Bermuda (Hamilton) – April 22

Well, it was nice to wake up to calmer seas, though it was still windy and a bit overcast. 

We went to the boat building contest this morning after breakfast and it was fun to see how creative some of them were. We knew 2 people with boats, so we were rooting for them. They present their hand made boats and then they put them in the pool and they are eligible to be voted on as long as they don’t sink. All 7 proved seaworthy and so the judges had to pick which one to win. The most realistic looking boat was the Sienna Princess (named after the Captain’s daughter) and it did win. Leonard’s was the Scrapheap Princess and Nancy & the Bridge Club named theirs the Bridge Princess. When I get to uploading the photos you can see just how creative they all were.

 Leonard with Scrapheap Princess

 Nancy with the Bridge Princess

 the winner was the Princess Sienna (Sienna is Captain JP's daughter)

We ate lunch upstairs in the buffet so we could watch the 2 hour sail in to Bermuda. Around noon we picked up the pilot and arrived in Hamilton around 2:00. We didn’t get off the ship until 2:30ish and all aboard was at 6:00. So, a very short day.

 Tropicbird

the shallow clear water was beautiful

 the Oracle is the U.S. America's Cup sailboat

 arrival at port

entertainers waiting to board

Here it is popular to use the taxi tours and we originally had an all-day tour planned to see the entire island and visit the Crystal Caves, but all we had time for today was a 3 hour tour.  Janie & Rick were to tour with us today, but Janie wasn’t feeling well so we went by ourselves. The 3 of us have never been here, but Greg was here years ago when he was in the Navy.

I had set up a tour with Lewis Foggo, but his taxi was in the shop and he emailed to let us know and that he would find another driver for us. lewis_foggo@hotmail.com<lewis_foggo@hotmail.com

We were greeted by Andrew Trott as soon as we got off the ship. We left it up to him to choose what we could see in our limited time. We had hoped to go to St. Georges (the old capital) and the Crystal Caves, but that would have been too rushed. So, we had a drive through Hamilton and stopped to visit the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity.

 "the birdcage" 

Our next stop was at the Gibb’s Lighthouse, the oldest Cast Iron Lighthouse in the world. Of course, we climbed to the top for the beautiful views. We grabbed a cold drink and I picked up my token magnet of Bermuda.

 ride to the lighhouse

 moon gate

We passed a lot of mansions and homes of famous people. We made a few stops along the way for the beautiful views.

HUGE carrots

Our next stop was to see the Somerset Bridge, the smallest drawbridge in the world. It opens just enough to let the sail of a sailboat through. It no longer is used, but they open it a couple times of year just to keep it in working order. We saw a cute family of ducks with about 16 young ones following behind her.

We also stopped to visit Fort Scaur which offered more beautiful views. Since it was a Saturday there were a lot of families picnicking there.

Our tour continued along the beautiful South Shore to see the beautiful beaches and the ocean views. We stopped at Horseshoe Bay and another beach to see the pink sand beaches.

 Kiskadee (first one we've seen since Panama)

 Horseshoe Bay

 photo shoot

 pink sand

 the young girl part way down did jump in the water from up there

Now, it was time to work our way back to Hamilton.

 stopped for a short walk amongst the Banyan trees

Swizzle Inn (one of the 2 locations)

We had a half an hour to walk on our own until we had to be on the ship. Everything other than restaurants was closed. (good thing I bought my magnet at the Lighthouse since none of the trinket shops were open. We grabbed an ice cream cone and walked down to get a picture of the “Birdcage”. Where policemen in Bermuda shorts direct traffic. Alas, it’s a bit like the Somerset Drawbridge that isn’t really used, and the pink sand beaches have just a few pink flecks in it, the police don’t use the Birdcage anymore either.

 walked down this alleyway to find icecream

 found it! (it wasn't that great)

 the Birdcage

The day turned out to be sunny and warm so our sail in was beautiful. The many colors of the water here rivaled any we saw in Tahiti or Bora Bora. Just gorgeous! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Lewis Foggo or Andrew Trott to show you this beautiful island. It’s too bad we didn’t get our full day here, but we did get a nice taste and hopefully we will visit here again on another cruise to see the rest of the sites. 

After we got on board we went up and ate outside as we sailed out of Hamilton.

The show tonight was an exceptional classical pianist named Hyperion Knight. 

Well, we now have 2 sea days before our arrival in Fort Lauderdale. It is a bit sad that our journey is coming to an end, but all good things do have to come to an end. We are anxious to start our next adventure once we get our RV.