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Day 6, another clear sunny Caribbean day in Barbados, we woke to the sound of a calypso band playing on the pier. Oddly enough they seemed for the most part to be playing various pop sings not reggae but it still sounded pretty cool.
The tour we booked on line yesterday was due to leave at 10am so we took our time over breakfast in the Windjammer before setting off to be collected.
The mini bus arrived on time, collected us and 2 other couples including our quiet dinner companions the Turks and we set off on today's adventure. It turns out the Turks aren't so much quiet but struggling at the table to understand all the various accents. Despite living in the US and speaking great English themselves they are finding our various versions of English a challenge.
We drove through Bridgetown to board the Stiletto cat and took another pic of us with our Aust flag. The crew were two very cool guys; Randall a white guy who manned the outboard was born in Trinidad but lived pretty much all his life in Barbados. We came to know later that he once entered a race which finished here, just him and another guy in a row boat who came 2nd coming in after 42 days rowing! The crew member was Preacher, a local black guy. Both were very happy to do anything for us, we were only on board a few minutes before Preacher was handing out the drinks, two sorts of rum on offer with coke, pineapple juice or pre mixed as a rum punch, water or beer. We each had a rum punch, what the hell we are on hols lmao
We cruised to an area that a few tours go to so the turtles know if they turn up there will be free food. We were quickly in the water swimming amongst hornbill turtles which we could swim down and touch. After about 10 minutes the 3 or 4 hornbills were joined by a green turtle and its baby. It was all very cool :-)
We all got back on the cat, more drinks handed out and we were off to the next stop, another part of Carlisle Bay at the point where 3 wrecks were close together. One was a drug runners boat that sank a few years back, another was from the 1920's and the third was an old tourist boat that got too expensive to maintain so they sank it. They all had coral growth to varying degrees, the oldest of them had a lot of brains, fans, sponges, isis and a huge colony of anemones. There were a lot of fish, mostly baby snapper and the like sticking close to shore but also some wrasses, triggers, beautiful brightly coloured large damsels and a few varieties of tangs incl the gorgeous Atlantic blues.
We had about 40 minutes exploring the wrecks before it was time to again move on, as we went up the ladder to re board we were washed down with fresh water administered by the preacher which was a nice touch.
More drinks, most of us witching to the local beer, banks. A few minutes of cruising and they cut the engine, raised the sail and we were just skimming along quietly in crystal clear water past fantastic looking beaches with sparkling white sand.
Along the way the boys pointed out points of interest like the hoppers that are used to load sugar onto the ships, the power plant, rum distillery etc
It didn't take too long before the beers meant the boys were needing a loo break, rather than use the small on board head we asked if we could stop for an unscheduled stop which they were happy to do. We got to do another 30 minute snorkel over a reef with corals and more fish such as we had seen on the wrecks. The water is crystal clear and cooler than the last few places we've been, far from cold but pleasantly cool.
After that the sail came down and we motored to a resort where a taxi was waiting to take us back to the port along a different route so we to to see some more of the island.
The port has free wi fi so we took advantage of that and did some posting of pics & blogs and cleared some emails.
Back on board we were waiting to go but departure was delayed as some passenger was taken off in an ambulance, crap way to end your holiday :-(
While watching the comings and goings from our balcony we saw the most bizarre sight. A couple were returning to the ship and they were dressed the same! Her in an Hawaiian print dress him in the same fabric shirt lmao so funny, what would possess a couple to think that was ok??
We had the full crew for dinner which was, as usual, great food and even better company. John & Irene had taken themselves off to a beach as usual but this time they got more than just sunburnt, while taking a short walk their bag was stolen, nothing major in it but still not a pleasant experience. They reported it to the local beach security who weren't too concerned by all accounts but once back at the ship there was more concern shown and they got a bottle of champers as a "sorry that happened to you" pressie.
After dinner we all headed to the centrum bar for a few drinks and chatted til 2am. Whoever decides on seating arrangements for the restaurant certainly got it right with us lot, we couldn't have asked for better dinner companions.
Our last full day tomorrow spent sailing for Puerto Rico, no stops so that'll be different.
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