Boat time in Bermuda – dan
We’ve been hanging on the hook in St. George’s Harbor, mending things and generally sorting out the boat in a lazy, comfortable fashion. It’s beautiful, pleasant, almost to the point of decadence. We often catch glimpses of each other grinning for no particular reason other than the deliciousness of it all. The water is a beautiful shade of turquoise-blue, the houses are pink, yellow, green, coral and robins egg blue. The locals seem busy, industrious and accommodating. This harbor is falling into disuse tourist-wise because the cut into St George’s is too narrow for the latest generation of cruise ships. The new boats are all docking in Hamilton harbor now. There are also far less cruising sailboats that I expected, but I’m not complaining on either account.
We haven’t done any of the touristy things yet except to take a few walks and dinghy around the harbor. We took our storm jib and genoa to the sailmaker to have them re-stitched as necessitated by the strong winds of the passage. We had to empty our water tanks as both of them had been contaminated with salt water that most probably entered via the vents during the rowdy part of the crossing. I have some electrical work to sort out as we’ve lost the function of our inverter and the light in the aft cabin won’t turn off. Our OGM LED masthead light is malfunctioning; the anchor-light function hasn’t work since we got in. Tri color and strobe functions are still operable. The OGM LED masthead light definitely doesn’t get the Gypsy stamp of approval.
We went over to the Dinghy Club the other night for happy hour and ended up meeting the commodore who invited us to make ourselves at home at his club (even though we weren’t berthed there) and to take advantage of their free Wi-Fi which we did. Today we hiked to the Bermuda Maritime Operation’s Control Tower. They are the folks who guided us into the harbor. The view was grand atop the highest spot this end of the island. It’s a control-tower style building, bristling with electronic gear sitting on top of an eighteenth century fort, which makes for a bazaar and fascinating mash-up of architecture.
View from control tower
Soon we’ll travel to Hamilton at the other end of the island to get some boat parts and charts. We’re also looking forward to breaking out our mountain bikes and doing some touring. All in all things are good on Gypsy. We’re dong what needs to be done and at the same time savoring the beautiful and exotic surroundings. As we do this we are noticing the subtle changes that are taking place in our psyches as we evolve from mainstream, carrier professionals, into what? Cruisers is the general label but I wonder exactly what that label will mean for us as every cruiser we’ve met seems to have their own interpretation and execution of the lifestyle.
One thing I’ve noticed is that everything turns to rust out here; even our stainless steel is corroding. It’s making me acutely aware of the general impermanence of manmade things and perhaps even of mankind itself. The sea has been having a reducing effect on us too. We left Mystic with all the things we thought we couldn’t do without. During the crossing some books and reference materials become soaked along with some long-time keepsakes; so we let them go. You can’t stand up to the sea, not completely. It knocks you down, wears off your sharp edges and removes any superficial shininess you may have had. The ocean relentless and touching it’s great vastness expands one’s perception.
