Bermuda blues
The blue waters of Bermuda.
We arrived in Bermuda in the morning after a 6 day passage from the Caribbean. It was a good passage, a little motoring but mostly beam reach sailing. Our anchor dram and passage celebratory drink was none other than the traditional Bermudan cocktail, a Dark and Stormy. We even found the correct ginger beer in the ships stores to make it. After a well deserved nap we cleaned up the boat a little and finally found the source of that odd smell Helen had been complaining about: a flying fish had entered through the salon hatch and expired in the back of the bookcase, hidden for the duration of the passage. Incredible.
The next day was bright and sunny so we took the dinghy in to explore. Bermuda was settled in the early 17th century following the shipwreck of the Sea Venture, a boat heading for the colonies in Jamestown. The stranded crew fashioned two new boats, the Deliverance and Patience from what they could salvage from the shipwreck and using local timber. After 9 months enjoying the plentiful supplies in Bermuda many of the stranded crew were not thrilled to continue on to the failing colony of Jamestown. This shipwreck story is said to have inspired William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
St Georges is the site of the original settlement on one of the six main islands that make up Bermuda. It is not a large town, wrapping around the harbor, its candy colored houses and white roofs are very pretty. The buildings are all solidly built, able to stand up to hurricane force winds. The unique clinker-style roofs are designed to capture valuable water, directing it into cisterns.
There are signs of the historical and British influence all over, not least the road names.
And store names.
We walk up to St Peters, the largest of the many churches, and enjoy looking around the graveyard. Such poignant stories can be discovered. The slave graveyard toward the back was unusual for the time I am sure, noticeably smaller markers, but at least there was a final resting place.
There was even one church that was started, but never finished. Politics got in the way. It was interesting, usually roofless buildings are in the process of falling down, but in this case the walls were still quite sturdy and intact. Beautiful in a strange way.
The unfinished church.
Walking across the island we get to the north shore and finally get an idea about why the coastline around Bermuda is so dangerous for sailors. The reefs are wicked and protect the north and western shores for 10 miles out.
Bermuda is chock a block with forts. Its pivotal role as a maritime station for fleets from both sides of the Atlantic, during colonial wars through to the world wars of the last century have left their mark. We visited Fort Catherine, built to defend the north eastern tip of the island just as they were closing. We were invited up to help lower the flag from the tower rooftop. I somehow expected a little reverence for the flag, too many years in flag respecting USA I guess, but to see it stuffed unceremoniously over a staircase railing for the night struck me as not quite right.
We had another day of nice sunny skies to wander around St Georges, the spring flowers were in full bloom and we enjoyed discovering a new to us bird, the Kiskadee.
Bermuda gaff ketch rig.
And then it rained, and rained, and rained.
We. had one more day of good weather which we grabbed and armed with our transport pass we hopped on a morning bus to Hamilton, the capital city of Bermuda. Hamilton is not as quaint as St Georges, it is a city after all. Stores, offices, government buildings.
We took the ferry across the bay to the historical dockyards area. This is where the cruise ships that have gotten so big they cannot squeeze into St Georges tie up. There was one on the dock, but the passengers must have been off shopping, the Royal Naval Dockyard, fort and museum that we came to visit was practically empty.
The National museum of Bermuda was in the fort, the exhibits displayed in the Governors mansion on the hilltop.
The mural depicting 500 years of Bermudan history, from the first discovery in 1505 to 2009.
The highlight of the museum for me was this mural. It wrapped around the stairwell in the governors mansion and described the history of Bermuda. It took the artist, Graham Foster 3 1/2 years to complete and the details in the paintings were just wonderful. He depicted major historical moments but more fascinating were the more mundane domestic historical scenes; the whaling industry, slave auctions, and the ducking chair used amongst other things for determining if a woman was indeed a witch (if she survived she was, if she died she was not).
The views out over the reef strewn waters were lovely, that intense blue color makes you want to go sailing! There were nests recently built in to the fort walls to encourage the establishment of a colony of the beautiful White-tailed Tropicbird.
Another interesting exhibit was about the local pilot boats, used to go out and provide a pilot to guide visiting ships safely through the reefs into the harbor. They were impossibly long, built for speed so as to reach the ship first to get the business.
Back in St Georges we were waiting for suitable weather to make the crossing from Bermuda to Nova Scotia. This was not a passage we were looking forward to. A year ago friends of ours began the same journey, but tragically did not arrive. https://www.bwsailing.com/anatomy-of-a-tragedy-at-sea/
We were taking planning very, very seriously. The danger of this particular passage is the necessity of crossing the Gulf Stream, a huge river of warm water flowing northeast at 3-4 knots through the Atlantic towards northern Europe; if there is any wind in a contrary direction to the flow of the water, waves rapidly build and it can become dangerously rough. The problem we were having was that there was a near constant cycle of weather that had streams of easterly winds moving down from Nova Scotia. Our timing had to be perfect.
As we waited we saw our neighbors had run into a little problem. When they tried to raise their anchor, they discovered the chain had gotten wrapped around an unmarked submerged piling. They had to call in the divers to free them. It was a process that took all day. We worried were we stuck too? It turned out we were not! Finally after 10 days in Bermuda we pulled up our anchor, filled up on fuel, checked out with customs and sailed out of St Georges cut, Nova Scotia bound.
