Tuesday  Nov 22^nd  ……   Barbados 13 05.5N 59 36.52W

Today’s blog by David

Today, is a sad day.  William having already decamped to the Hilton hotel to join is family, Richard and Keith will shortly be landed before Serendipity departs for Antigua to await the eagerly anticipated arrival of Simone and Bob's wife, Linda.  Their departure marks the end of an adventure in which they battled the elements across the Atlantic.  We will surely miss them all.

Yesterday, we picked William up off the beach at Barbados Yacht Club and we then took the boat back into the port to spend the entire morning dealing with the red tape of officialdom as we sought permission to leave the country. To say that this was a tortuous process  would be extreme litotes. It seemed that they simply recreated all the same paperwork and all the forms that they filled in on arrival.  For example, by the end of the inbound and outbound processes they had nine copies of our crew manifest on their files! Anyway, we endured it an duly passed out.

We then said our final goodbyes to William and put him ashore before setting off on a tour of the island, of which more later.

We slept well on Friday night. We eventually got ashore on Saturday at about 13.00 and went to investigate. Bridgetown is the main port of Barbados. In common with many other ports around the world it is not the most attractive part of the Island. When we did eventually find the centre it was quite a bustling place  but it was virtually devoid of tourists ….. save four our good selves.

Apart from some basic groceries, our prime objective was to identify the location of that evening’s celebratory “Slap Up Dinner”. However, having milled around for about an hour we had not found anywhere to eat.  We happened upon the Careenage and found what appeared to be a European on a yacht tied alongside.  When we sought to engage him in conversation we had to do a  double take – he spoke like a Rastafarian! – but was at least able to recommend somewhere – he gave us a name but no address.

Keith rose to the challenge and sought to engage a taxi driver in conversation.  He took a while selecting his source of information but eventually he lit upon ……………….. Roxanne. It transpired that  she had absolutely no idea which way was up, but he reason for is choice was plain to see:

We never did get to that restaurant. Instead we ate at La Luna. Our arrival, kitted out  in our  in Serendipity  shirts and shorts – cause something of a stir among the clientele, not, we divined, because of our sartorial uniformity but we suspect because most people were in jackets and strides!  The meal was comfortingly expensive and the Marlin  was quite special.  We did enjoy it:

Sunday, we landed William and then repaired to Barbados Yacht Club for lunch.  The club is located on the beach at the south end of Carlisle Bay with storage for dinghies ashore and  moorings for yachts off (and, it appears, on) the beach :

The club proved to be something of a colonial back water, the last refuge of white Caucasians in an essentially black society, very reminiscent of the Lagos Yacht Club of yore.  It served however excellent rum punch followed by an excellent buffet which we thoroughly enjoyed:

before Richard Keith and David decided to walk along the beach to see the sights leaving Bob to look after the valuables.

It was remarkable, because, there being no cruise ships in, once we left the Yacht Club,  the beach was populated entirely  by locals. After a while we decided to turn and walk back along the road. It started to rain and rain and rain. At first we tried to shelter under a palm tree:

but eventually the water permeated it. Wet inside or wet outside, we decided to tough it out  in the open. It was a bedraggled and washed out trio that returned to the club only to find Bob was asleep on his security job!

After a rum punch or two to help dry us out, we repaired to the boat to recover and to enjoy the clearing weather:

After we endured the customs clearance on Monday (above) and returned William to his family, we engaged a taxi for an island tour. This proved to be a highlight of our stay here.  Once out of the environs of Bridgetown:

We began to understand why all these people come to Barbados. Grand estates of great wealth, Sandy Lane, designer brands and outlets (Holetown) sugar plantations and also areas of comparative poverty:

The tour would not have been complete without a visit to the Kensington Oval with the statue of Sir Garfield Sobers

At a panoramic view point in the centre of the island, we found about the most useful weather forecasting service I have come across:

Referring to the block of concrete beneath it says:

If he rock is wet, it is raining

If the rock is hot, it is sunny

If the rock is cool, it is cloudy

If the rock is gone, ……

It’s a hurricane …RUN!

On that note – it is time to put these guys ashore - with a glorious farewell - and get on our way to Antigua!