We have also been to the Barbados Beach Club Hotel to visit Vals' brother Norman, he is on a diet! but looks fit and well! No luck with Picasa so I'll wait 'til we get to St Barts next week and try there.....
Well we made it to the other side, arriving in Barbados on 27 Jan after almost exactly 18 days, which was at least 3 days quicker than we had counted on. The first English person we met when we arrived, had seen Piano when she was new and being fitted out!
Our only serious problem was a failure of the generator water pump impeller on the second day out. Then the replacement failed 7 days later but luckily the second replacement hasn't suffered the same fate. Also we lost a bowthruster propeller but that almost certainly happened in Las Palmas but we only discovered it while swimming around the boat here.
The distance over the ground was 2538nm, giving an average distance covered of 141miles per day (average speed 5.9 knots). The log recorded 2640nm, giving an average daily run of 147 miles (average speed through the water of 6.1 knots but I'm not sure how accurate the log is!). Our best daily run was 162nm (6.75knots), according to the log or 157nm over the ground and the worst 114nm. In fact we only had 4 days on which we covered less than 140 miles. We only had the mainsail up for 3 or 4 days towards the beginning of the passage - after that it was either one or two yankees and the staysail. While the trip was much faster than we had planned for, it was relatively uncomfortable, with lots of rolling but just two waves broke into the cockpit and the maximum wind we saw was 35 knots (very briefly). Sue coped very well and wasn't seasick at all (probably thanks to the Stugeron). Otto fished for a while but on the second day, he lost lure, weight and half the line to something that was probably bigger than we wanted to deal with and didn't try again. Still we had fresh meat and some vegetables throughout and ate very well. We saw 2 pilot whales, a turtle or two and quite a few dolphins but generally we were all alone. On the whole trip we saw just a handful of ships, coming within 2 miles of two of them. Our closest encounter was with another British yacht, also bound for Barbados, which we first saw on the AIS at around 15 miles and which finally passed about one mile astern of us. We had a long chat with him on VHF and he was surprised to learn that I had seen his green navigation light from over 7 miles away!
When we arrived, we checked in at Port St Charles, a very upmarket marina village development at the northern end of the west coast before coming down to anchor off the beach in Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown. We've done some exploring, using the excellent (and cheap) bus services and yesterday met up with old Canadian friends Jim Salmon, his wife Deedee and most of his family. We hadn't seen them for about 18 years and it just happened that they were on holiday here this week!
It's a new experience for us, being anchored for so long, rather than being alongside. It's nice to just be able to jump into the water when it gets too hot - we also get the occasional visits from turtles. On the other hand we slightly miss shore power and unlimited fresh water. The beach is superb, with the best sand I've ever seen, but it's quite a windy anchorage, with lots of noise from the beach bars at the weekends We've met up with 4 boats we knew from the other side of the ocean, including some old friends from our time in Portimao - John and Kerry on Folly.
We'll stay here until towards the end of the week, then probably set off on a 350 mile trip towards the northern end of the Caribbean, to meet some other friends, Paul and Jane, in St Barts.
We hope that everything is well with you and that the end of winter is in sight (for those of you in Northern latitudes)!
