Late Entry from Bermuda
01 January 2011 | Norman's Island, BVI
Jamey
Bermuda has been amazing. It has been the perfect place to repair, reprovision and gather up our courage to head further south.
The voyage-preventing repairs were complete yesterday. We're pretty much down to laundry, groceries and repacking at this point, in addition to waiting for the right weather. We are really, really hoping for good weather for the next leg of our journey.
And, as frightening as sailing out of here might be for me, I must admit my feet are beginning to get a little itchy. Amazing how you can be in the middle of paradise and be thinking of the next paradise over, but we are.
When we leave Bermuda, we will head south and our next landfall will be (hopefully) in the Virgin Islands. We are looking forward to a bit of warmer water. The water temperature here is now about 70 degrees, which feels a bit too cool on a windy day (Yes, I know everyone in Maine is really feeling sorry for us as we are never lucky enough to get 70 degrees in the ocean there).
The trip will probably take us around 10-12 days (including some time off course for wind direction, etc). Once we arrive, we plan on staying pretty local to the Virgin Island area through the holidays . We'll see how adventurous we are feeling in the new year! As for now, we're only planning one leg of the journey at a time.
Today has been a big tourist day for us. We went to some local caves that were just beautiful. We spent the afternoon at the aquarium and zoo. Great place! Many of the exhibits are very close and easy to see the animals. In fact, after walking into an enclosed area, we saw golden Tamarinds, in trees just above us and on the path in front of us. Amanda looked a bit startled and asked why they weren't in cages. I told her there were in cages, we were in THEIR cages. It was the same for the Ibis and many of the other animals. They also had a great natural history exhibit explaining the geographical history of the island. It's been so wonderful to have enough time here to really see some of the history of the area.
Tonight was a Christmas Walk-About in St. George's (the town where we are anchored). The entire town was lit up with Christmas lights. There was a stage in front of the town hall and all different types of performers were there. We saw some very young fiddlers playing Christmas songs, some tap dancers and a youth choir, all people from around the island. The stores were all open late, and almost everyone had a bit of something put out to share. The shopkeepers were greeting everyone and you could walk around in the shops. The churches were also opened up for viewing. Some of the churches were built in the 1600 and 1700, so it was amazing to look in them. One church had a early-visiting Santa, so the girls got to make their Christmas wishes. Alyssa wrote out her list and handed it to Santa directly. Amanda just slipped hers in the box. She later told us that she had asked Santa for whatever he thought was best to get her this year, and if he couldn't think of anything, a ZuZu pet would be nice. I can't figure out if she is too sweet for belief or too smart for belief. Perhaps it is both.
After all that, we headed over to a friend's house for a bit of a get together with her family and friends. We met some people that live here in Bermuda and other people passing through on their boats. We met another family from Maine, on the ship Heron. They live in Camden and do chartering year round. They charter in Maine in the summer, then head to the Virgin Islands and charter there in the winter. Their girls were older than ours, but it was wonderful to hear them talk about what they missed and what they enjoyed. Hopefully we'll meet up again somewhere along the way!
Anyway, we're expecting a couple of storms here in the next few days. They should pass off by next Wed or Thursday and our plan is to head out after they leave. So wish us well, and please make peace with the weather gods. Amanda has suggested that we all write letters to Neptune asking for good weather. I doubt we'll be the first one's to try that, but it is worth a try. I think mine will contain a log of groveling and begging!
Thanks to all your support, kind words and advice on our travels. It is comforting to know our friends and family are with us, in spirit and in the net! We love you all.