Entry by Sea
Tenacity47
Tue 19 Jul 2011 15:56
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Mark Twain wrote; “Bermuda is paradise, but to get there you have to go
through purgatory”
My experience has been the same. Each time I’ve taken a boat or ship to
Bermuda, it has been
an unrelenting hard slog, upwind and miserable. This trip was no
different.
After six hard days at sea, the entrance to St. Georges brings a sense of
relief and accomplishment
as we glide into the harbor. The rough and choppy deep blue of the ocean is
held back, replaced by
calm and turquoise. Sun lights up the pastel and white houses. Even
the birds are singing. The relief
allows relaxation. Relaxing tensions, a deep and profound fatigue wells
up.
The boat calls at the customs dock. We disembark onto solid ground. Our
bodies, so used to the
staccato pitch and roll of the boat, have a comical struggle with this
strange new gravity. We stagger about
like drunken sailors. The custom agents are kind, they’ve seen this before,
and ask if we want to wait
till the room settles down. They stamp our passports- ‘Entry by Sea’.
St. Georges is a beautiful place- A mixture of British decorum and tropical
sensibilities. Everyone here is friendly,
even the cats. Our time here is pleasant and too short. Repairs made, the
blue sea awaits. We leave the gentle harbor
and soon the island recedes to the west, swallowed up by the sea.
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