Fireball International 2010 - Regatta in Barbados

We got to watch from a distance the Fireball International regatta at Carlisle Bay. Here's another Fireball World link. These sail boats are small and slick and super fast. They are raced by two people, one "crew" who is really just a counterweight hanging by a tether and harness over the edge of the boat and the other is the skipper. I made of video of what the regatta looked like from the event site, the Barbados Yacht Club in Bridgetown. I hope you can tell from the video that there were about 12 to 15 countries represented which you can tell from the IDs on the sails and flags a-flying.

Two international competitions have converged on Barbados at once: the Fireball International races and the World Twenty-20 Cricket matches. More on cricket in a future post.

My kids take sailing lessons at the Sailing Association next to the Yacht Club. That's how I heard about the Fireballs. But I also read about the Fireballs from my favorite local blogger, Planet Barbados' Janet Shattuck Hoyos, who adores Carlisle Bay about as much as I do, I think. She had this video linked from her blog. Check out the speed these boats are flying.


Next year Fireball International 2011 is in Ireland. I think they really might need those wet suits the racers were sporting in sunny Barbados this year.

Don't Miss the Jammin' Catamaran Cruise

We live in paradise for a year, did I mention that? When you live in Barbados, you get some company from folks living in cold and foreign lands. With all of our friends who have left the chilly northeast to come visit us, we take them on a real treat - the Jammin' Catamaran cruise which sails around the west coast of Barbados. The video below will give you a sense of the atmosphere - music, limin', happy people, fun in the sun as well as in the water. If you're really lucky, when you're on your Jammin' cruise you'll get to see a few sea turtles.

On one Jammin' trip, I overheard the owner/captain Roger say to one of his crew members "give the people what they want!" and Jammin' does do that. Then they passed around a pitcher of Jammin' Rum Punch. Nice!

































Jammin's web site: http://www.jammincats.com/


All the photos shown here are on my Flickr page.

Sailing at Carlisle Bay

Adding to the fun of this year-long adventure...sailing lessons for Jill and the kids. Again, I am the documentrix, not one of the sailors. This location is Carlisle Bay at the Barbados Sailing Association. It's a great way to learn to sail, lot's a hands-on and terminology and ropes instruction. Actually, it's an amazing place to learn as you can see from the video.

Here's the link to the Sailing Association's training page.