Coming home

How difficult it was to leave Barbados, John and Oystergo...it had been one of the best experiences of my life and that was thanks to the people who had made it possible, in particular the extra extraordinary, Captain John. And then there was Ryan without whom the trip wouldn't have been half so much fun. But many will know that my friend Rosemary also had huge part to play. She would have loved to have known more about this trip and it was she who had said at her gate in July with a huge smile "Sounds fantastic, you've got to do it. It will be amazing". She was right - I loved every single minute and I am so looking forward to catching up with David, Luke, Samuel and Joseph.

I had booked a cheap flight home which generally means an early start. The alarm went at 6am and John smoothly took us ashore in the dinghy on the most glorious of moonlit early mornings.

As we reached the shore some horses from the nearby garrison were being washed in the sea. Another magical sight and memory with which to leave.

Taxi was waiting and I left with a heavy heart but an excitement about getting home to see George and Charlie, family and friends.

It was a bit of a crazy trip home via Trinidad where I had a few hours to zip into buzzing downtown Port of Spain and a long hot walk to the botanical gardens...

..where I was expertly shown around by a friendly guide. Then back to the bus station via shared taxi which was kindly paid for by one of the other fares (these things don't happen in London). 

I arrived back in a rain sodden Gatwick only to find most trains running north were cancelled (how typical). Eventually, travelled via two late running packed trains and a 37 bus back to Herne Hill where Charlie and Kaz met me at the bus stop to help with my bags.  It was wonderful to see them and ....yes ..

...they baked me a delicious cake. George had gone back to Edinburgh to start the new term but I'll soon be up there to visit him!

Next day to the lido to return to the cold water which is another story and can be found in a

another lovely blog from Katie.

How lucky I am!

Bajan flowers

Barbados

For the YouTube version with music click here Barbados video

So we arrived Port St Charles on the 27th Dec (also my son Charlie's 20th birthday) and sailed around the island to Carlisle Bay for a splendid anchorage at the Barbados Cruising Club and with our first meal back on dry land of fish cutters and Banks beer in super friendly Dippers Beach Bar.....

John and I returned to the boat leaving Ryan to search out some local night life which he did, returning to the boat at 3am aboard a kayak looking slightly worse for wear .....

....but probably having had an excellent night out regaling stories of the Atlantic adventures to the local girls.

Next day Ryan and I set out to find a local launderette with the help of Mike and travelled back on the ZR bus with a load of gorgeously clean clothes...and then to play with the paddle boards and surf ....

surfing dude

and then a few days later a jet ski

....but it wasn't all play we really did do some work - here we are scrubbing the hull and climbing the mast

 

distraction?

Aragon (David and Raymonde) came by to say goodbye. They had been our only sailing companions across the Atlantic. They had left Mindelo the same time as us but had had jib problems and returned to Mindelo briefly before setting sail again. They had caught us up by Christmas eve and had called us up on the radio - it was the most wonderful thing to hear them and then see them passing us before catching up with them again at Port St Charles.

Aragon

All too soon Ryan left for home in Truro.  Very sorry to see him go he had been a fantastic crew mate.

I had to sort out my hair because Ryan said that I looked like a raccoon. A combination white rings around my eyes (wearing sunglasses too much) and the dreadlock 'tail' which had developed over the 21 days of windy sailing and limited hair washing facilities.

Fortunately we found a wonderfully sympathetic hairdresser,Val, who kindly attempted to retrieve the situation with scissors and a Bajan restyle.

John and I spent the next few days sorting out the boat (getting mainsail fixed and rigging up a temporary dyneema stay), going to Bridgetown, taking in the jazz (not the lobsters) at Lobster Alive Restaurant and the Waterfront Cafe but mostly just idyllically pottering about in the dinghy...

Bridgetown careenage

sunset coming out of the careenage

....and diving

..and swimming among turtles (this is especially for Clara)

I also had a few days of the boat to explore by bus the rest of the island near Speightstown and then into the centre of the island...

mid Barbados looking East

Whelchman's gully

...and on to the East coast to visit our first Caribbean landfall sighting from terra firma. I spent one luxurious night at the Sea-U Guesthouse in Bathsheba (a wonderful place).

View across Bathsheba to the famous soup bowl

Coconut milk stop

Did we really start 2000 miles east of here?

Postcards posted here

Weird limestone pebbles

I also visited some gardens so there are lots of flower photos in a separate post. I then headed back to Bridgetown to meet up with John for a final few days before heading home.

from Herne Hill to Cape Verde

So here is a 'dry dive' into my first blog as a way of sharing my waterly adventures.
All started on 29th November in Herne Hill - no better place to start. And a mad pirate themed send off from fellow icicles of Brockwell lido.
Here are some of them including the bravest of them all - John (the one with summery shorts on) from the cafe  - his first sub 10 degree swim of the season....

 dive into the beautiful waters of the lido ...

and then coffee at the cafe...

all perfectly sane..

Pirate Pete

..and even a cake from absent Icicle candy

All in all a GREAT send off with some really special presents, captured beautifully in Katie's blog

Then packed and ready for the Atlantic adventure and fondly waved off from the platform by Charlie, Kaz Valentina and Mike (taking the photo).  LSHTM friends will note the yellow dry bag - an invaluable present as was the ipad cover and hat! Many thanks. And new sailing jacket thanks to Mum and Dad who know that I am not keen on jackets but how glad I was to have this one.

Off to Gatwick, flight to Amsterdam and then onto Cape Verde.  

With 4 hour delay and time to meet the crew the extraordinary captain John and the exceptional Ryan aboard the obliging, resilient and indefatigable 39ft yacht Oystergo (yes that really is her name) moored up in Mindelo marina on the island of Sao Vicente.

After a few days, John and I took a quick but amazing few days in the neighbouring island of San Antao... to see this set of photos with music added click here cape verde video

...where we pottered about in fishing villages ...and found unusual places to sleep....

and take in the gorgeous scenary

take photos of flowers...

and bugs and other bugs..

spiders ( just for you Katie!).

We walked up most of the way up a road that went up to the top of the mountain to view the volcano crater

which filled with a magical misty cloud as we stood and watched.

Very fortunately, as time was quickly running out we were offered a lift down the mountain by three delightfully and increasingly drunk (on local grog) Portuguese mobile phone engineers one of whom had fallen for a local girl and had been adopted by the family (below) with whom we were given more grog and a piece of fish before... 

..heading to the port ferry with split second timing and to then back to Mindelo and its delightful bars with constant music.

Next few days we continued with the final preparations for the Atlantic voyage.