Brigetown, Barbados, day 438
Biking total: 43 days, 1877 km, 13’400 altimeters.
Climbing total: 186 days, 3040 km, 106’500 altimeters.
Sailing total: 209 days, 6203 nm
good news first:
110 students from the West Terrace Primary School enjoyed our TOPtoTOP-presentation on Tuesday. One teacher wrote in our expedition book: “Thank you very much. Your presentation fitted in perfectly with our study of the earth…Thanks for reinforcing our message that the earth is ours to protect. This message is even more vital for a small island like Barbados…”! The students were well educated over environmental issues and were keen to learn more about global warming. At the end all students contributed to find new solutions. They produced amazing drawings, how we can protect nature and our climate in particularly: good ideas, excellent drawings and fun.
The TV-team of Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and two journalist of the two Barbadian newspapers “The Barbados Advocate” and “Nation” joined the presentation. So TOPtoTOP was again in the News and on the front-page (article)! When we left the students at the West Terrace Primary School I told Sabine: “You share one morning with this children and you know for sure, that our planet will have a future!”
This school visit got us so much energy! Thanks a lot to the students and teachers, to Judi Clarke and Donna King helping us to get in touch with this wonderful school; – and finally: many thanks to Peter Storm for organizing a beamer before our crossing towards the Caribbean. It is an essential tool for our presentation in developing countries.
The following days we have had an other journalist from the “Nation News” on board of Pachamama. Thanks to Gunter Hasch from the Swiss consular agency. He organized a TV-team (CBC) and they filmed the TOPtoTOP-expedition yesterday.
Before the filming Andrew from Canada, Rainer from Germany, a developer of biogas and waste-to-energy projects (see more under `solutions`) and Yolande from Barbados swam to our boat. We have had a nice conversation about nature and global warming with these environmentalists. So they invited us for a hike at 6 o’clock this morning on the E-cost of Barbados. From here to the African cost it is the biggest distance on earth without land between. So it builds up huge waves and that’s why this place is called as the best place to do surfing.
We enjoyed the hike very much and Yolanda was our perfect guide: we learned a lot about nature on this islands and collect some bananas. Finally we are looking forward to see Yolande soon sailing with us and Andrew, who joins us on climbing Cotopaxi, Ecuador in June.
Afterwards we went to a meeting with Handel Callender and Julian Dautremont-Smith at the “Future Center”, – an exhibition about renewable energy. They are working on bio-diesel (read more at the end and under climate-solutions). Behind this center “Earth Mother Botanicals Limited” is producing in an environmentally friendly manner natural beauty products.
Back at the beach – a different world: Loud music and thousands of tourists lying in the sun, drinking beer. They arrived with Queen Marry 2, the biggest luxury liner. – I dreamed that it would be great to do once a presentation on a luxury liner to this kind of people or to bring them to the Future Center…”live your dreams”! – We will try.
choc:
On the Atlantic we recognized a crack in a cable at the mast. We were forced to climb up and to fix it as best as we could. It looks like that the storm in September produced more damage then we have recognized.
We asked 4 experienced skippers about their advice the last days since we arrived on Barbados. Result: We are now afraid to sail with this damage in the rig. With the good connections of Gunter Hasch from the Swiss consular agency, I was able to email pictures of the damage to a world-class riger. I hope that he can come to Pachamama tomorrow and that we can fix it as soon as possible.