Barbados Bridgetown
December 2017

There is no fuel here but one of the boat owners in our Rally organized a Diesel truck to come and fill up all the boats. He had to do 3 trips to fill up his tank but he was great. Here’s the phone number.

Tel: 425 5000 Williams

Carenage was quite dirty, lots of rubbish collects here. Unfortunately, the place is also very attractive to rats because of the amount of rubbish on the shore. We were told to put our rubbish up near the road because they collect daily from the road but only weekly from the park bins.

This place is noisy but we were really glad we stayed here. It really is in the center of Bridgetown, no trouble but we did lock up the boat and close the hatches when we left her. This was also to keep out the rats and the rain. Lots of tourists from the cruise ships and local people stopping and asking questions, it was a great time experience. $50 usd a night but we were on the Odyssey Rally so had 7 nights included. After this, we anchored in the bay.

The office is supposed to open 11- 3 pm but we found it was open at random times, but not at the weekend. Most notably when the bridge opens. You can request it to be open by contacting Barbados control on 12 or 16 – best to give them advance notice if you can.
They have adapters at the office to convert 110 electric to 220 which you can use. They will also unlock the water taps for you. Tonya, the lady in the office was very helpful.

Be aware that it is expensive in The Caribbean. The supermarkets are nearby and if you are paying by credit card they will ask for other ID. I didn’t have any but they must have thought there was a good chance that I was not a thief and they let me use my card.

You will have locals trying to be your tour guide or just asking for cash. Taxi drivers are also asking to take you places. We did get a taxi to the Mount Gay Rum factory – cost $25 BD there and $20 BD back – he came back and collected us about 2 hours later. We also went to Oisin’s fish place and I negotiated it for $30 BD there. And the same back later on. We took his phone number but we found him waiting for us.
You can walk along the beach and there are various restaurants along the way.

We took the local bus which goes from Princess Alice bus terminal and not the one by the Careenage. Bus 4 from stand 7 goes to Harrison caves for $2 BD each . Drops you at the end of the road and then it’s a 5 min walk – the bus driver will tell you when to get off if you ask him.

We also went to Celestine’s for lunch on the way back from the caves.

The anchorage was a bit rollie, but ok for a couple of nights.

Arriving Bridgetown Dec 12 2014, we heard on the VHF one yacht asking the port authority permission to anchor before check-in and proceed with dinghy for check-in. This was granted.

Ourselves we proceeded with the yacht to the customs yacht berth in the harbor. And we can confirm that this is not a good place to tie up. With swell, mooring line points hard to access and no ladder to get onto the quay, it was quite unpleasant. Hard to understand that yachts are expected to come in this way. It is easy to get some damage to the yacht, or even hurt oneself. If I should check in here again, I would also try to negotiate another way.

Hi everyone, Guajira here anchored at Carlisle Bay using free WiFi signal from “CopaCabana Free Hot Spot” with no trouble at all 🙂