Surfing Turtles

We think Shareef from Cheap Cars gave us his car. We found his house keys in his glove compartment. We weren’t supposed to have this car. Originally he was going to give us a Suzuki Swift, but someone else took that. In the end, he pulled up in this car and apologised for the state of it.

Jack’s smile was broad. ‘Don’t worry. It’s perfect.’

This is our second day in Freight’s. You know somewhere is good when the cap wants to move here. This is not in our plan at all.

The plan for us is to start heading home at the end of May. It should take about two months to sail across the Atlantic, back to Wales. It’ll be five years since Quest has been in her home port. We seem to be doing things in increments of five. Five years for Quest and she’ll be back home. Then what?

If all is well, we’ll do this trip again, but head further – to the South Pacific. In about five years if we can do it. These are our plans. Ha! Best laid ones. Still, it’s hard to imagine anything other than Jack wanting to sail across the seas.

In Freight’s, turtles surf alongside the surfers. We think they might be the souls of dead surfers. Might sound fantastical, but some of them are really keen to surf. When they come up to breathe, they’re often within touching distance. It’s a little spooky.

And Freight’s is busy, but never too much. This time we met Victoria, a university exchange student from Sweden. She looks like she’s spent more time tanning than studying, but we’re not judging. We get the same incredulous look when we tell her about our life. She befriended Lulu too which was nice. Lulu likes a friend.

Delphine stood up on her surfboard. It was very exciting! Wearing booties gave her a nice grip to stand on the board. When we got dry, we hopped into Shareef’s car and went a few minutes down to Enterprise Beach to have snow cones and Bajan fish cakes with Alison. Alison makes and sells them out of the back of her car.

The snow cones are a combination of old-fashioned ice and flavoured syrup. I like coconut and ginger syrup, topped off with condensed milk. Snow cones are a Bajan staple. And the fish cakes are too – fried, fishy dough balls in sweet chilli and herb batter. Only 75 cents for one.

We sat under the pine trees, eating and watched the world go by. This area – Oistins, and its surrounding beaches, feels like backpackers mixed with surfers mixed with old-school Barbados.

Got to be special to tempt the cap to stop sailing. In the meantime, we have to give Shareef his car, and his house keys back.

2 thoughts on “Surfing Turtles

  1. LOVED seeing Delphine on the board….lookin good doin it!!! What a shame we did not make it down to Freights it looks wonderful! And I agree with Cap, Barbados is a place I could consider going back to and spending a long time at when we are done with long distance sailing!

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