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The welcome sign for Mount Gay
We made landfall on January 4th at Port St. Charles which is in the really posh section of the island and has enormous houses that look like beachside resorts. We anchored outside the breakwall as boats under 45 m (150 ft) aren’t given a slip at the marina; we are officially in the Caribbean, home of super yachts that look like shiny, futuristic, mini freighters. From there we headed down the coast to Carlisle Bay which is in the capital, Bridgetown. We’ve been anchored in bright blue water over white sand for the last week, relaxing and getting the lay of the land. There is a small marina located up the river that runs through the city but it is quite a distance to row so we’ve been landing the dinghy on the beach. This can be both a tricky and wet experience; earlier in the week Adam nearly flipped end over end when he got caught up in a big wave breaking on the sand.
Bridgetown is a lively place with lots of shops and restaurants (that serve real frenchfries – goodbye European soggy fries!) and it is home to the Mount Gay Rum distillery. We made the trek out to the edge of town to the distillery for a “rum tasting” which is exactly what it sounds like. We sampled their different flavours of rum, rum punch, and liqueurs and then stumbled back out into the hot sun with several large bottles of very cheap rum and a new t-shirt for Adam. Aside from sailing the dinghy around the harbour I think that has been his favourite day so far. It even eased the culinary depression that he has been feeling over the state of Bajan pizza.
Yesterday we took a road trip to a beach north of us to swim with the turtles. We packed our things into a dry bag and snorkeled from the boat to the beach. After we dried off, changed into our clothes, and got ready to walk to the bus station we realized that we forgot to pack our shoes. We stubbornly decided that we could find a solution that did not involve going all the way back to the boat so we gingerly tip-toed up the road thinking that we would buy some flip flops at one of the stands just off the beach. When we got there nothing was open and we remembered that it was Sunday. Hoping that the main department store/duty free shop might be open, we hobbled the rest of the way into town avoiding shards of glass, hot concrete, and worse. At that point it seemed unlikely that we would find any shoes and it would have taken even longer to go back to the boat but not to be deterred from our grand adventure we decided to hire a taxi to take us directly to the beach in Paynes Bay. We had a great time, the turtles were amazing and we even got a bit of sun. Although an American did point out that we don’t look like we’ve spent six months on a boat - I can only assume that was a shot at what I thought was my perfectly nice tan.
Bridgetown is a lively place with lots of shops and restaurants (that serve real frenchfries – goodbye European soggy fries!) and it is home to the Mount Gay Rum distillery. We made the trek out to the edge of town to the distillery for a “rum tasting” which is exactly what it sounds like. We sampled their different flavours of rum, rum punch, and liqueurs and then stumbled back out into the hot sun with several large bottles of very cheap rum and a new t-shirt for Adam. Aside from sailing the dinghy around the harbour I think that has been his favourite day so far. It even eased the culinary depression that he has been feeling over the state of Bajan pizza.
Yesterday we took a road trip to a beach north of us to swim with the turtles. We packed our things into a dry bag and snorkeled from the boat to the beach. After we dried off, changed into our clothes, and got ready to walk to the bus station we realized that we forgot to pack our shoes. We stubbornly decided that we could find a solution that did not involve going all the way back to the boat so we gingerly tip-toed up the road thinking that we would buy some flip flops at one of the stands just off the beach. When we got there nothing was open and we remembered that it was Sunday. Hoping that the main department store/duty free shop might be open, we hobbled the rest of the way into town avoiding shards of glass, hot concrete, and worse. At that point it seemed unlikely that we would find any shoes and it would have taken even longer to go back to the boat but not to be deterred from our grand adventure we decided to hire a taxi to take us directly to the beach in Paynes Bay. We had a great time, the turtles were amazing and we even got a bit of sun. Although an American did point out that we don’t look like we’ve spent six months on a boat - I can only assume that was a shot at what I thought was my perfectly nice tan.