December 18, 2007

BERMUDA

We stayed in Bermuda for almost two weeks, this visit being our third, we love this place, the people, the sites and scenery are just incredible. We met up with old friends, fisherman Linwood Outerbridge, Dudley Swan an ex-police officer now he imports and distributes beverages and lubricating oils among other items, we bought from him several cases of Jamaican ginger beer, Ting, Ovaltine® tea biscuits and a 5 gallon pail of 40w diesel engine oil for a real deal then he proceeded to give us as gifts, fruit juices and more Ovaltine® drinks etc. He was a real gentleman, he even took us to see his home and meet his wife who unfortunately had to go to the dentist, SSCA (Hon) Commodore Gill Outerbridge who organized pot luck at the Dingy Club where we met other boaters waiting for a weather window to St Martin or other destinations to the south of Bermuda. We also met a wonderful lady Mrs Sheila Reids owner and operator of Reids Restaurant that we frequented almost on a daily basis for the superb mussel pies and fish cakes.

We also met with the boat “Just B K” formerly from “D” dock at Port Credit with Les and Sofia onboard; we hang around together a lot of the time. They headed SW to Jamaica the day before we left Bermuda.

We got the fuel tank emptied and cleaned by Bermuda Yacht Services, bought parts for making bigger diameter fuel pickup tubes from the local hardware store, had the cover plate re-machined at Outerbridge Machine Shop, reinstalled everything back together and refuelled by Esso Co with duty free diesel at $4.88 USD per US gallon, all this was done during our first 5 days in Bermuda. You can get anything done in Bermuda that is why it is best to plan a stop here if going south or east towards Europe.

We visited mostly around St George never took a bus or the ferry out to Hamilton as this was not in our plans and we love the St Georges area, the oldest town in Bermuda with all the historic buildings and the narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets and the small but well-manicured gardens. The pastel coloured home with the whitewash rooftops, it is just fantastic, almost like heaven on earth.

On the 7^th of December the town organizes the annual Christmas Walkabout, this is one of those nights when the town comes alive, with the town square all lit up, school band and the actual walkabout which consists of a self-tour of all the Heritage houses some of them dating back to the 1600s, the tenants as these houses can only be rented will serve rum punches and snacks as you walk thru the homes. We were glad we didn’t leave Bermuda as yet, as this is something no one should miss.

But all good thing have to come to an end, I wish we could have stayed for Christmas because with all the friends we made here we would have been treated really well. But the increasing occurrences of cold fronts coming off the US and Canadian coast will be increasing and therefore the weather windows will get leaner and shorter.

So On the 8^th of December at 13:00 hrs LT we let go of the dock lines and after getting permission from Bermuda Radio we left towards the Town Cut where we saw Gill Outerbridge taking some pictures of us as we proceeded out of Bermuda, a sad day but looking forward to our new destination ST Martin W.I. Check out the next episode describing the leg from Bermuda to St Martin