Final few days in Bermuda
We spent our last few days in Bermuda taking in the local sites and generally making the most of our stay in St George’s while waiting for a favourable weather forecast to cross the 695 miles to the Chesapeake.
Going in the opposite direction – to the Azores and then to the Mediterranean – were Lucy, David, and Albert at the end of their year-long Odyssey onboard their Grand Soleil yacht, Flying. And on Friday 1st June, with a fair weather window promised them for the next day, we joined them at the town dock to say farewell.
Prior to saying au revoir to the Flying family, during our stumble around St George’s we witnessed a wedding at the Unfinished Church, spent a day at the beach, visited Fort St Catherine, and joined in with the Rubber Duck Derby.
And we commemorated tree day, with the crews of Lady Jane, Auntie, and Grace celebrating onboard Rockhopper the successful recovery and release of a large tree trunk snagged on Rockhopper’s anchor. This isn’t the first time this has happened to Rockhopper. A few years ago, Melinda and Reinhart snagged what is possibly the same tree in the same place. So, with the trunk now consigned to the shallows, a party was called for. And that kept the crew of Lady Jane out to an unusually late one o’clock in the morning.
Tree Day
Wedding at the Unfinished Church
Fort St Catherine and around St George’s
Rubber Duck Derby
Sunday, June 3rd was Rubber Duck Derby day in St George’s harbour. This is an annual fundraising event organised by the Friends of Hospice. It’s a fabulous day full of music, dancing – and a LOT of rubber ducks.
In the afternoon, a series of duck races are held. The little yellow rubbery fellas are shaken out of their sacks on one side of the bridge and are left to drift towards the finishing line with the wind and current. And the sponsor of each winning duck receives a pack of prizes. Maria and I sponsored a couple of ducks, not for the prizes, but for the fun. This is like Pooh sticks with even better stuff going on for the inner child. We still don’t know if we won, but the entry fee was worth it just for the experience.
Green Light to Go
We received the green light over the weekend from Chris Parker, our Salty Dawg weather router, to head to the US and the Chesapeake Bay. So we spent Monday getting Lady Jane ready. And on Tuesday, we collected Eve from Auntie, took the dinghy to the town dock, and revisited the same friendly customs officials who cleared us in – to clear us out.
In Bermuda, after clearing out, you have less than one hour to pull up your anchor and leave. This isn’t as hurried as it may seem. Within half an hour we dropped Eve, our boating buddy, back on Auntie, removed our outboard from the dinghy, lifted the dinghy up on its davits, prepared the instruments and got the anchor ready to lift.
The only delay was caused by Bermuda Radio, who asked us to hold back until a cruise ship had passed. And when it had, up went the anchor and off went Lady Jane, following Auntie towards the USA.
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