Bermuda
The customs people were so nice and welcoming, tying up at the customs dock we had to wait onboard and complete their paperwork, they were happy with us as we had our printed forms ready for them.
Our flare gun it’s classed as a weapon, so we had to hand it in, we will pick it up before we depart.
the $98 it costs us to check in includes all our PCR testing and we are allowed to stay here for up to 3 months, although no one wants to be here when hurricane season starts.
“Please go and anchor and we will radio you to come back in when Health arrives” we were told.
Dropping the hook in the calm water we pulled back hard to dig it in.
Lowering the dingy once we are anchored so that we are ready to go to shore as soon as we get the call.
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| Raising a new flag in a new country is always exciting |
Ocean going yachts surround us I can see a German flag, a Swedish, a couple of British, a couple of USA flags, a French and an Italian no weekend sailors here. The World Cruising Club’s annual rally from the Caribbean to Europe (ARC) has stopped into Bermuda arriving just a day ahead of us.
After a big bacon and egg breakfast and a cup of tea in a china mug we set about getting Adriana back to normal, first off the floors were sticky with a salty sheen so after a mop over, the rugs went back down, the cushions were back in place, the dishes were done, clothes put away, wet weather gear hung up on the railings to dry, the sun has come out and there is a nice stiff breeze.
A top temperature of 20c today 10 degrees cooler than Saint Martin.
There is a cool breeze, it’s actually nice not to feel hot and sweaty all the time, I’d already pulled out some trackie pants and a couple of windcheaters anticipating the cool change.
Bermuda Radio called us, the Health dept were there could we go over for our PCR testing.
It didn’t take us long to grab our masks and passports and dingy over to the customs dock, climbing out was a bit scary, we faced an almost sheer concrete wall, I had to stand on the edge of the dingy and sort of take a jump and hoist myself up bringing my left leg underneath me, scraping my leg on the rough concrete in the process, a nice man held the dingy rope and offered me a hand.
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| The customs dock |
Once on shore we initially joined the wrong queue but soon realised where we were meant to be.
I had to laugh Craig had been nagging me to “hurry up and get in the dingy” while I was putting our passports in a waterproof bag to take with us.
Jumping in the dingy I then realised I had forgotten my face mask so we had to turn around.
Mr Smug is saying he had his and why wasn’t I organised, back on the boat I noticed when I picked up my mask there were two on the seat where I’d left them, luckily I grabbed both because when Craig pulled his mask out of his pocket it turned out to be the French flag he’d stuffed in his pocket after he put the quarantine flag up.
He nearly had to wear the French flag as a face mask.
As we are vaccinated we only have to wait for the return of the negative PCR result and we are free to move around the Island just like a local but then we have to be re tested on day 4, 8 and 14.
After an early dinner of pre cooked spaghetti bolognaise, I only lasted halfway through a movie before I was falling into bed, sleeping in my bed for a full night and being under a heavy doona for the first time since we left West Palm Beach 18 months ago.
The negative results came through late that evening, we are free to explore.
Millennial Falcon had a little bit of a harder time arriving they got caught in the rain and bad weather for a lot longer than us, we were waiting to wave and cheer when they arrive, very late the same day they came in through the Town Cut they just made it to customs but Health had already finished for the day so they will be a day behind us with their PCR testing.
Up reasonably early after a dead to the world sleep we enjoyed nice hot showers, the water is still hot from running the engine. A quick breakfast and we were off to the town dingy dock, rubbish in hand.
We didn’t have too much after 6 days, only 3 small bags and a few beer bottles and soft drink cans (Soda water with natural flavours)
Again it’s a concrete wall we have to navigate to get on shore but hey this time there are concrete steps, but the choppy waves and numerous other dinghies make it difficult to jump on to, it’s never easy.
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| No occupational health and safety here |
Our first mission is to find the Digicell shop and work out why our SIM card is not working. It’s supposed to work all through the Caribbean islands and into Europe.
St Georges Wharf is so welcoming there is free wifi around the harbour and even public toilets at the dingy dock, such luxury.
Most of the business are closed though with only one pub, one restaurant doing waterfront dining and takeaway and only a couple of the many other touristy shops open.
St George’s historic town square is so cute every building is painted a different colour, big cannons guard the town hall, the buildings are impressive but rather small.
The old town hall is in the town square it seems to be good spot for the locals to hangout.
We later worked it out, the bars are soooo expensive the locals just buy beer from the little supermarket across the road and use the town square like a beer garden.
The British secured the Island in the 1600’s and apparently you can tell the origin of the original owners of each building by the shape of the chimney and it’s true there are so many different roofs and chimney shapes, the striking thing about all the buildings is they all have white roofs.
The lovely gentleman we chatted to on the bus explained every house has to collect it’s own rainwater, all the roofs are tiled then whitewashed with guttering moulded in, the whitewash helps to keep the roof clean.
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| Pretty pastel colours and white roofs make for blinding scenery |
Bermuda is a collection of small islands connected by low bridges and the bus ride to the capital city, Hamilton, allowed us to get our bearings it’s so hard to picture places just from looking at maps.
It’s really very beautiful, with the sun shining the water is shimmering with many shades of turquoise, lots of flowering plants, hibiscus, oleander, palm trees and unusual for these windswept islands, pretty cottage gardens full of colourful flowers. Lots to see as we cross the many bridges and causeways.
The roads are very narrow and a lot of the time cut through rocky passes, the buses fly along scraping the roadside vegetation as they go. The views to the rocky craggy shore and out over the infinity ocean are breathtaking.
At one point we stopped outside the Hamilton City town hall and were taking pictures of a huge mosaic chair, an art installation, when I realised how lovely the grass smelt, walking on it bare feet we spent some time enjoying the smells and the textures, Craig even lay down, its been a very long time since we walked on lucious thick green grass.
It wasn’t until we started walking away a lady we passed sitting in a car called to us and asked if we would like our photo taken together, thats when we realised how strange our behavior must have looked, the lady still thought we were mad when we explained why we had been rolling around on the grass and wriggling our toes in the green stuff.
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| We didn’t realise how much we missed plain old grass |
Walking around and on the bus we are starting to see what the new normal is in the world.
At the bus station no longer are you allowed to loiter close to your bus stop - there is one socially distanced line controlled by security, not scary men with guns or anything just nice helpful young people helping to keep everyone at a safe distance.
And once you are on the bus big red X’s stop you from sitting on every second seat, even when you are a couple you have to maintain social distancing.
The restaurants are very strict, outside dining or takeaway only, we saw a few restaurants that have built walls around each table and another one has built a huge platform elevated off street level to give them more outside dining space, this one old pub that we walked into to “have a look” the bartender asked for “one of us to go outside please”, we were not actually allowed inside.
These businesses are doing everything they can to stay open.
Everyone is wearing masks in the streets and you get kinda tired of sanitizing your hands.
We sorted out the phone and then just had a walk around taking in all the sights.
It’s so exciting to be in a city the buses are 30 seaters so different from the run down mini vans we have been used to catching in Grenada and Saint Martin, the streets are busy with pedestrians, cars and lots of scooters, lovely wide clean sidewalks and nice shops, ah it’s nice to be back in civilisation.
Bermuda shorts are a real “thing” there are men everywhere sporting the longer length shorts with knee high socks and mostly shiny black dress shoes although we did see loafers and runners too. The shorts come in a multitude of bright colours.
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| Spotted in a shop window |
The America’s Cup Race was held here in March this year and there are still banners up all around the city.
The sun came out and we felt a bit overdressed, Craig in long pants and me with a puffer vest on but we were grateful for the extra layer, later heading back across the water in the dingy.
We had a lovely day walking around in the sunshine, catching the bus back it was starting to get chilly, and as we dinged back to the boat it was a rough wet ride, there is a bit of a front coming through for the next 24 hours.
A quiet day on the boat was a welcome rest, it rained overnight quite a torrential downpour and the winds were much stronger than forecasted, we had gusts up to 50 knots. The harbour was calm and protected although we did swing around with the wind something that doesn’t happen in the Caribbean due to the constant trade winds coming from the one direction.
You have probably seen Craigs picture of me doing the washing using the rainwater collected in the dingy, I tasted it and it wasn’t salty so using two buckets I managed to wash all the clothes and tea towels we had used on passage, I must admit there wasn’t much to wash, we didn’t get changed much.
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| What else do you do with a dingy full of rainwater ? |
The next day we were back on the bus into Hamilton this time with Adam and Khiara we walked for miles, all around the city taking in the sights.
Looking for boat parts it was good to have a reason to walk through some areas of the town that were off the tourist map.
Ending the day with a well deserved Guinness.
It’s actually quite a small city now that we have visited and explored it a few times, we had to return the next day for our day 4 PCR Tests. Their testing and reporting system is smooth and fast.
Day 5, maintenance day, we had to clean out the shower pump filter not just in the shower but the actual pump, it was a yucky smelly job.
We have to refill out diesel after motoring on our last passage, keeping the jerry cans and tanks as full as possible ready for the next leg of our journey.
There is a gas station on the water and one a little bit up the hill so we walked to them both to compare prices only to find out they are both the same $1.90 per litre. (US$)
Emptying 4 of the 20litre jerry cans into Adriana we took the empties by dingy over to the gas station for a refill, then again after emptying 2 more into the tank.
We filled up with 150 litres, it cost us $285.00 US, we have a full tank and 160 litres in jerry cans.
Once we had completed our chores we took to the streets of historic St George’s walking up the hill towards the harbour entrance (The Town Cut) we were able to look down over the cut from the land, it is quite narrow the colours of the water are stunning so many shades of turquoise and blue, and the huge expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean sparkling away on the horizon.
Passing pretty, immaculate cottages all nicely painted using a huge variety of colours, light yellow, creams, lime green, red, pink orange, light blue, baby blue, deep Mediterranean blue and all with the distinctive white roofs.
Most of the brick fences are rendered too and painted to match. Pretty gardens full of flowering shrubs complete the picture postcard scenery.
The small beaches on this side of the island are rocky and full of broken coral, human debris, lots of sea glass and hundreds of Blue Bottles/Portuguese Man of War stinging jellyfish, not a nice place to go swimming although the water temperature is around 22c and we did see kids in the water and people sunbathing at Tobacco Beach. Tobacco Beach is one of those must see tourists attractions a pretty horseshoe beach with a beach bar pumping out reggae music. For all the hype it was pretty but really really tiny.
There are 7 old forts around the Island and we passed 3 of them on our walk, there were no native peoples here when the English discovered the islands in the 1600’s.
A British ship carrying 150 people was shipwrecked on the reef, swimming to shore amazingly everyone survived. The survivors built a new ship from the wreckage, but some of the crew decided to remain on the island, when the rest returned to England, these were the original settlers.
I know I’m not giving you much history but I’m writing this without internet to verify the facts, so google Bermuda it’s really a very interesting history.
I decided to have a trip into town by myself there were a couple of shops I wanted to look at and Craig not being in the least bit interested was happy to stay home. Freedom for a day 😁
That morning as we were getting ready we heard the Bermuda Radio guy talking to Ironbark 3, “isn’t that Trevor Robertson who we met in Carriacou?”
And sure enough as we were dingying over to have coffee with Adam and Khiara, (before I went to town) we could see coming in through the Town Cut a little yellow boat lurching from side to side as it a me through but settling down once it reached the calm water.
We motored over to say hello, Trevor gave us a big smile but his hands were busy, his tiller had broken and he had rigged up a manual pulley system for his rudder. We left him to concentrate on navigating into the harbour and headed over to Millennial Falcon.
As we were sipping our tea Trevor yelled he needed a hand he was having trouble dropping his anchor.
Craig and Adam jumped in our dingy, Adam jumping onboard Ironbark and Craig helping to steer her in by nudging her along with the dingy.
They quickly had him settled and after Craig dropped me in town he headed back to hear all about Trevor’s trip.
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| Doing things old school, Trevor on his way back to Ironbark 2 |
Trevor had left Carriacou and was heading to Iceland when he was hit by a huge storm, 75 knot winds gusting to 100, he had to detour into Bermuda to make repairs, to add to his troubles the cap had fallen or been nudged off his water tank and it had filled with seawater. So he was entering Bermuda to do repairs and refills. We feel very privileged to have met Trevor he is a little bit of his story below.
Another Hurricane
Craig says “I don’t know how to tell you this but the first hurricane of the season is forming and it has the potential to head straight over us here in Bermuda”
“What” “are we hurricane magnets” Hurricane Dorian hitting Magdeline Islands was so not normal and all my research had said yes Bermuda gets hurricanes but usually later in the season, September, October not in May !!!
Their biggest hit was a double whammy in 2014 when Hurricane Fay and Hurricane Gonzalo made landfall only 4 days apart.
Tropical Storm Ana didn’t turn into a Hurricane but she was a named storm, we stayed onboard for the day waiting to see what was going on with the weather.
St George’s Harbour is so sheltered we didn’t feel a thing, although I think TS Ana passed about 100 miles North of Bermuda so we were never in any real danger, but it’s the start of the hurricane season and it’s time to get out of the Caribbean.
After 10 lovely days in Bermuda we decided to get going.
Azores here we come ....
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