the day were in disarray, so we ditched to idea of the visit to Hunt’s gardens and sadly we also had to shelve to offer of tea with Martin’s parents who live out in that part of the island.

It took us quite some time and a few wrong turns (the signposts here are entirely optional and sometimes there are none and sometimes a forest of signs, most of which appear to be advertising.) before we finally emerged in Warrens (a town) and found the ‘Save Centre’ supermarket which was our chance to do some proper food shopping before departure the next day.   Weirdly they stock quite a lot of Waitrose own products and this supermarket was considerably bigger and better stocked than anything else we have comeacross.This was a very worthwhile stop and it was with some difficulty that we crammed all our purchases and then ourselves back into the tiny car and headed back into Bridgetown, meeting the rush hour and its near stationary traffic heading out of town.

Finally returned to Serafina by dinghy in the dark and all four of us sat down for a quiet drink and reflected on one our least successful island tours!

Off to St Lucia tomorrow (Tuesday).