Day 4: Bermuda!!!

At 7:30am at the request of "Captain Svedung" and his "Hizzy" we proceeded to the deck 12 for our first glimpse of land since leaving New York.  Bermuda!!!

Bermuda (officially, the Bermudas or Somers Isles) is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 640 mi to the west-northwest. Its capital city is Hamilton which is not in the Hamilton parish but rather the Pembroke parish.

Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish navigator Juan de Bermúdez (who claimed to find the island inhabited only by pigs) after whom the islands are named, who claimed it for the Spanish Empire. Unoccupied, the island was settled by England in 1609, making it the oldest and most populous remaining British overseas territory. Its first capital, St George's, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the Americas.


Bermuda has an affluent economy, with off-shore finance as its largest sector followed by tourism. In 2005, Bermuda was once even claimed to have the world's highest GDP per capita, yet these statistics are hard to verify as Bermuda is not classified as a country but rather as a territory of the U.K. It has a subtropical climate.Bermuda makes up the easternmost point of the so-called "Bermuda Triangle," a region of sea in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels have allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Our Dingy - hooking us up

First upclose of Bermuda - King'sWharf & The Royal Naval Dockyard

Months and months before the trip Sven and Charity insisted we rent scooters for all three days.  At the time of pickup, Charity and Tara got a little nervous.  It finally set in that they'd be the backseat passengers of two rookie left-side-of-the-road drivers.  And it didn't help their nerves that the man behind the customer service desk on the ship told us "I highly advise against that.  They are very dangerous." when Charity told him we had rented scooters.

Ponch and John size up the rides before their trial run sans passengers.

The foursome made it unscathed to the first beach (and throughout their stay on the island), Elbow Beach.  The waters were just as clear as possible and the sand a beautiful pink.

Elbow Beach is located in Bermuda's Paget Parish between the Elbow Beach Resort and the Coral Beach Club, off the South Road. The beach has a gentle curve resembling an elbow. As the beach is very close to the city of Hamilton, it’s relatively more crowded and a popular spot for both the tourists and locals.

Elbow Beach

Sven and Matt snorkeling, Matt standing on a reef

With two scooters and just three days to explore as many beaches along the 64 miles of coastline, we hit the road in our search for the "World's Greatest Beach".

Grape Bay

After a death-defying wrong turn into the busy city of Hamilton, we headed towards Gurnet Rock out beyond Tucker's Town.  This was possibly the location of a great beach Charity had visited before.  We made a pit-stop for lunch at the Rotisserie Grill and were informed by our waiter that Ross Perot and Michael Bloomberg were residents of Tucker's Town.  We were also told that the private beach is gated but to just let the man at the gate know that we were going to Calaban or Vertigo (the names of Ross Perot's homes).  He assured us that we'd be let in even if we were 4 tourists on rented scooters.

Tucker's Town

By the twentieth century, the area was one of Bermuda's poorest and most neglected locales. The Bermuda Development Company was formed in response to growing American tourism. The BDC managed to score a deal with Furness Withy Steamship Company, who hired Charles B. Macdonald to design a golf course for their new hotel, the Mid Ocean Club. Macdonald's course was finished in December, 1921, with the assistance of Portuguese workers from the Azores. The BDC also encouraged the richest of visitors to build their own mansions at Tucker's Town. The hotel itself was completed, after two years of construction, on 30 November 1931. Opened by Governor General Sir Thomas Astley Cubitt, it featured 400 rooms and was built by 600 Azorean contractors. Prominent visitors were often photographed and used to market Bermuda, and included Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, Harpo Marx, Irving Berlin and Shirley Temple. In 1935, almost 75,000 tourists visited the country, compared to 27,000 in 1911 and less than 1,400 in 1885.


Today, individuals such as American businessman and Presidential candidate Ross Perot (who made headlines in 1992 for his involvement in the dynamiting of a live coral reef near his mansion), Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg are known residents.


Tucker's Town gave its name to a song by Hootie & the Blowfish on the 1996 album Fairweather Johnson.

It wasn't without a gallant effort by Charity that we were turned away from the private beaches of Perot and Bloomburg.  Next stop, John Smith's Bay.

View from John Smith's Bay - Is that Perot's mansion?

 

John Smiths Bay beach is located on south shore in Bermuda's Smith's Parish. This is a wide stretch of pale pink sand with crystal clear water.  John Smiths Bay beach is named after Captain John Smith, an explorer who first produced a map of Bermuda. in 1631.

At the end of our long day, we were greeted by a penguin towel :)