barbados

on sunday the 18 december at 6:00 am, esteban and peter arrived in the beautiful caribbean. they made landfall in barbados and went inside the port to clear in and fulfill all entry formalities. the harbor looked protected with walls stopping the swell. but when they tied to the inside of the wall and started talking to the officials they saw puerto seguro swing up and down, in and out with the most incredible swell damaging the boat with every move. incredible, after a safe 3000 mile passage the boat was being smashed against a nasty concrete wall and getting damaged on arrival, at the port! here we want to send a message to our parents and all the ones that worry so much about us at sea: we feel very protected at sea, like very little could happen. instead we believe the problems happen in land, upon arrival, that’s were all the dangers lie.

after eight minutes of this ordeal, which took the cleats, the flag pole and left the bbq at the bottom of the ocean; esteban told them that he could not compromise the integrity of the boat and had to go, which they obviously agreed and let him move and anchor, and then clear in after making sure the boat was safe. soon after, they saw another sailboat coming into the harbor but the authorities told this captain that he could come in at his own risk because it was dangerous to the boat, or anchor outside. great that he was given the option, sadly it took our boat and that bad experienced for them to notice it was unsafe to approach the harbor that day.

but after leaving that scary story behind and clearing into the country esteban and peter were off to the beach bar and to enjoy some banks, the local beer of barbados, under a beautiful sun and with the view of an incredible turquoise ocean; paradise indeed! for the next couple of days, they cleaned what was a male boat in a crossing (i can imagine the state of things on board) and prepared the boat for my arrival a few days after.