Arrival in Barbados

Askari Report 1200 UTC 22^th December 2016

Position At Anchor in Carlisle Bay, Barbados (hurrah)

Our last day at sea started with pure grey skies and squalls all around us, however the wind eased and during the day the sea calmed quite a lot and became gentle rolling. Around lunch time we went through a really intense period of rain showers and then slowly the cloud went away and we had the most glorious afternoon. It was like the Atlantic wanted to show off it’s good side before we arrived in Barbados and to top off the afternoon we had a pod of dolphins – our first on this passage. If I wasn’t so excited about seeing Barbados I could have quite easily agreed to sail on it was so lovely.

The wind came around to the South East for a while so we took then chance to gingerly furl the little bit of main sail away – phew that went away okay but we wouldn’t want to bring it out again until we have repaired the foil. We then ran for the last 50 miles under the genoa only which allowed to track the line to our waypoint directly.

All day we had been trying to spot Blue Roger who were now only about 25 miles ahead, we managed to get them on the VHF radio. They got to see land before it got dark, but we were just a bit too far away but the lights soon appeared when we were about 20 miles off and we started seeing planes – it was really surreal to see this glowing strip after so many days of nothing.

We approached our waypoint on the south east corner of Barbados at 0100 UTC on 22 December, then out of nowhere an AIS target appeared for the yacht Shalen. They called us on the VHF – another Oyster, a 54 on their way to start the Oyster World Rally. Andrew and Lenny discussed the passage and we have actually been running similar daily distances, although they had one massive day at 197 miles. What a cool place to meet – both of us left the UK around the similar time and have similar yachts and completed our Atlantic Crossing at exactly the same time. Shalen then followed us into Bridgetown, where we both arrived in a massive squall and anchored by the light and sounds of a crazy disco – all I could hear as I was trying to set the anchor was ‘Come on let’s go….. party….’ By this time I was soooo tired I really wasn’t sure if it was a dream or this was really happening!

So, we sailed at least 2,724 miles, in 16 days 13 hours making our average speed over 6.8 knots – yes Askari has done us proud and looked after us very well, she has totally exceeded our expectations on this trip.  

We went for a great local lunch in Bridgetown in the rain