Bermuda

The time has whizzed by and we are preparing to leave again in the morning.

The first day was spent checking into the country at customs and immigration,

and then getting fuel. The Rally organized a tanker truck full of duty free fuel. Still expensive.

By the end of the day we were settled into our berth at the St Georges Dinghy and Sports Club. Where’s Voila?

The Aloha party on our first night was a fun chance to unwind and see how everyone had fared during the crossing. Most boats had an uneventful time. Goslings Rum were providing free Dark and Stormys. MMM… good.thing I only had to walk down the dock to the boat.

Sunday was a day to clean up the boat, do laundry and repair some minor issues with the boat.

The evening was filled with laughter and applause as we enjoyed a fish fry dinner and congratulated the winners of many categories, some more serious than others. Race results were calculated with official handicaps and then a motoring hours factor was applied. We had way to many, so no prizes for us.

Monday was a fun day. We were able to get in touch with a friend of our daughter Pamela. He generously offered to take us on some errands and eventually dropped us in the town of St. Georges. We headed for the pharmacy to inquire about scopolamine patches for seasickness. They are an over the counter drug here. Sold out but we will have some tomorrow. We put our name down so they wouldn’t be sold out before we returned. As we wandered down the historic streets, Alan spotted a store that sold Bermuda shorts. He has lost enough weight that it was time for some new clothes. We walked out with navy shorts, a yellow polo and a woven belt with little maps of Bermuda. It is not as tacky as it sounds.  Lunch was a relaxing treat at a waterfront restaurant. We could sit and chat with the young sailors on the yacht pulled up to the wharf next to us. We actually ended up giving him the last piece of pizza.

Tosca is one of the Rally participants. They will be in the Azores before we have figured out the best course.

I took some pictures of the harbour as we walked back to the marina. The interesting part is the water catchment systems on each roof. That is the main source of water in Bermuda.

That brings us back to today … and Paul is back, this time to make sure we are well provisioned. We had a wonderful scenic drive to Hamilton. The first stop was a local farm where we put in an order for all kinds of just picked veggies. Off again to the the jewellery store but no luck having my watchband fixed. We then drove a little further to a fabulous grocery store called the MarketPlace. It had all the things we needed and much more. The quality was good and the prices were not too outrageous as we had been led to believe

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We also stopped at a metalwork store. They were able to cut a piece of sheet metal out of a scrap right away as a replacement for our shattered oven window. We will have to be careful as it will be hot but it will get us to the UK. The added bonus is that it returns the balance to the stove so the gimbals work properly.

Back to the farm to pick up our order. Corn on the cob, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots potatoes, zucchini, onions and more – all picked fresh. The produce even got our picture on the rally facebook page. You don’t want to know how much the corn was – but it is sooo good.

We have attended the skippers meeting. The weather continues its flukey pattern for the year. At the moment, the Azores High has been replaced by a low. with lots of contrary winds. Not dangerous, just a pain. Apparently this is almost statistically impossible. Oh well.We have settled with the marina and legally checked out of the country. All that remains is to head to the starting line for 11 am tomorrow. Officially, we must finish by May 31, to be counted, so that gives everyone a time frame.