Arrival in the Caribbean

The first stop after our Atlantic crossing was Barbados. There we cleared in St. Charles Port. This is beside Bridgetown the only “Port of Entry” on Barbados. St. Charles Port is actually a “holiday resort” with a small marina for super yachts.

It is without question very beautiful, but there are no berths for “normal” cruising sailors. You can anchor there, but only unprotected in front of the harbour. This is not suitable for more than a short day stop. Therefore, we immediately continued to Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. There we anchored and first tried to get some rest.

Right after our arrival we went with our dinghy to Bridgetown and landed there. On the day of our arrival we didn’t get much further than to the first beach bar. There we ate something and drank our first Caribbean cocktails. Only in the following days we made further progress and managed to see a bit more of the city.

The city Bridgetown is very lively. The old town and the garrison are world cultural heritage and definitely worth seeing and although there are without question some great beaches with white sand and wonderful blue water on Barbados, it hold us too long on this island. We could not really recover from the Atlantic crossing and even (both of us) got a slight indigestion. The island offers simply too little suitable possibilities for overnight stays for cruising sailors. There is no reasonable marina with guest berths and in the only anchorage, the Carlisle Bay off Bridgetown, we lay very restless and rolly. To come ashore with the dinghy was sometimes a bit adventurous, because of the permanent waves. One has the feeling that yachtsmen – in contrast to cruise ships or super yachts – are not really welcome on the island. Many sailors therefore skip Barbados out and sail directly on to St Lucia or St Vincent. There are more possibilities and better infrastructure for cruising sailors. We would probably do the same next time. But now we have decided to sail a little further and only to call at one of the last Grenadines, the island Carriacou. This island belongs already to Grenada (and not to St. Vinent like most of the Grenadines islands). As we sail past many great Grenadine islands – like the Tobago Cays – we understand why so many sailors love this area. The sea lets us “glide” with a light trade wind and there are very few waves. There are many small islands to discover and almost everywhere there are beautiful anchorages.