BERMUDA

Around the world with the Aqualunies
Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne
Tue 13 Jun 2017 18:09
I have been having far too much fun to sit and write recently, now it is catch up time.

The photos below show our approach to St. Georges in Bermuda as we carefully follow the marked channel in.  Radio Bermuda are amazing, very clear, concise and polite, they have to be radioed just as you approach Bermuda because of the numerous reefs around.  Amazingly at the same time as we were approaching the channel we saw the tall mast of ‘Salperton’, over 40 meters in length, the distance.  The first mate on board is Gill and Roger Henderson’s son Mike. We were not expecting to see Salperton for another couple of days.

We were directed along side the dock where we all had to present ourselves at the Immigration desk.  The lady was amazing, her sense of humour and quips had us in floods of laughter, it
 was a very warm welcome to Bermuda without the awful officiousness of the immigration offices in the Caribbean.

Having done that we left the dock and went to anchorage near ‘Salperton’ and near our friend’s Mike and Devala Robinson on their yacht ‘Sea Rover’.  We were all invited aboard Salperton for cocktails that evening.  During the afternoon we went to watch the America’s Cup racing in the local bar.  Mike and Devala had just completed their nine year world circumnavigation and were on their way to cross the Atlantic to Portugal when they had a problem with their circuit breaker so diverted to Bermuda, which was great for us as we didn’t think we would see them again until we returned to the UK having said ‘goodbye’ to them in Antigua.  They have now decided to stay on for  a few weeks.

The following morning we on ‘Aqualuna’ headed around to our booked mooring just of Hampton Princess Marina.  It is a perfect spot, near the bottom of some lovely houses and gardens but a short dingy ride to the marina and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

We met up with Carolyn and Andy Bellamy whom we got to know down in the Caribbean, they will be sailing across the Pacific next year to Australia.  They organised a lovely dinner at the Bermudan amateur Dingy Club with a great view from the terrace.

We have had a brilliant time here, taking the ferry out to ‘The Village’ to watch the racing.  We did try and contact Ben Williams, the trainer for BAR and my daughter in law’s brother, to see if we could get family tickets to the BAR pavilion but he was very busy.  We had a flag for the dingy to go out and watch but with five up and rough weather it was not a great idea.  The weather has been a mixture of heavy rain (unusual, but much needed) and hot sunshine.  Big lightening storms in the middle of the night.  

We bumped into Bridget and Simon Michelle at the RBYC one lunch time,  they were staying with fellow RCC members Beans and Andrew Eddy on their boat.  It was a lovely surprise to see them as we had no idea they were coming out here.  I organised a mini meet of the RCC on our yacht, Beans and Andrew rafted up with us on our mooring, Mike and Devala also RCC members came as well so we were 12 up for the drinks party.  Sadly the RCC port representative, Grahame Rendell, was unable to come as he was involved with an art exhibition that night.  It was a good party and such a small world as Beans and I both know Tina McFarlane (what is it about so many degrees of separation).

We were sad to watch BAR Landrover have to leave the competition and were on tender hooks watch Sweden (it would have been good to have the cup back in Europe) and NZ race some great races with NZ wining eventually to become the contenders of the cup against America.

We are meeting an old friend from HK days, Janice Floyd and her partner for lunch tomorrow.  We have just been contacted by Mark Tasker, another old HK friend and a sports reporter in NewZealand who is out here.  So there will be many more get togethers before we have to leave this beautiful island at the end of the month.  The architecture here is just so lovely, the UK could learn a lot, and the people so very welcoming and friendly.

Our friends, Roger and Gill and our nephew Mark, left us at mid-day today to catch their flight back to the UK.  They were lovely to have on board, very much hands on and up to any task and helping with the night watches and brining on board their lovely sense of humour.

Yesterday we had some prospective Discovery buyers look around our yacht a charming couple who live here in Bermuda.  They appeared very impressed with the yacht but at the moment have young children, two of whom are about to go to boarding school so it may be awhile before they commit to full on sailing.  We will be going out with them on their motor boat to watch the racing on Saturday and then on to their house for drinks after.

I will try and keep up to date with blogging from now on.  We met a chap, Paul, who came by in his motor boat yesterday (just as we were heading off in our dingy) and said ‘I can see that is a ‘Discovery’ from way off.  We have invited him on board for drinks tonight as he said he was interested in looking around it.  Tomorrow night we have another prospective ‘Discovery’ buyer coming on board for drinks and to look around.  He has just come down here from America but is a New Zealander. I wonder if we will get commission for the number of yachts we sell!!! seriously though we are proud to show our yacht.  More photos to follow of us on board ‘Salperton’ and at ‘The Village’. plus carnival in Bermuda on the front.