The sun rapidly disappears below the horizon leaving the sky colored pink, red, yellow and purple. The last miles to Barbados are ticking away slowly as we still keep on sailing in the little wind that is left behind the island. For the first time in a while we smell land again and enjoy the different kinds of birds. Once anchored and after a cup of tea we all fall into a restless sleep. Most of us are now so used to waking up on our shift that our body has gotten used to it and wakes up without alarm. So even though we had planned to sleep in, that didn’t really happen. I started out early trying to reach customs and immigration by VHF to find out what the current procedures are. Towards the end of the morning Guppy is directed to the commercial port where we had to moor up to the cruiseschip terminal… I wasn’t very pleased with that as it’s a big concrete wall with huge shock blocks every 15meters. So at least Guppy is big enough to not fall in between. But it is far from ideal, especially as some surge runs into the Harbour. Now we wait, we don’t dare to go ashore as that is strictly forbidden. Especially with the new COVID rules. So we watch as small containerships and tugs come in and out. At some stage customs come by, so I spend some time filling out lots of paperwork. He tells us we need to do a PCR test which a doctor will come to do. We continue cleaning up and trying to connect to the very weak WiFi signal we can receive. Then a car stops next to us with a man who explains he is the doctor and he needs to take our tests. He is very kind to us and takes the test in a good and quiet manner, quite the opposite from La Gomera where I had the feeling she thought she was stirring in a soup rather than taking a COVID test. I really didn’t want to spend the night here so I tried a few more times with the authorities if we could go out and anchor to wait out our quarantine period. He eventually agreed to it 🙂 So now we are anchored in front of Bridgetown. We have to stay onboard for the next 3-4 days until we get our test results back. We also managed to get permission to swim and sail the minicats just as long as we don’t visit any other yachts and stay close to Guppy. So I am sure we won’t get bored 😉
Laura
Pictures; https://www.instagram.com/lauradekkerworldsailing
https://www.facebook.com/lauradekkercalloftheocean
8 Comments
Congrats to you all again! – Interesting for me the CORVID-precaution rules. – Hi Laura, sailing the minicat, I propose to gather information about speed limits! (LOL) And Laura, always on both skids! (LOL) Have fun! – Georg
I think George means this links , where Laura sails very fast with her minicat; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlGqxQtauJc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuQMOVJufW0
Congratulations to the whole crew for the achievment of your target. Laura, are you now giving sailing lessons on the minicat?
In Vendee Globe now the first 6 are within a distance of 85 nm only and close to the level of Recife. A very exciting race this year. Rudi
Thanks for the detailed report and pics! I almost feel like I’m sailing instead of being cooped up in suburbia with snow and traffic everywhere. 🙂
Goed gedaan. Petje af.
Geweldig! 😃 Proficiat 👍🏻En die wachttijd komen jullie ook wel door🏝️. Geniet ervan! En smullen maar 🍰🍉🍧😉
Congratulations on this achievement to the entire crew. The first part of the transatlantic round trip is over!
Well done! Everyone onboard can be proud to have managed the long crossing. A once of a lifetime experience for most of them.