Relaxing in Bermudaful

St George church

Back street,  St Georges

Likely you are asking yourself, did they leave ? Are they on the ocean?
What gives?  We are still here ....... anchored in St. Georges Harbour.

St Georges street

 Basically,  lounging, reading books, going  ashore, walking - nothing too taxing nor terribly  interesting,  unless you like to hear about people relaxing.

St Georges Harbour

However ...... Ann arrives on Sunday so we are spurred into action.  Ann?  Whose Ann?  Ann is our newest member of the HOBO clan,  she (brave she must be) decided to join us for the Trans-Atlantic leg,  Bermuda, Azores and beyond - for the summer.    We are looking forward to her arrival, meeting her and setting sail for our next adventure.

 More about Ann http://annewhite.ca/

Tina, Geoff, Branko and Maggie

Geoff, Tina and Branko - walkee

The last week in Florida we met Geoffrey and Tina from the S/Y  S'ours of Ipswich.   Amazingly enough they were in Fort Pierce and planning the exact same route as us;   they however,  had already done the passage,  nine years previous.    How wonderful to meet them  and great fun.  We left Florida together,  taking slightly different paths and did not see them again until we reached Bermuda - and now we are neighbours again.

Reed and Kevin

On the weekend Kevin and Reed from Toronto (Reed and Branko know each other through work) scootered down to St George to visit us from their resort - great to see them and even better to spend time.   The trip (Reed father,  Kevin son of) was a graduation present for Kevin,  in the fall he starts at Ryerson in a Cinematography degree.  We hope to see the entire family in Europe next year.

Moon Gate - for love

During our relaxing faze, we took a walk through St Georges,  down to Tobacco Beach,

Tobacco Beach

 past a farm (Tina used to raise and show goats, who knew such a thing existed?) that had cows, many variety of goats (who knew there were so many types, of goats that is;  long eared, short eared, spotted, furry, not furry,) chickens and one turkey (who was harangued constantly by the kids) - around a curve and we came upon another small beach, full, full, full of seaglass - we filled our pockets and then off to see the fort, cannons and martello towers that ran along the coast - by the very skinny entrance to St.Georges - finally to St. Georges Yacht Club for a reasonably priced drink - a very satisfying walk.

Tina with the goats

Fort St Catherines

Painted houses

Bermudian homes are sturdy and well kept structures with many smatterings of mansions thrown in - all homes are  painted bright,sunny colours, pinks, blues, oranges, purples, so that even the odd beige colour comes across as vibrant.  

Gombey Dancer

Yesterday, we (S'ours and us) took the public bus around the island.  Our final destination was Hamilton for the Gombey -Harbour Nights Extravaganza!  We wanted to see the Gombey dance and costumes,  as we are told is part of Bermudian history.

Gombey:  (Bermuda.gov website)


The origins of Bermuda's Gombey dancers can be traced to a mix of Afro-Caribbean and Native American influences. All of the body and faces of the dancers are covered to avoid identification, as slave-owners frowned upon the practice of their slaves participating as Gombeys.  Nowadays, Gombey troupes spring up on Bermuda's streets to perform dancing  to the hypnotic beat of drums and bottle-whistles.

Little Gombey -stretching

Little Gombey Dancer

We started out at 6:45am,in rush hour traffic.  What a treat,  people are very polite and relaxed - everyone  greets the entire bus as they board,  good morning, afternoon or evening.   So civilized here,  first you ring the bell. stay in your seat until the bus stops and then exit, while the people waiting to board, wait patiently outside while you  slowly make your way off.... no complaint, no pushing, no muttering - its like going to a retreat :-)  

Our friend Elsie grew up in Bermuda,  so my entire day was  spent wondering if Elsie went to school here,  rode her horse there, swam at  this beach, walked on this road, drank at  this pub,  or did she know that guy with the red shorts?  It was as if she was here with us.

Red (Bermuda) short man

Back to our journey.   After a quick coffee in a Portuguese cafe we took another bus and went to the dockyards.  Youser! what a difference - tourists galore!  Two cruise ships were in and the place was swarming.  Geoff had been to Bermuda in the 80's with the British Reserve and mentioned that at that time the dockyards were derelict, abandoned and falling to ruin - Amazing what Bermuda had done with the place,  now a tourist mecca, of shops, restaurants, buses, museums,  scooter rentals and of course sunshine.

The Dockyards

 Their National Museum is housed within the fortress keep of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Casemate Barracks and some of the ramparts  http://www.bmm.bm/  - Bermuda was developed as a strategic mid-Atlantic British naval base - 1620's until the 80's,  give or take a few years.   the ramparts as expected provide wonderful views and the Commissioners House, beautifully restored and a pleasure to walk through.    Having brought no food with us, Tina graciously invited us to join them in a lunch of hand made scones and sausage roll,  Branko was a bit peckish by that time.
Note: those that know me,  know that food is very important, hence the description of our lunch eats :-)

Morning,  St George

Baton Twirlers  - Majorettes 

We took the ferry back across the bay to Hamilton where we lounged around in the many beautiful parks - again very nice, clean and so comfortable (bench's, shade, clean bathrooms.)

 At 6:00ish we headed for Front Street where  the big event was to take place.

Front Street

 Every Wednesday the city shuts down their main street to traffic, the roads were  blocked, kiosks set up and a band stand, all before our eyes.    The Gombey dancers started the night off,  immediately following were the baton twirling group and finishing off with a drum band.
 Fun, great sounds and a lively, interesting audience.

Drum band

Kids, jumping into the harbour

For the last few days, Branko has been doing chores in anticipation of soon leaving - fixed our dingy (yet more leaks, a year old and its busting seams regularly)  much to  Branko's annoyance.   Splicing the jib halyard (noticed it was wearing, when we took the jib down to repair a rip) and moved one or our lee cloths -  whew, time to relax with a swim on the beach - where is S'ours? They were to pick us up hours ago...... :-)

Branko, finally at the beach

Will talk soon.
Maggie


P.S. The day before we left Bermuda we walked along the cobbled streets of St. George.   A large cruise ship was anchored outside the harbour and were dingying (sp?) people in to see St. George.  Well, were we not surprised when we walked past, stopped and then said "LINDA??" -  here miles away from home we meet friends from our old yacht club - Linda  and Kathy (along with Linda's sister-in-law from England.)

Kathy, ' (Lina's sis-in-law) Pinky and Linda

Kathy and Linda

It was funny to just pass them on the street like that,  what a small world - but what a wonderful one.

Of course we went for drinks and talked our ears off - Linda had been in the Azores 2 years previously visiting mutual friends on ExcuseMe ( Scott and Lori.)    So,  we heard about  the great spots to go through Linda.  Thanks Linda!!!  Hope your week in Bermuda was grand.