We are back at the west end of St Georges harbor getting ready to return to the main anchorage near the dinghy dock. The winds are 15 to 20 from the west so as soon as we can tidy up a few things we are going to clear customs and head south. The forecast for the next week looks very favorable so we shall take advantage of it.

   We have just been enjoying Bermuda since the last post and yesterday took a trip back down to Hamilton to see doctor Trott again. Fresh x-rays were taken and he declared everything healing nicely. After reminding Nancy to be careful he wished us a safe sail south. Afterwards we headed over to the Robin Hood pub for a full fat boy fry up English breakfast.

   A quick stop at the supermarket and on to a different bus for a trip around Harrington Sound on our return to St Georges allowed Nancy to see that part of the island and take some pictures.

   While in Hamilton I took some pictures of the apartment which I lived in for six months in 1979 while on embassy duty. My job was to be in my apartment from 1900 in the evening until 0700 the next morning to listen for the consulate alarm, should it go off I was to call the police. The entrance was boarded up but otherwise it looked exactly like it did in 79 with the exception that the wall leading to the dock has been shorted. After the Navy left sometime in the 90’s the building was used by the marine police until they moved out to the dockyard. It now sits unused. That tour was the highlight of my Navy career as I went sailing every day, toured Bermuda on my moped and made many lasting Bermuda friendships.

   We met a delightful couple, Charlotte & Dan, on another junk rigged boat, a Badger class, named “Hestur”. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to spend much time together as they were leaving for the Azores but we did get some nice shots of "Hestur" leaving the harbor.

   This will probably be our last post from Bermuda so follow us on the Inreach map share site and we will post again when we get to the Bahamas.

  Looks like I might actually get a couple of videos uploaded, if so they will be at the bottom of the pictures. Cheers

 St Georges customs house

 Anchored near St Davids

 Same as above

 One happy sailor

 and his treasure

 St Georges at night

 Hestur at customs house checking out

 Hestur spinning off down wind

 Hestur departing

 Hose in front of bus stop

 Guess where we are headed

 Dr. Trott gives Nancy a farewell

 My old apartment, I had the whole building

 My old apartment from the dock

 My dock was from here to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club

 Harrington Sound

 Bermuda farm land

 Harrington sound

 Our view in the bus

 Castle harbor

 Bermuda training schooner

 Yana arrives from Russell Island, Bahamas

 Cute little Chinese junk

 Irish friends

Bermuda radio sits atop this hill

   After sending out the last post we weighed anchor and moved to the western end of St Georges harbor. Surprisingly we were the only ones to do so considering that 30kt winds were forecast for the evening and next day. Safely anchored near the weather shore we spent the better part of the last two days in very calm water occasionally looking at the east end of the harbor through field glasses and watching the boats anchored there bouncing up and down in the wind driven waves.

   One of the big chores accomplished while anchored was the refrigeration problem. Shortly after departing St Augustine our refer went on the fritz and we had to turn it on and off manually to have any refrigeration, a real pain in the ass not to mention the inefficiency. When we bought it we purchased a very expensive “Smart Controller” which has since become very stupid. Yesterday morning I broke out the schematics for the refrigeration and after studying them for some time I came up with what I thought would be a good work around until we could get the dumb controller’s brain repaired. I spent the rest of the day tearing apart the pantry so that I could get to the unit and rewire the compressor so that it would work with a simple thermostat. At the end of the day when we turned everything back on it worked like a charm and we are now free from manually operating it. Cocktails well earned!

   We have just returned to the east end harbor after refueling and topping off the water tanks. Amazingly we are only using .36 gals of diesel fuel per hour and have only used 60 of our 120 gallons of water in the last 20 days.

   Prior to leaving the west end we did a dinghy tour of the little harbor near us. Pictures below, I will also try to up load a video but the Wi-Fi service here is pretty slow so no promises.

 Sail boat which dragged her mooring during a storm

 An old Tahiti ketch suffered the same fate

 Same Tahiti

 Old cannon, Bermuda air defense?

 Avelinda anchored west end St Georges harbor

 Pretty Virtue class sloop

A dagger board, twin rudder sharpie cutter

   Today I’m going to try and keep Nancy off her feet and complete some more little chores aboard. We may move across the harbor where we will have more protection from these strong south west winds. One of the French boats close to us dragged its anchor last night and became fouled in a permanent mooring. I fear we could be the target of one of the more careless cruisers. I don’t know why but so many seem to feel they need to be clustered close to each other. When we anchored here we picked a spot clear of everyone and now we have boats all around us regardless of the fact that there is lots of room in the anchorage.

 5-22-14 Thursday has been one of relaxing aboard and getting a few chores done. Each day finds Nancy’s foot looking better and better. The swelling had really gone down by this afternoon due to the fact that she has kept it elevated all day. The winds have been up for the better part of the day around 15kts gusting to 20. It’s almost dinner time so I think I’ll wait until tomorrow morning to go ashore and try to get this posted along with some pictures.

   We met a wonderful couple, Jean Paul & Cynthia, aboard a junk rigged Warram Tiki-46 catamaran who took a beautiful picture of us entering the harbor last Wednesday; we in turn took some of them leaving last Tuesday for the Azores. Smooth sailing Apatiki!

 They caught us entering port

We caught them leaving

5-21-14 Wednesday we went to the doctor in Hamilton and he said everything was looking good but he wanted to see Nancy in a week to make sure everything was mending nicely. We were hoping to get away this weekend but will wait until after next Wednesday. After leaving the hospital we took a bus tour to the west end of the island out to the Dockyard. Had an enjoyable lunch at the Bistro and Pastry shop before catching the ferry back to Hamilton where we collected some repair parts from the local marine stores before doing a ferry excursion across the harbor to the old navy annex and Sommerset. Returning to Hamilton once again we caught the bus back to St Georges and found Avelinda lying quietly to her anchor. A full day of touring took its toll on Nancy as well as me so we were glad to get home and relax with a cocktail before dinner and bed.

  Bermuda Dinghy Club, St Georges

 

 St Georges harbor

 Anchored in St Georges harbor

 Fort St Catherine

 I'm loven life

 Another shot of Fort St Catherine

 North shore of St Georges

 Harrrrr1

 Bum foot

 Down town Hamilton

 Optimist dinghy races

 Dr. Osborn and Nancy

 Paul Johnson designed Venus 34

 Venus 40

 Jean Paul & Cynthia aboard Apatiki

 Sunset over St Georges

Typical dinner aboard Avelinda