Barbados

I was up early – for no other reason than I woke early – and was surprised to find an even bigger cruise ship opposite and a second schooner (a 5 masted beast) in front of us.

After a hearty breakfast (I don’t think I will be doing that every day) and a bit of time killing, SWMBO and I went for a wander into Bridgetown.

The worst of that is running the gauntlet of taxi drivers. It would appear that half the male population of Barbados are taxi drivers wanting to give tours.

We just had a wander, a couple of beers and did a bit of people watching. It is amazing how many of the locals talk to themselves as they walk along. I haven’t worked out if it is happiness or madness.

On the walk back we didn’t follow the usual tourist route but ended up walking back through a rather down at heel area with a street market where it was obvious people were selling any extra small quantity of fruit or vegetables they had grown just to make a few dollars.

Just before we got back to the docks we stopped for a beer/coke and had a good laugh when an elderly American started complaining that they didn’t have a flying fish sandwich on the menu. He had been there before (a few years ago as best we could make out) and he had walked “all that way just to get another one” (about 400 yards from the ship). I was going to tell him that there was a woman selling a couple of flying fish in the market if he was that desperate and she would be delighted for the sale, but I didn’t think it would go down too well.

A bit of swimming and sunbathing followed by drinks on the balcony (with the partition opened through to L& H’s after SWMNO found we could unlock it with a corkscrew (an ex guide leader ..... always prepared).

The other cruise liner set off late afternoon (the passengers didn’t get much time ashore – not even enough time to find a flying fish sandwich). It had to be the slowest sail away ever – even slower than ships leaving Venice ...... and they are slow!. I am sure it even stopped a couple of times within a half mile of port.

The sun looked quite nice in a strange sort of way as it set behind the Frigate berthed opposite.

The evening was rounded off with another very nice meal and a laugh at the prices of watches and jewellery in the shops on board.