Barbados- 23 January 2024

23 January

We woke to rain and a greyer day which out us off having a swim. We had decided to do a number of jobs today to prepare for the next crew and we were to meet Keith, Ruth, Robbie and Sarah for dinner. We had to sort out washing, gas and provisioning which is quite a task as you are provisioning for 6 for about 15 days.

I figured that the best way to do this was to hire a taxi and ask him to take us to where we needed. This proved to be a good move as we met Stephen and explained our challenge and he was up for it. We first went to a Launderette and dropped off the washing and it would be ready in 2 hours. We then went to Massey’s which is a larger supermarket and connected to Waitrose and has the most diverse and interesting range of products and dropped Mark and Peter off. Mark and Keith had gone through what we had on board and what we needed and Mark went through it with me before we left the boat. It was quite a list. Ian and I then headed off to the gas companies with Stephen and although they could fill the camping gas bottle they could not fill my large propane bottle so in the end I bought another and a regulator for it which I should be able to get refilled.

We then headed back to the supermarket and helped complete the shop which was 3 full trolleys which we loaded into Stephen’s van and we returned to collect the washing and dropped off at the meat market as the supermarket did not have what was needed.

Stephen was brought up in Barbados and never knew his father. He is now married himself with a 3-year-old son and does not want his on to experience having no father. He goes to the US for about 5 months in the summer where he earns good money as a waiter and then drives a taxi in the winter. He would love to open a coffee shop here as there are no proper coffee shops. He clearly knew his way round and we had a good tour of various back streets and areas of Barbados around Bridgetown.

We returned to the dinghy and did a number of trips ferrying all of the stuff and by about 2.00pm were ready for some lunch. We headed back for a snack and then rested. We then returned before sunset and had a great dinner with the whole Atlantic crew and with Sarah and Ruth with much laughter and they had been enjoying different areas of Barbados.    

It had been a busy day but we were now ahead of the curve. Sailing is not all plain sailing as you have to look after and run the boat and make sure everyone has enough to eat and drink.        

The blog will continue as we explore Barbados and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day.