13:05.43N 59:37.02W

Thursday 6^th & Friday 7^th Jan

Having arrived safely and tied up at Port St Charles, I went off to check in with Immigration, Customs and Health. This is an official ‘Port of Entry’ and so these officials were housed in a splendid building just 50 metres from the boat. Mind you it has to be said that this is no port as such. It is a marina surrounded by a housing complex with a fuel pontoon at the entrance and 6 visitors berths which are actually built for Superyachts, so we looked a little diminutive moored in the huge slot tied to a fixed high concrete quay. Given the tide and the swell, this is not a brilliant spot to stay and when they explained the charges we were more than a little shocked! However both us and Scott-Free decided to stay for one night just to get some sleep and rest.

So off I went to see the officials who were having a busy day as there was us and Scott-Free to deal with as well as another Swiss yacht. Just three boats in the entire day and we gathered this was truly a busy day for them.  They were all very friendly and helpful and we knew we had arrived in the Caribbean as the very first official I dealt with, on discovering I was English, felt the need to fill me in, not only on the state of final test match against the Aussies, but most of the Ashes series (which any of Australian friends reading this might want to be reminded – England won).

All the people we have met so far have been unfailingly enthusiastic in their welcome and it is all very refreshing and enjoyable.

We popped round to Scott-Free to celebrate our achievement with bacon baguettes and champagne but sadly all of our celebrations have been very much overshadowed by poor Sarah becoming quite ill within just an hour or two of our arrival. She has been laid low by sickness and diarrhoea and has spent 48 hours in bed feeling very miserable. Not at all what she had planned for her arrival in the Caribbean. (We now suspect the eggs we had on Wednesday)

On Friday after a rather restless night for us both (I seemed to be running a high temperature and by the end of the day I too had diarrhoea) we decided that it would be better to head south to Bridgetown and anchor in Carlisle Bay. Port St Charles has no town or shops at all as it really is just a housing or apartment complex, albeit very upmarket. There is a yacht club which is just a bar and pool with a restaurant for the house owners and I did take advantage of their facilities for at least a swim and a cold shower.

We had a couple of visitors during the morning one of whom was Martin Smyth who was introduced to us by email on the way over and as a local he has been very helpful and given us a lot of useful information. His mother Trudi, who is away on a cruise at the moment, set up and ran ‘Trudi’s radio ham net’ which provided invaluable weather routing information to yachts doing the Atlantic crossing. Sadly this is no longer operating so we were not able to use it.

The second visitor was a friend of Chris and Steve’s who lives here for 6 months of the year and then during the summer he spends his time sailing his yacht which he keeps in Marmaris at the moment. He had kindly offered us help and advice and has even suggested that he could drive us to see some of the better attractions on the island (as well as possibly a supermarket!)

In the early afternoon after topping up our fuel tanks (we used the generator quite a bit on the trip) we set off for Carlisle Bay, with poor Sarah still firmly laid out on her bed. It only took a couple of hours to sail down and then after a good look round the anchorage (we know almost all of the boats here not surprisingly) I found a clear space and dropped and set the anchor. We have been warned about the clubs banging out music until 4.00am every night, but hopefully we are far enough out in the bay for this to be not too bad. It is quite rolly but safe and only a short dinghy run into Bridgetown itself.