Barbados and Togago

Barbados was great, we would have stayed for longer but we are keen to explore other islands. The music at the local night club ‘Harbour Lights’ never gave up it’s 11pm until 5am music three nights a week; everyone anchored in the bay just has to put up with a few disturbed nights sleep or move on to another anchorage. The Yacht Club were very welcoming during our stay, serving excellent food with a nice atmosphere. The landing in the dinghy was always very wet as the waves roll in at that end of the bay, in the heat here you soon dry out.
We hired a mini-bus to explore the island and were surprised at how green and beautiful the landscape is. We visited an animal park full of tortoises, deer and monkeys and watched them being fed and went to an old signal station to see how they use to communicate with ships and around the island 200 years ago.

We left Barbados on the 13th of January for a 26 hour trip to Scarborough, Tobago. We arrived at 4:30 spent an hour doing all the ships paperwork with Customs and Immigration. This was where our crew, Rob and Ruth, were to leave us. Immigration wouldn’t let us ‘sign-off’ Rob and Ruth, because they hadn’t got a plane ticket out of Tobago. This meant another visit to Immigration the following day, once tickets had been obtained. When returning to Octopus we had a ‘Caribbean’ meal out at the local pizza place – which made James very happy. We spent the evening worryingabout our turning circle, as we were in a very cramped anchorage. The next day Rob and Ruth got their tickets to Martinique to meet another yacht sailing through the Panama Canal and on to New Zealand. The three of us that went back to Immigration for a two hour wait to get them signed off as our crew. We were sad to see them leave us, but they were ready for their next adventure and we were ready for some family-only time. The extra cabin has given us a lot more living space and the children can spread their belonging around more!!

After two days at Scarborough we moved around the coast to Store bay. We are now moored off another lovely sandy beach; the music here is not so loud and ends at a reasonable time. We plan to hire a mini-bus on Monday to do a trip around the island and to go into Scarborough to clear out. We will leave very early morning on Tuesday to get to Prickly Bay, Grenada while it is still light.