Happy New Year!

We can't believe it's January 13^th already! The days are flying by; we always seem to find something to keep us busy.

We literally leaped into the New Year right here in St. George's, as the biggest celebration happens about twenty feet from where we land our dinghy. It was quite simple getting ready for the big party: we ate dinner, hopped in the dinghy, and joined the party around 8 pm. The Town Square was complete with bandstand, big speakers and two jumpy castles for the kids. There were food stands and booths selling novelties like glow sticks and silly string. For $10 US, you could pay the guy (holding a beer) standing in front of the jumpy castle and jump all night...and that is exactly what the kids did.

Town Hall and the Onion

While they jumped and made new friends, John and I wandered around, listened to the music, and met a few locals. At midnight, the bedecked Bermuda Onion dropped...followed by kissing, singing, and a fabulous display of fireworks.

Jumpy frenzy

Dropping...

Dropping...

Happy New Year!

A little after midnight, we loaded two sweaty and spun kids into the dinghy. Wavey had a little energy left to burn and rowed us back to the anchorage. I expected the kids to fall fully-clothed into their beds, but they announced that they in fact, were hungry. So, while they donned their jammies, I whipped up a batch of nachos. They munched and then crashed around 1:30 am. These kids know how to party.

Since bringing in 2017, our days afloat are balanced with getting chores/repairs done, attending Bomeschool,and doing some sightseeing. There are days when we don't even leave the boat. We have had some cool, rainy days where the wind made going ashore uncomfortable. Some days the kids did crafts and play games (one entire day playing Monopoly), while I baked or cooked, and John read or tinkered around. I think I have baked more in the last three weeks than I have in the past three years. I feel a little guilty on these days that we are not getting any exercise, but we seem to make it up on our tourist days.

Monopoly marathon

Using up 1/2 pound of turkey cold cuts in a new red Thai curry dish...surprisingly good!

Preparing to send John to the top of the mast

Nahanni V (gulp) from aloft

Deckwork

End of the working day...

Bermuda is a fascinating island. Settled by the British in the 1600's after the Sea Venture was shipwrecked here, it has a long and colourful story. Despite what many people think, it is not located in the Caribbean, but mid-Atlantic. It's climate is moderated by the Gulf Stream, and it is surrounded by open sea. It takes us about two hours to travel by bus from one end of island to the other, but there is a lot that is jam-packed in between. We are constantly in awe of the many pink sand beaches with spectacular rock formations. Bermudians are also very friendly and polite. There are lots of reasons to love this place.

As much as we wanted to see it all, we came to the conclusion that we could not do everything on Bermuda and stay within a budget. Bermuda is an expensive place to visit, but luckily, comes with lots of free things to do. Here are a few ways we spent our time:

Beach and Messing About

While most Bermudians are donning scarves and sweaters this month, there are still some braving the 20C water at the beach. After walking up to Fort St. Catherine, we had a beach day at Achilles Bay including some snorkelling and garbage collection. The kids are now adamant about collecting refuse in the water after talking to a professor on the beach one day who studies polymers and their effect on the environment.

Simon getting into the coolish water

Starting to explore

Finding treasures

One person's trash is another's unicycle...

More fun with old motorcycle wheel

Their cache of collected treasures

Simon and Wavey have become increasingly more independent in their boating skills since arriving in Bermuda. It is common for Simon to wake at dawn, grab his life jacket, strap on a radio, and go for a row before anyone else is up. We watch him from our bed in the harbour, as he pulls confident strokes, flying along the blue water. Simon also started sailing the dinghy around the harbour. On a day when the breeze is just right, he can be found tacking back and forth for hours with a perma-grin. We got our inflatable dinghy in operation to use as a chase boat in case he got into trouble, but have not had to rescue him yet. He is becoming a regular sight; storekeepers and other sailors have stopped me on the street to comment on his sailing prowess. Wavey has also been out rowing and sailing, and enjoys rowing the whole family back and forth from shore.

Pumping out after a big rain storm

Rowing races

Bermuda Harbour Radio

High atop an old British fort in St. Georges is the home of Bermuda Radio or as the locals say, Bermuda Harbour Radio. This radio station is manned 24 hours a day and keeps track of all the marine traffic coming in and out of Bermuda. If you are 35 miles outside of Bermuda, they will call you on VHF and will monitor your progress until you safely arrive in port. They will arrange marine assistance if needed and monitor boats in distress.

We contacted the staff at Bermuda Harbour Radio and arranged a tour of the station. We were met by Allan, who spent over an hour with us and our friends Idarae and Richard to show us their systems and their standard procedures. Allan even showed us video footage of our arrival at the Customs dock when we rammed it. These guys see everything. We enjoyed clambering inside the remnants of the old fort and finding lots of secret passageways afterwards.

Walking up to Bermuda Harbour Radio

Allan giving us a tour of the station

View from inside 

Another view of BHR

Exploring the fort

Lot of little passageways

Idarae and Wavey

Somerset Boat and Dockyards Tour

We followed the great monthly brochure put out by the Tourist Board and found ourselves on a free hour boat tour around the village of Somerset. Our tour guide Tim Rogers, was an excellent historian and kept us entertained as we motored past celebrity homes (like David Bowie's former residence) and higher end vacation rentals. We learned about conservation efforts to help the Bermuda Longtail maintain its nesting habitats, and got to feed fish over the wreck of the Vixen.

Navigating on the bus

Navigator #2

Leaving on the tour boat

Our guide Tim Rogers

Kids hanging out with the Skipper

Wreck of the Vixen

Nice to just be passengers!

Feeding hundreds of fish over the wreck

Fish!

Following the boat trip, Tim gave a slide show on the history of Bermudian architecture, which left us looking at buildings around the island in a whole new way.

Luck would have it that Tim was giving a tour of the Royal Naval Dockyards later in the afternoon, so we walked the two miles to this former British Naval Dockyards at the most western end of Bermuda. We walked right through the construction that is preparing for the America's Cup that will take over the island in May and June 2017. America's Team Oracle was evident everywhere as they have been here for over a year practicing for this huge event. We walked by the Village which will house some of the participants, and some of the infrastructure that will support the media and spectators who are poised to invade the island in just a few months.

Walking near America's Cup Village

Construction preparing for Cup

That is gonna be one big bar

Team Oracle is everywhere

After a lunch at the Frog and Onion, we met up again with Tim the Tour Guide and took in the long history of the Dockyards, right down to each block of limestone that was hand carved by black slaves or convicts that were sent by shiploads from Britain.

The Clocktower Mall

These streets will soon be packed with America's Cup spectators and media

Admiring the Spirit of Bermuda 

On the tour, we met Liz and Mark, fellow Lake Ontario sailors. They told us about sailing to Bermuda aboard their boat Saving Grace in October. They had a great passage, but after arriving, their boat got badly damaged when Hurricane Nicole blasted through with 130 knots of wind. Their boat had been secured on jack stands and chains, but was knocked off in the storm and onto its side. Since then, they have been in the process of getting her repaired (the whole interior had to be rebuilt) and adjusting their cruising schedule. I was impressed at how patient and resilient they were, despite the huge disappointment it must have been to have this happen. Very nice people.

We returned again to the Dockyards this week to visit the National Museum of Bermuda. We had the added bonus of being the only people around when they had a training session with the dolphins at Dolphin Quest. The kids got to hang out with the dolphins while they had their teeth brushed, and got to feed one of the dolphins while she showed her cool tricks!

Playground at National Museum of Bermuda

Trainers brushing the dolphin's teeth at Dolphin Quest

Wavey and Simon participating in the training session

Wavey feeding the dolphin

Keeping on Poseidon's good side

Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences (BIOS) bios.edu

Once a month, this research Institute hosts a free tour. It is just over a mile by dinghy, so we decided to take the inflatable with the outboard for the tour. Unfortunately, that happened to be a particularly windy day. I was glad I packed a spare pair of pants, because I was completely soaked by the time we got there.

John and I went on a tour here back in 2004, so it was interesting to see what was new. For about 90 minutes, we met several researchers about their areas of study and how this research is important to us in the world. We learned about how they measure sunlight levels in the ocean, how sea urchins are used to study aging, and various ways to gather data and understand ocean currents. The kids wowed us all by the questions they asked, and I was proud to think that we have some budding marine scientists on board.

On the tour, we were joined by Natalie and Gus

The Atlantic Explorer preparing to head out to see to conduct experiments

One of the researchers we met was Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley, whose area of study include coral and the invasive lionfish (goodbodygringleylab.weebly.com). She is one of the elite divers in the world who uses a “rebreather” to dive to 200 feet and more. (We just happened to have met her and her husband on New Year's Eve, when Wavey was jumping with her daughter Elsie. Our meeting at BIOS led to Wavey having a playdate aboard Nahanni V a few days later.)

As part of Bomeschool, the kids both wrote a report about what they saw and were interested in. Here is Wavey's report:

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) - Gliders

We visited BIOS. We saw lots of interesting stuff, but the thing I found the most interesting was the Gliders. It started when we went to the MAGIC room. Dr. Ruth Currie showed us one of them. The one she showed us is called “Minnie”. She said that each Glider costs $250,000 US. Dr. Ruth Currie showed us a picture of the other two Gliders (Jack and Anna.) She was talking about how old they were. She said they are about ten years old. Then she started doing some stuff on her computer. Then she showed us a very colourful chart. She said, “When I first got Anna and Hurricane Gonzales was happening, I put Anna out in the ocean and the next day we had an awesome picture of underneath a hurricane!” My brother asked a really good question: “Did anything break?” She said, “Only one thing, her rudder came off. So, not too bad.” I was very impressed that only the rudder came off. I was wondering why it is called the MAGIC room. A poster caught my eye. It said: “MAGIC” and underneath it said, ”Mid-Atlantic Glider Initiative and Collaboration.”

I learned a lot at BIOS. I like seeing all the people working on helping sea creatures.

Dr. Ruth Currie telling us about the Gliders 

Simon's report focused on another aspect of research at BIOS:

Today at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), I was fascinated by sea urchins. There were a lot of cool things there, like an under water gliding plane, however, I thought the sea urchin was the most interesting thing.

Sea urchins are very spiky creatures. Some sea urchins can live up to 200 years or more. The most common one lives up to an average of 4 years. Some type of sea urchins are venomous. I learned that the red sea urchins do not get cancer or die from old age. When this type of sea urchin is in its first year it has the same chance of dying as when it is in its 200th year. The people at BIOS study sea urchins to understand aging.

Sea urchins teeth are made of a crystal-like substance. The teeth themselves are called Aristotle's Lantern and can dig into rock. The teeth are also self sharpening. The last and most coolest fact is that NASA is using the way the jaw of a sea urchin works to make a space arm that will grab Mars rocks!

I think my trip to the BIOS was well worth it. It was a good experience, because I learned a lot about sea urchins and why they are significant in research.

The Blue Hole and Caves

Our last “field trip” was a day long hike and spelunking expedition. We took the bus to the Grotto Bay Beach Resort and visited one of the caves (The Cathedral Cave) they have on site. It is not really open to the public, so we pretended we were guests there and walked on in. John and I visited this cave years ago (doing the same thing). It was fun to return with the kids. Then we walked a short distance to the Blue Hole Park, Walsingham Nature Reserve and Tom Moore's Jungle and spent the afternoon exploring several sea-water-filled caves, walking on nature paths and observing the fantastic rock formations. The kids swam in the Blue Hole despite the fact it was pretty darn cold.

Spelunkers

Cathedral Cave

Cathedral Cave

Millions of years of formations

Swimming in the Blue Hole

Swimming in the Blue Hole

Hiking in the forest

Caves, caves everywhere!

Just the right size for a family of four!

We lost them for awhile...they eventually came out!

So many super cool caves

Our Next Passage

We have made some great friends and have spent many enjoyable evenings playing games and sharing stories. the time has come for us to depart, as there is now a good weather window. Our plan is to leave tomorrow and arrive in Anguilla, which should take 6-8 days. We expect this passage to be warmer and calmer than our last one. We are excited to be moving again, but are sad to be leaving Bermuda and our new friends here.

Sunset in St. George's