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WELCOME TO BARBADOS


 

Making a landfall is always exciting, especially when you have been at sea for two to three weeks.  It gives both a sense of accomplishment and relief.  You have sailed in the wake of Captains Cook and Columbus, and survived, and if you are lucky, your yacht arrived intact without any broken gear.  Most yachties have shallow pockets and they sail in damage control mode.  Rather than rocketing across and ocean like a bat out of hell, they truck along at a conservative pace that insures they arrive at the other side with their bank account still full of freedom chips.

 

Crossing an ocean is a bit like roulette, but in this case, you own the roulette wheel and the odds are stacked in your favor.  You give the wheel a spin, and if you sail a well-found yacht, you don't strike a whale, a ship doesn't run you down. or an out of season storm doesn't pummel you, the jackpot is yours.  You  make it to the Caribbean, the Marquesas, or New Zealand.  The truth is, if you know what you are doing, and you use your God given common sense, the odds are in your favor, and you end up a winner almost every time.  If that were not the case, no one would be out here sailing on the ocean of their dreams.

 

So what does it feel like to arrive on the other side.  Awesome!  My first big offshore passage took twenty-one days to sail from  the Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.  When the rugged volcanic spires on Fatu Hiva and Nuku Hiva appeared on the horizon on schedule, I knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that I was a real ocean cruiser.  I was no longer a wannabe.  I was the real deal and was sailing on the ocean of my dreams.  You could pinch me as many times as you liked, and it wouldn't matter, because I wasn't asleep and I wasn't dreaming.  I was actually in the South Pacific living my dreams.

 

The same thing happened when we sailed to the Land of the Long White Cloud - New Zealand.  I knew that sailing from Fiji to New Zealand involved more than a little risk.  The twelve-hundred mile passage south went through a weather hole, a meteorological no mans land that swallowed up yachts.  The problem was that there existed a large area of ocean that belonged to no one.  Meteorologists in New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji all disavowed knowledge of what happened inside that patch of ocean.  When you sailed into that hole, you might be the first to discover there was a serious weather disaster getting ready to happen.  It's not an accident that yachts perish with great regularity in that area, because there is no way to know ahead of time that trouble is brewing.  Go the the internet, and do a search for the Queens Birthday Storm, and read the harrowing tales of people caught in this vortex of destruction.  We sailed twice from Fiji to New Zealand, and when we arrived in the Bay of Islands and put our anchor down, we knew that we had cheated death one more time.  On both trips south, there were yachts or people lost at sea making the same trip.  Suffice it to say, arriving in New Zealand unscathed was a RELIEF.  On both trips south we made it in to safe harbor just before gales struck.

 

In December of 2005, we made a transatlantic passage taking sixteen days to get to the other side.  Although the trip was long, it was relatively easy because it was windless for the first half of the trip.  We motored on flat seas, photographed a giant pod of dolphins cavorting with the yacht, and enjoyed the company of pilot whales bodysurfing in twelve foot seas.  When the trade winds finally kicked in halfway across the Atlantic, we deployed our double headsail trade wind rig, and we ran downwind covering 150 to 170 miles west each day.  A few rain squalls washed the salt off our decks, and thunder and lightening never became our unwelcome guests.  We caught so much mahi mahi that we were eating fresh fish nearly every day.  We ate so much fish, prepared in so many new and delectable ways, that we actually gained weight during the trip.  It's the first time that ever happened on passage.  And no one got sea sick.  And then we arrived in Barbados, fit as a fiddle and raring to go.  And now I need to go on a diet.

 

What was it like to arrive in Barbados?  I was fat and happy and surprised.  I already told you why I was fat and happy.  So why was I surprised?  Simple.  When we were still about three miles offshore from Bajan Paradise, a man on a windsurfer came streaking out to Exit Only.  We saw him coming, and debated whether he would windsurf so far offshore to check us out.  He kept coming, and coming, and coming.  This guy better know what he's doing, because if he doesn't, the next island is one-hundred miles downwind.  He wasn't bothered by the choppy seas and twenty-five knot winds.  He just kept coming.  He was on a mission, and that mission was to welcome us to Barbados.  He zipped by our stern, performed a quick jibe, and as he zoomed past Exit Only he said, "Welcome to Barbados."  It was Christmas day, and his welcome was a gift that would warm the coldest heart of the most crusty and wayward sailor.

 

Welcome to Barbados, and welcome to our new cruising home, the Caribbean.  It's great to be home.
 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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This web site is a companion to Outback and Beyond.com.

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