Barbados trip report

[capetonian]

I just returned from my first trip to Barbados. I sailed 5 out of 5 days at Silver Sands. 2 of the days were slightly underpowered with a 6.0, 2 were slightly overpowered with a 6.0 and 1 was over powered with a 5.5. Wind seemed to peak most mornings around 9 am, which suited the family as I sailed first thing in the morning and then spent the later morning / afternoon doing family stuff. Wind varied between cross onshore (ironically on the lighter days) to cross shore. There was no groundswell but good windswell every day. Most waves were in the waist to chest high range but occasionally a head high wave came through.

We flew out of Fort Lauderdale on JetBlue, tickets were reasonable and bringing my own board cost me $70 each way. We stayed at Moonraker Apartments which is downwind of Silver Sands. I launched from Moonraker and sailed up to Silver Sands twice, but decided that wasted too much sailing time so had my wife drop me off at Silver Sands, and then sailed back to Moonraker at the end of my session. The reef in front of Moonraker is slightly more east facing (i.e. onshore) than up at Silver Sands so Silver Sands is my preferred place to sail.

There is also flat water sailing inside the reef at Silver Sands, as well as in Oistins (Turtle Beach Hotel has windsurfing equipment for guests and we saw some sails on the beach at Worthing Beach too).

Conclusion - for a wind starved Florida sailor Barbados makes an easy and quick (JetBlue flight from FLL is less than 3 hours) summer destination.

[Caribchakita]

Thanks for this great report. Glad to read about the good Bajan windsurf vibe.