First contact with terra firma, after 17 days at sea releases a mix of emotions, the first for me was the odd sensation of arrival to another country on the other side of the world, without touch down, airport security, baggage collection, taxi rides and all that comes with conventional travel. Instead, my introduction to Barbados came after a short swim through clear warm water to a quiet, silky smooth white sand beach.

I half expected a reprimanding tannoy announcement, or security official to lead me off to some small formal room for questioning, of course this didn’t happen, and I was able to lie on the beach, in the early morning sun looking back at ‘Dreamcatcher’ the 44 foot space that had been our undulating, surging, bouncing, rocking, hot, sweaty, safe capsulated world for over two weeks.

The passage east to west was a kind one, with only a few minor squalls, bringing rain but no high winds, major breakages or failures. Wind speeds were consistent and predictable, with nothing above 25 knots and little below 7, giving the motor a lazy innings with less than 24 hours use in total, and an average boat speed of 5.7 knots. Our course zigged and zagged a little to accommodate best wind options, updated every 24 hours, this gave a total of 2359 Nautical miles from Mindelo to Bridgetown.

We passed five cargo ships, several fishing vessels and a tanker or two, all steaming North or Northeast. Perhaps the best bit of sailing coincided with an inadvertently planned mid-ocean race. Around mid-evening the radio awoke with a hailing from ‘SY Luinga’ by chance, another British boat. The father, son, girlfriend trio departed Cornwall in July shadowing ‘Dreamcatchers’ coordinates all the way to a notch off our stern. After an exchange of typical British humour we managed to slip ahead with promise of drinks on arrival.

More to come...

James.