Bermuda Passage: Arrival

Sat, May 3, 2014-

Land ho!  About 7 am we had sight of land.  Bermuda was a beautiful sight with more altitude than we had seen in months.  As we got closer we enjoyed the traditional pastel Bermuda homes and hotels dotting the south coast and the landmark Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse.  By 1300 we were in St. George’s clearing Customs then motored on around the northeast corner of the island, along the northern coast and into Hamilton Harbor.  bIMG_2020By 1700 we were tied up at the dock at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, our home for the next 3 1/2 weeks.  Our first order of business? A dark and Stormy. We headed to the RBYC bar and ordered a round of Dark and Stormies, the official drink of Bermuda, to celebrate our successful arrival.  (Dark and Stormies are made with Bermuda’s Gosling’s dark rum and ginger beer with a slice of lime).

Thanks to great winds and great crew we made the trip in just under 6 days, two days less than the exact same trip took us with Windscape II, six years earlier.  Our crew performed with valor: Jack did celestial navigation and tracked our progress.  John was in charge of humor.

John started the trip with great plans for daily workouts on the aft deck.  With the boat heeling so much, that plan was reduced to calm water workouts, otherwise it may have led to a man overboard drill.  John’s main exercise became doing dishes while balancing in the galley.  Living on a heeling boat for six days is like spending all day on a paddle board.  Think of cooking while balancing on a paddle board, brushing your teeth while on the paddle board, etc.  It does a great job of working your core muscles.

We went to dinner at Hog Penny in Hamilton, a great pub with excellent Bermuda fish chowder, always brought to the table with a bottle of Gosling’s dark rum and Bermuda hot sauce.  A splash of each is usually the garnish of choice.  It was as good as we remembered it to be.

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