In The Sun I Will Come…..
What are the words to that song? I can hear it, it’s in my head and now we’re living it in Barbados. After 15 days of isolation the arrival was a little overwhelming as we entered the commercial port and the “Barbados 50 Marina”. Greeted by the other Barbados 50 participants and organisers it was a wonderful arrival. We didn’t have time to celebrate as once we were “checked in” (customs/immigration) we quickly moved to the Careenage, soon to be renamed “The Carnage”. This town harbour is surrounded by a small park and it is located in the centre of Bridgetown with sea access granted by lifting of a pedestrian bridge. Once docked we joined several other yachts to discuss the passage and to relish in our mutual achievement, the Atlantic crossing. This theme continued for several days J We enjoyed the Barbados 50 welcoming party catching up with friends to hear the various passage stories. The rally organisers did a great job setting up the Mount Gay Rum tour. Not to forget our own beach party at the Barbados Yacht Club that started at breakfast and slowly morphed into lunch then dinner
Barbados was in party mode, the town was a buzz with events to celebrate 50 years of independence. Free concerts were held, monuments unveiled, street processions and a hand holding chain in the streets that encompassed the entire down town area. Prince Harry even made a visit. The only downer was a day of torrential rain that flooded roads and rubbish flowed into the carnage including a TV, logs and the odd dead animal. A few of the events were postponed but the rain but this did not dampen spirits.
We welcomed Flic to the Aura crew, her early morning arrival coincided with the late night celebrations. As I made my way to the airport to fetch her, others at near dawn were only just leaving the cricket ground stadium after the concert. The party continued with lunch at the yacht club and a few rum punches. This was followed by a rescheduled Barbados 50 Farewell Party. In the blur of it all, Linka was organising a new crew spot then all of a sudden she was on a flight back to the UK. Fortunately we got to say goodbye just as she was rushing to the airport.
It was time to move from the Carnage to the vivid aqua blue water in the bay. The Careenage had been eventful with locals sleeping on the park bench by our stern. We had locals take the time to stop their cars, get out to chat with us about the yachts and the colour it brought to the Careenage. Nobody was in a rush, everybody is up for a chat and so friendly. These people are genuine.
We were troubled by Kim’s back pain; a slip on the stairs compounded a nagging issue. The anchorage was cleansing, as was the number of rain squalls. It was great to be able to swim once again from the stern of Aura and to swim on the white/pink beach that reminded us so much of Perth. The local spoken rap type beach bar music was not really to our taste, especially at 3am…but we are the visitors and are here to experience different cultures and the arts (debateable).
We completed the normal routine, laundry, water, market, butcher, supermarkets. We had our visa interviews at the USA Embassy. The collection of our passports was an enjoyable taxi type bus trip with Flic and I crammed in a bus and bounced around to the sounds of more reggae type rap tunes.
We had one more final beach bar farewell. The Barbados 50 fleet would now splinter, some continuing enjoying Barbados, others Grenada, St Vincent/Grenadines, St Lucia and Martinique. This Jimmy Cornell event introduced us to some wonderful new friends, it wasn’t really “Good Bye” as we knew we’d likely see many of these sailors again soon in the sun of the Caribbean or further afield.
We set sail for Union Island, in the Grenadines and a rendezvous with Perth friends Jono and Trevor who coincidentally just so happen to be heading to the Tobago Cays.
