Bermuda

Customs House and Dock, St George

We left Savannah Bay, Virgin Gorda, at 1105 on Wednesday 17^th May. The weather forecast on Windy showed light winds at first as long as we kept east of our rhumb line (the direct course as drawn on the chart from one place to another). Normally, we sail close to our rhumb line. This time we headed up to 30nm east to make the most of the wind. Once we were clear of the Virgin Islands we were able to switch off the engine and sail gently with a full mainsail and a full genoa.. We were on a beam reach in hot and sunny weather with relatively calm seas. The seaweed that we’d encountered since the South Atlantic was still abundant, wrapping itself around the Hydrovane’s rudder.

 

The anchorage at St George

By the end of day 2 the wind had freshened and we were close hauled with one reef in the mainsail and the genoa furled to one third. Passing squalls brought more wind or took it away as we alternated between sailing and motoring. Soon we had big seas with breaking waves. More squalls followed with flashes of lightning. Jeremy fell in the saloon and cut his elbow on a locker fastening.

 

Kathy has a freshwater bath in the dinhy

I downloaded a weather forecast from our Garmin inReach. Over the next two days we could expect strong SE to SSE winds gusting to 30 knots; that’s a Force 7 on the Beaufort Scale. We made good speeds and mileage of up to 140nm a day. Time to reef down. With some difficulty we took down the mainsail. As the wind went behind us, Jeremy poled out the genoa. We sped along, but now we could reef down more easily by furling the genoa as required.

 

Gazebo city

As the weather was worsening, we decided to make for St George, Bermuda, and enter at night rather than staying out at sea until it was light. Jeremy contacted Bermuda Radio on VHF16 to let them know of our likely arrival in four hours’ time. “Sal Darago,” the Operator said. “Green hull, 36ft Westerly sloop.” We were astonished. Our details had been recorded from our previous visit nine years ago.

 

Musical procession

We had about 12nm to go when I picked up the weather forecast from Bermuda Radio. “Small craft warning. S-SE winds 20-30knots, gusting 35-45knots” (Gale force 8 to severe gale force 9). The mizzling rain that had started in the morning was now lashing down. We took refuge in the saloon with the companionway boards in place, popping out to check the course and adjust Hydrovane. As we approached Bermuda, we put the engine on, and furled the genoa. Jeremy went out on the deck to take down the pole. I helped from the cockpit. We had radar and our chart plotter on. I called Bermuda Radio on VHF 27 and was told we were clear to enter with no outgoing traffic. I steered using Neco, our autopilot situated below decks. Jeremy watched from the cockpit. I was in the saloon, eyes glued to the chart plotter and adjusting Neco when instructed. 

 

Golden girls dancing

The rain stopped and the effect of the wind eased as we turned into the Town Cut to St George. Bermuda Radio told us to tie up at the Customs Dock. First we had to find it; then we had to put on lines and fenders; then we had to motor through the anchorage in the dark. The spotlight I was going to use would not work and the indoor torch was useless outside. We avoided all the anchored yachts and tied to the Customs Dock at midnight. The local time was 1.00am. Customs checked us in, Immigration stamped our passports and we paid 70.91 USD. 

 

Majorettes in the rain

There was a space on a concrete wharf opposite, which we moved to for the night. Unfortunately, the strong to gale force wind pinned us to the concrete and Sal Darago suffered a nasty scrape on her port side. It was Wednesday 24^th May (Happy Birthday, Eileen). We dropped into our bunks at 0300 hours.

 

Jeremy joins the dancers

The next morning in much kinder weather, at 0630, we left the concrete wharf before breakfast and anchored in St George’s Harbour. We took two bags of laundry ashore and walked to the Front Line Laundrette. The machines would only work if a money card was purchased for 5 Bermudian dollars. Then it had to be topped up with the cost of the washing machine and tumble drier. We had no Bermudian dollars. Fortunately, the ATM was not too far away but it only gave 50BD denominations. We changed 100BD for 10’s and 5’s in the bank. Now we could do our laundry at a cost of 20BD.

 

Our water tanks are full

Jeremy returned to the dinghy dock and found that another yachtie had padlocked their dinghy with a wire through our dinghy’s painter. The only way to release the dinghy was to untie our painter from the underwater rings. A rather angry Jeremy returned to Sal Darago and stripped down the outboard engine once more. After the fourth attempt to repair the outboard, he changed the petrol. Lo and behold, the outboard worked perfectly once more. The local garage charged 1BD to dispose of the bad petrol.

 

Rainy anchorage

Friday 25^th May was Bermuda Day, a public holiday. We took the bus to Hamilton to watch the carnival like procession. The forecast of isolated showers was totally wrong. The rain lashed down and bounced off the tarmac. Spectators turned their sunshade gazebos into rain shelters. The Robinson family kindly let us shelter in their old one. The procession continued. We felt so sorry for the beautifully turned out dancers and their floats. Everyone cheered them on.

 

Lunch in the Frog and Onion

The following evening, having spent too long on the laptop, I developed a really bad headache with a shooting pain behind my ear. I had to take alternate paracetamol and ibuprofen, which fortunately sorted me out. Just as well, because we wanted to visit the National Museum of Bermuda in Docklands on Sunday.

 

Docklands from the Commissioner's House

It took about an hour and a half and two bus rides to reach the opposite end of the islands of Bermuda. We had lunch in the historic Frog and Onion brewery pub and restaurant, housed in the old cooperage building of the former Royal Naval Dockyard. The museum entrance was opposite and comprised a 16 acre site with 7 gun emplacements, various exhibitions in the old victualling hall, a boat loft and the stunning Commissioner’s House. We tried to ignore the two cruise ships towering over the ramparts. After a pleasant and educational afternoon, we returned to SD via ferry from Docklands to Hamilton and bus to St George.

 

Pass the salt please!

Today, we’ve had cottage pie in the White Horse pub. Our route to the Azores has been planned and we’re waiting for suitable weather to start the passage of either 1797nm or 1824nm depending on which route we choose.

 

Commissioner's House