Barbados
Barbados Day 1 of 2 Friday, March 4
You may have
noticed more pictures in the blog posts recently. This is because we have a new editor in
chief. We told you we would come up with
a fix for our inability to load Google Earth, or pretty much anything Google
most of the time. We found a fix. We call it Nicole. Yes, she who set this whole thing up for us
at the beginning now has the task of keeping it working for you. We still write the main story on the
blog. We send her pictures and she puts
it all together just for you. We are so
thankful to her for doing it for us.
What a blessing.
So, today’s
post finds us in Barbados in the town of Bridgetown with four or five other
cruise ships. We are here for an
overnight as it is the end of a segment of our ATW cruise and the start of
another. Testing happened yesterday
morning. Apparently one passenger tested
positive. All crew were negative. The boat has gone optional mask-less as of
March 1 for the passengers and the crew is still 100% masked all the time. For this positive result to show up the
passenger must have been infected before masks were optional. We’ll see what happens from here.
Our tour on
day one in Barbados was a trip on an Atlantis submarine. These are tourist subs made for about 60
passengers. Our tour had six passengers
plus a ship host. It felt like a private
tour. The six happened to all be bridge
players. Unplanned. We took a boat from shore
out to the submarine. It was obvious
where we were going as there was a single white and blue object out in the
bay. The object proved to be a white
submarine and a blue spotter boat. We
transferred off the transport boat onto the sub and went below. We all sat on the same side of the sub,
apparently so the driver could lean the sub that direction so we could more
easily see the bottom. There was a
lighted depth monitor in both the front and rear of the sub giving real time
information on how far below the surface we were. The sub is rated to take passengers to 150
feet which means the sub is rated to be safe to 600 feet deep.
We had a wonderful ride. We were on what they called the freshwater reef, where the salinity is less because the seawater is mixing with fresh water. This leads to an odd effect where the visibility sometimes goes out of focus. Weird. We had great views of the reef life, lots of fish, sponges and corals with different colors. We learned about the two categories of coral: hard and soft. Each subcategory is what it says: brain, boulder, elkhorn, feather, sea fan, wire, etc. You could tell when the sun went behind a cloud because everything went dull colors. There was an old anchor and a wreck of the Willoughby, an old ship donated to recreational divers who subsequently sunk her to form a future dive location. We went down to 143 deep. The tour was about 45 minutes. We popped up next to the tracking boat but in a slightly different spot than we had started as gauged by our views of the cruise ships. Back to land on the transfer boat where we received certificates for the 143 foot depth.
Bussed back to the boat we took a short break before heading to the downtown for shopping. We traveled the main shopping street and it was filled with people, as crowded as anywhere we’ve been. One of the things that was different in this port was the amount of hand sanitizer dispensed and the temperature checks to get into any building or on any mode of transport. The port had automatic checks where you put your forehead next to a sensor and hopefully got a green light as you put your hands under the sanitizer. On the bus, hand sanitizer. Each store, somebody with a hand held temperature check and more hand sanitizer. We checked out several indoor malls. They showed the same effects of covid as other shopping areas we have seen—numerous empty stores and others closed. The street shopping was busy. We found the wax museum. By accident. Did not really want to see it. It was closed. We found a pharmacy, often the most important store for long term cruisers. We found what we needed and some extras for the crew. Great day in Barbados.
Barabados Day 2 of 2 Saturday,
March 5, 2022
We enjoyed a fairly leisurely wake up and breakfast before reporting to the large lounge to sign in for this ship-sponsored tour labeled Luxury Catamaran Sail. Last night we had asked for details so that we could be dressed and packed appropriately. Yes, there would be opportunities to snorkel. Yes, there would be a large lunch served on the cat. 30 of us piled into a shuttle bus where we learned a bit about Barbados: the island is 21 mi. x 14 miles, has a population of about 290,000, and makes most of its money beyond tourism from the sugar cane industry—exporting 40,000 TON of raw sugar and using the byproduct of molasses in the making of rum. The shuttle bus took us about 4 blocks to the lovely white catamaran called Excellence One.
Three crew welcomed us aboard, motored us away from the marina, then unfurled the sails for a 60-minute sail to a snorkeling destination where quite a few other small and larger sized boats were anchored for snorkeling. Ours was a “guided snorkel” meaning one of the crew was in the water keeping our group corralled and watching for further boat traffic. This crew person also tossed some small morsels into the water to call the sea turtles over to join the swim. Also seen were large Tarpin, a few eels, and various other coral reef fishies.
They pulled anchor about 45 minutes later and anchored in a quiet area to serve a large banquet of three different grilled meats, a couple different salads and sides, then 3 different desserts. And an open bar. Their local beer’s ad is “Save water. Drink beer.” It’s a pilsner lager that’s light and lush.
Reparking near a swimming hole near the beach, there was another chance to snorkel before hauling anchor and sailing back to the boat.
Because it was Saturday, most of the shops in the harbor
area were closed. Jerry was thrilled.
Thank you, Nicole!
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