Barbados- 26 January 2024

26 January

We woke to an almost April type day of sun and showers. We had some breakfast and then I did a walk though outside of the boat and the equipment. I suggested we leave later in the day for Bequia which is about 100+nm and that we could it overnight so we would arrive in daylight and hopefully in the morning. Everyone all seemed happy with that suggestion. Bequia is apparently a beautiful Island and Stormbird has spent some tome there.

David and I headed off to customs to check out of Barbados which took a good 2 hours and we had to wait for the officials who were busy with cruise ships etc. This type of admin has to be done for checking in and checking out for each country and it is time consuming and depends on the individuals you are dealing with. I understand Stig & Cari had a swim when we were busy and they and Simon went through the provisioning again. We returned to Stormbird in time to get ready to go out to lunch. I had booked Lobster Alive as I thought the new crew would appreciate a Caribbean lunch on the beach. We all took the dinghy and then walked from the Inner Basin to the restaurant. Due to the weather they gave us a good table just inside which was sensible as when we were there the heavens opened a number of times.

We all started with a rum punch which got everyone into the mood and then we all had the fish of the day- Mahi Mahi. It was warm and a man in his 70’s was singing and playing Caribbean music and the setting was great. We all had a great lunch and there was much laughter and enjoyedment. We walked back along the beach and had to dodge more rain as we returned to the boat. We then went through the interior of the boat and all our safety procedures. I then checked our passage plan and the weather again. It was forecast to be 18-20 kts with gusts no more than 25 and swell no more than 2.9m every 7.5 secs. I felt it was good to go and to go and the shifts would be Simon and I, David and Cari and Ian and Stig.     

We thought we would raise the anchor before dark and set off and we had taken out of the freezer a chilli con carne that Mark had made. Thank you Mark!!

Read the next instalment to read about our crossing.

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.