The Island of Dreams

Following a successful day's sailing last week, our guest aboard Croix des Gardes had invited us to a New Year's Day daquiri party. "Just tell the taxi driver to take you to The Old St Thomas Rectory - everyone's heard of it!" Easier said than done. The taxi driver said it was fine, agreed a fare and then took us to a derelict tranformer station on the coastal road. "Don't worry - I'll find it!" he exclaimed. We then had a crazy tour of the east of Barbados whilst he stopped every taxi driver and likely local to ask. Eventaully, he ended up with the owner of a very exclusive beach resort who knew where we were headed, and just as we were about to give up, we arrived.

The Old Rectory is up in the hills - a beautiful and secluded stop nestled among rainforest palms and banana trees. Our guest's hosts greeted us with non-stop daquiris and several enourmous roasted hams. The kids were thrilled to see their first real Christmas tree - they'd had it imported in a refrigerated container - and Matthew enjoyed the weights room whilst Elizabeth played in the pool, leaving us to enjoy the company of some of Barbados' most prestigious visitors. The house is owned by the gentleman who also owns The Beach House where we dined so well last week.

James has now finished the repair on the starboard toe rail. The failure was caused by a poor piece of work done in Italy before we came to own her and James is quite pleased to have sured up that key area.

The boats are beginning to disperse. Corto left last night, and Gweneven, Red Hackle and Artaius leave today. Many of the other owners and crew have already flown home so we plan a quiet few days before Ollie and Dave fly home and we head on to Bequia.