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Hello all! Guess where we are??? Sunny (and I mean sunny) Barbados!!Yes we crossed the Atlantic ocean and are all intact and pleased to be anchored off Bridgetown in Carlisle Bay.The crossing started out badly (for me) with a case of gastric flu which I picked up in Mindelo. For about 3 days I just about managed to leave my bed for short spells, and John and Gerard did my night watch one night for me (very kindly). After that we settled into our watch pattern, some days seemed to crawl, and some days went fast. In general, John loved it, Gerard enjoyed it, and I occasionally thought it was ok. Ellen and Anna took it completely in their stride (helped along by long planned 'atlantic surprises' - a new dvd every couple of days, and fun things such as pots of slime - plasticine etc).John had two shifts a night , although they were the best ones - 2100 - 0000, and 0600 - 0900. I did 0000 - 0300 and Gerard did 0300 - 0600. I have since found out from other family boats which crossed that the mums did not do any watches at all!!! We sailed mostly with just the foresail, as the wind was right behind us (I have learnt French for 'wind up the arse'!), and if the mainsail was up when I took over from John I requested very firmly that we drop it. I wanted no anxiety in the middle of the night if a squall hit and we had too much sail up, I wanted to relax, watch the stars and the glow in the dark critters in the sea, and listen to the ipod! Two days before we arrived in Barbados Ellen announced that she wanted to thank John for organising the Atlantic for her.We had good weather, the trade winds settled in after the first few days of flukey winds and we didn't have too many squalls. We sailed well under the boats limitations, frustrating for John occasionally, but I am much happier going at a speed where we don't bounce of all the waves and fly around too much. We did the crossing in 14 days, which was slower that we had thought, but I had provisioned for 30 days so we are still living off 'atlantic supplies' now (just as well - food in Barbados so far is not impressive!).When we reached Barbados (I was slightly hysterical on and off all day) we sailed round into the lee of the island and steamed down the coast to Bridgetown in flat seas, it was bliss to be out of the atlantic waves (everyone calls it swell, but actually they were big lumpy waves). After the thrill of everyone speaking English on the VHF and in immigration (we tied up next to 3 enourmous cruise ships in the commercial harbour for this) we dropped anchor in Carlisle bay, just in time to have champagne (courtesy of Gerard) which he and John followed with whisky wine and beer, Ellen and Anna had peach juice and junk food to celebrate and we all fell into bed for the first full nights sleep in 2 weeks. I would say it was bliss but I personally slept the sleep of the dead and woke up absolutely shattered the next morning and have no idea how I survived the day! I know we went to the beach (white sand - turquoise sea - hot sun - palm trees - you know the kind of thing), and did a bit of tidying - a few days later and we are all feeling much better.Ellen and Anna have made friends with two English boys (2 and 4) and a dutch boy (5) and a dutch girl (3 tomorrow). As usual we have the biggest boat and are hosting a birthday party tomorrow. Anna is hopeing to meet some Spanish people so she can speak Spanish to them. Ellen is talking to everyone we come close to she is so pleased that people here speak English, she seems to have no problem with the local accent. The same cannot be said for Gerard, who - I feel - needs to speak more French than I am able to! He is trying to get a flight to Martinique for Wednesday.Thankyou for all your messages - it is lovely to hear from our friends and family - so near and yet so far and all that!
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