Cosgrove to Bridge 89 (Milton Keynes)      10 miles

Tuesday 8th May

 One of nice things about being on these canals is, “no rush”; start when you want, finish when you want, mooring doesn’t appear to be an issue, virtually anywhere along the towpaths.   Today was no exception, tea in bed with the breakfast news, a little nourishment to kick the day off, all very leisurely.

As we approached the first lock, the disused Buckingham Branch canal went off to our right and all we could see were several narrow boats moored up there, but for how far, we know not. There was also a sign asking for volunteers and funds for the restoration trust; this trust has been formed to bring this canal back into use.

A family of ducks so cute!

A family of ducks so cute!

Prior to our first and only lock today, we stopped to discharge you-know-what at the designated building, cruised into the lock, dropped down and that was it, we just

A heron, not worried about us at all.

A heron, not worried about us at all.

cruised along admiring the local countryside, seeing a number of “Mrs Ducks” with her babies, and herons waiting to pounce.

Apart from the unusual gothic bridge we went under yesterday, the other remarkable engineering feet here is the “Cosgrove Aqueduct”, a cast iron trough went over the river “Great Ouse’, 40ft below and built in 1811. Before this engineering solution came into being, there were 9

The Iron Trunk over the Gt.Ouse.

The Iron Trunk over the Gt.Ouse.

locks taking the canal down to the river then bringing it back up.

Christine had identified a large Tesco store at Wolverton, and Google maps said it was fairly near the canal, so that’s where we headed for.   Three miles later we arrived, this re-generated area had new apartments and a very splendid canal side with mooring rings embedded to ensure passing boats

Meg was parked, whilst we went to Tesco.

Meg was parked, whilst we went to Tesco.

stopped.

Walking through this regenerated area we were reminded of Wolverton’s heritage, the railways. In 1836 Wolverton was chosen as the site for the locomotive build and repair centre as it was the

Old picture of the locomotive factory

Old picture of the locomotive factory

midpoint of the London and Birmingham Railway. Building Engines ceased in 1863 but the area still continued to build railway Carriages, including the Royal Trains. Manufacturing and maintenance continued until 2013, when the last remaining part of the business went into

Murals painted along the tow path, they were quite spectacular

Murals painted along the tow path, they were quite spectacular

liquidation.

Back on board and off we went, meandering through the countryside, loving every minute of it.

We did have one issue yesterday; the shiny new washing machine didn’t seem to work correctly. It lets water in OK but doesn’t pump out; oh dear, just our luck and being a bank holiday we couldn’t contact anyone; still we kept going south!!!!   Today we made contact and arranged for someone to come out tomorrow. We moored near a bridge with road access, sent the bridge number through and now we wait.

Another lovely evening on the canal, let’s hope tomorrow is as nice as today.

 

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First few days as a “Boatman”

Friday 4th May

After a major Tesco shop, we arrived back to Meg A Star early afternoon; now complete with washing machine.  Whilst Christine stowed away all the food etc., I returned the hire car and now we were now ready for the “BIG” off tomorrow morning.

Saturday 5th May

Stowhill Wharf to Stoke Bruerne 7 miles

After a comfortable night, we topped up the fuel, replaced an empty gas bottle, filled the water tank, had breakfast and we were off.

Unfortunately we were heading North and we wanted to go South,

Summer has arrived. Yeah!

Summer has arrived. Yeah!

still, fortunately there was a winding hole about 1/2 a mile up the canal.

Mission accomplished and we were now heading south.

So pretty, this is what I miss living in Spain.

So pretty, this is what I miss living in Spain.

Today’s run was very simple, no locks but a tunnel. We stopped for a lunch break before tackling the Blisworth tunnel, a little short of 2 miles and zero lighting. We had encountered a tunnel the last time we were on the canals, but that one was much shorter; fortunately we had a good spotlight as well as navigation lights to see and be seen.

We entered the tunnel, dark, gloomy and cold, so we quickly donned fleeces but unfortunately we hadn’t realised it would also be wet.   As we passed the vertical air vents, we were drowned by so much water pouring down; there was no escaping these deluges, still once we were wet through, well what the heck, get on with it!!!!!

We had a boat about 50 meters astern of us, and going through tunnel we passed 4 boats coming the other way.  Just as a matter of interest, narrow boats are 6ft 10 inches wide, two abreast, passing are a smidge under 14 ft., but the tunnel is 15 ft. wide, not a lot of space so dead slow is the order of the day.  Anyway, about 1/2 an hour later we came out of

Stoke Bruerne, such a pretty place

Stoke Bruerne, such a pretty place

Blisworth tunnel, unscathed and into brilliant sun; we had arrived safely at Stoke Bruerne, so moored at the first available space we could find.  We were lucky; we were only about a 4-minute walk

View of curry house

View of curry house

from the Locks, pub and Museum.

Blisworth tunnel is the third longest on the inland waterway system and took 12-years to build, opening in1805, 5 years after the Grand Union Canal was operational. During the 5 intervening years, canal boats used to unload their cargo at the wharf in Blisworth, transport the goods over the hill and re-load other boats at Stoke Bruerne, rather hard work so when the tunnel opened this stopped but the hard work was still there. There is no towpath so boats had to employ “leggers”; Legging is a method of moving a boat through a canal tunnel containing water. This method of navigating through canal tunnels has been commonly used in canal tunnels during the 18th century.

After sorting ourselves out we wandered down to the locks where there were numerous gongoozlers watching the various boats travel up and down this lock whilst enjoying drinks from the Boatman.  It was a beautiful hot day, most unlike usual UK weather, and seeing people relaxing with drinks, our guard dropped, we succumbed to drinks, oops!!!!, our first for two

Geoff enjoying a pint!

Geoff enjoying a pint!

weeks and very welcome.

Back to “Meg” for dinner and a quiet night in, believe it or not we were knackered.

Sunday 6th May

Stoke Bruerne 

This morning, Mark Paula and Ashleigh arrived armed with bread and bacon, we had the butter so Christine made Bacon Butties; wonderful, especially as we had ignored bread for several weeks.  Oh dear our diet has gone out of the window and worse is to come tonight.

The family left around midday and we did a few jobs, but no beer at the pub!!!

Stoke Bruerne is a typical Northamptonshire village; a hamlet of houses built in the local sand stone, and apart from a couple of Restaurants, 2 canal side pubs; not to mention the canal museum, nothing else. The two claims to fame are 1/. Stoke Bruerne was mentioned in the Doomsday book and 2/. The canal cuts the village in half.

Our friends, Jeff and Hillary arrived just before 1800 hrs. for aperitifs before we went to the Indian Restaurant at Stoke Bruerne lock.  Our day has just got very much worse but we had a good evening with lots of laughter.

We waddled back to Meg quite late so straight to bed, we move on tomorrow.

Monday 7th May

Stoke Bruerne to Cosgrove 6½ miles

Funny trees seen in route

Funny trees seen in route

After breakfast we started, straight into the first of the 7 locks at Stoke Bruerne.  Christine was on form, we whistled through the first 5; I took over the last two, and believe it or not, another boat caught us up so I had help, much to Christine’s annoyance, ha ha!!!!

Once out of the locks we cruised for 6 miles, passing numerous

Rape Fields, lovely scenery

Rape Fields, lovely scenery

fields of yellow Rape Seed, jersey cows with their calves who looked us up and down, families strolling along the towpath taking in the sun, all as we cruised past. We stopped for lunch around midday and a

Cows enjoying the canal

Cows enjoying the canal

telephone call to Christine’s proposed builder, if she gets the house she wants!!!  Later we arrived at Cosgrove and moored just passed a gothic designed

Beautiful gothic bridge

Beautiful gothic bridge

bridge. This most unusual bridge is unlike normal canal bridges, just built out of red brick.  This bridge over the canal was built in the 1790’s at the insistence of a local landowner, the Biggins family, this canal was started at both ends; London and Braunston, and it met here at Cosgrove, hence the special bridge. Another unusual feature in Cosgrove is the “Horse Tunnel”. In the days of horse drawn boats, instead of building a bridge to change sides, here they built a tunnel and now this is a grade II listed structure.

We had a short walk to the next lock, as according to the Waterways guide book there is a small local shop; it was closed!

Walking along the towpath, the canal crosses over the Horse Tunnel, already mentioned.

The canal So back to the boat and relax in this hotter than hot afternoon and a cozy evening.

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Geoff’s new toy Meg-A-Star

Meg-A-Star our new home

Meg-A-Star our new home

Time seems to go so fast, we have been in the Uk for nearly a week. Geoff left on Thursday 19th April, and stayed with Mark, Paula and the girls, he also got to explore Mark’s factory Hendrickson’s, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

For the survey she was lifted out of the water

For the survey she was lifted out of the water

The survey on Meg-A-Star (Meg) was being done on Friday and he wanted to watch the surveyor (Ian) look over the new toy, and explain what everything did, by lunchtime she was given a clean bill of health, so we can now pay and get on with living on her.

Saturday I flew to Gatwick, where I was greeted by a grumpy old man! Apparently there was a hold up on M25 which made him late, but it didn’t take long for him to cheer up, and we drove to our favourite place to have bacon baguettes, and a flying visit to Petersfield to collect some jewellery, then onto to Dave and Jane’s where we were expected for dinner.

Sunday, back to Nether Heyford, to unpack our suitcases, fill

Looking more like home

Looking more like home

the wardrobes, find out what we need on board, a home at-last, maybe not in Spain, but I am fed up with living out of suitcases, it’s five months now, and I have had enough! Back to Essex, where we had a lovely
Ship shape and ready to go

Ship shape and ready to go

dinner, with lots of naughties, diet starts Monday.

Monday, we woke early, last minute packing and we were away by 9.30am, Geoff went to the bank, whilst I did the shopping, we had to buy everything, from coat hangers to everything you need to cater, exciting, but expensive! Geoff then had to take car back to hire company, taxi, three trains, back by 6.30pm, where we sat down and had our first meal on board, and slept in our 4′ bed, amazingly very well.

Tuesday, we were going to leave, but it rained and rained, what a miserable day, I forgot, we are back in England, still, gave us chance to explore the boat.

Wednesday, the sun is shining, so we are off, we have to be back by next Monday, to have some jobs done, so we are

A happy bunny with his new toy

A happy bunny with his new toy

pottering to Northampton and back. I forgot the last time we did this trip, we had Mark, Paula and the girls helping to do the seventeen locks, no such luck today, we were on our own. When we were on the tenth lock the heavens opened, and we got soaked, sadly we couldn’t just stop, no stopping places, the joys of owning a narrow boat! The weather at one point was really bad with hail stones, and high winds, reminded me of my sailing days! We eventually found a stopping place, secured for the night, the central heating had come on, we had two hot
Meandering through the countryside so pretty

Meandering through the countryside so pretty

showers, dinner, and a couple of ibuprofen, no booze on board, but we were both smiling, we must be mad.

Thursday, a bright but chilly day, so we set off again, towards Northampton, only four locks today, which is just as well, as we are a bit stiff, from our antics yesterday, breakfast consisted of cereals and ibuprofen, as we reached the last lock, we were warned that there was a supermarket trolley in the lock, and yes we found it, resting on the bottom, at one point we were stuck, but Geoff gave Meg a blast and we were free, why do people do these things, probably kids I guess. We moored up besides Morrison’s and did more shopping, I had forgotten the salt and pepper, fully stocked, back to Meg, and into the lock with the trolley in again, easier this time, as we had lots of water, but it could have caused some damage. Found a nice place to moor up, then walked to B&Q and

Some of the places we hope to go to

Some of the places we hope to go to

Curry’s for mats and a hoover, back to boat, for dinner and game of cards.

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Azores to Southampton

We left the Azores with a heavy heart, as the next stop was Southampton and the end of our holiday. Still we did have 3 more days with one formal night to look forward to.

The last time I sailed from the Azores was to Portugal in Anamcara when the sea was abominable, 5 metre waves and a very robust northerly blowing, but at least this time I am in a 90,000 ton cruise ship, hopefully more comfortable.

Once we left the Azores and headed back into the Atlantic, we were pleasantly surprised as the sea was calm, like a millpond; how long will that last, especially going through the Bay of Biscay; still we are grateful for what we have.

Life on board continued much as before though we were limited to staying inside, still we had several “wrap-up” lectures to attend and this passed the time. The show tonight was the Queen Victoria singers and dancers, singing and dancing their way around the world, and a very lively and entertaining evening it was.

We now arrived at our penultimate day, scurried around doing things that hadn’t been done earlier, and tonight, being the last formal night, there was a party atmosphere; perhaps as the majority of the cruisers had been on for 74 days they couldn’t wait to waddle off!!!!

After the evening show we wandered around the deck with Dave and Elaine, up to the Lido for a cuppa then bed. Tomorrow is going to be a late one!!

Last day, our 29th on board the Queen Victoria but the 73rd for many and it is time to pack, sort out gratuities, exchange names and addresses with new found friends, and look at our accounts; ouch.

We had crossed the Bay of Biscay by now and the sea was still like a millpond, knowing our luck we will pay the price when we take the ferry back across the bay when heading back to Spain.

We were all packed up before we went to dinner so could enjoy our “last supper” without worry. Many guests were anxious over dinner, as they hadn’t packed, not organised like us; that’s probably a first!!! We said our good byes to the dining staff and headed to the theatre for the last show, though we have a bonus tonight, there is an extra performance of the “Rewind Project”.

Good atmosphere for our last night.

Good atmosphere for our last night.

Tonight’s Showtime was Darren Day, a Singer, cum comic, cum impressionist; he tried to be all things to all men, but “no”; in fact we walked out before the end, as he was quite embarrassing to watch.

We now headed to the Queens Ballroom along with most of the other guests to listen to the Rewind Project, the group made up of members of “Moody Blues” and “10 CC” and they certainly entertained us. Interestingly, Darren Day joined them for a couple of numbers and he was actually quite good,

Re-wind project, so good!

Re-wind project, so good!

perhaps he should restrict his act to just straight forward singing.

The party ended well after midnight with a drop of several

Great night

Great night

hundred balloons across the dance floor.   Now It was off to bed for the last time; early start tomorrow.
Balloons everywhere

Balloons everywhere

We arrived in Southampton at dawn, cleared our cabin and went to our last breakfast. Disembarkation was a well-choreographed affair and we had to wait ‘till 1000hrs before we were allowed off.

Disembarkation was straight forward and our cases were waiting for us, colour coded, lined up like little soldiers then we joined the Taxi queue; we should have pre-booked a taxi me thinks.

Final thoughts

When we left Spain at the start of December we had 120 days of travel in front of us, the longest holiday we have ever had and we couldn’t really see it ending. Unfortunately there is an end, and we have arrived there; sad I know.

Our highlights have been covered in our web site and overall it was an excellent experience though some issues did arise. For example, as the trip was so long we had to have additional special insurance at exorbitant cost, and thank goodness we paid for it, as we all know, Christine certainly used it!!! Do we plan further extended trips and swallow the excessive 1-off premiums, or do we manage trips within our 35-day limits; who knows. We also had an issue with the car insurance. Before we drove over to the UK our insurance broker pointed out that our car insurance would not be valid after 90 days, there was a shortfall of 30 days, and Spanish insurance people won’t budge on this, even with additional premium. We had to park the car securely in the UK and cancel our policy and then take another policy out, just before we started to drive back.

Before we left I think we had a slight worry that we may be bored, being away for so long but no, the time just flew by, possibly because we had different components to our trip. Many of the guests on the Queen Victoria did the round trip, Southampton to Southampton, 74 days in total, and speaking to many of them, they weren’t bored either. I have to say there were as many activities during the day and evening to entertain most folk and particularly the many different and varied Lectures; they were interesting, informative and entertaining, well done Cunard.

The main point of difference between Oceania and Cunard was the food and the size of the ships. Serena was small, 600 guests and specialised in the spectacular quality of food, but had limited entertainment. Cunard on the other hand had good food, 2,000 guests and better entertainment, so difficult to compare but we certainly enjoyed both.

We now have to plan our next adventure with the help of Harry O’ Hara, our excellent travel consultant who did a superlative job putting this 100 day trip together. With the various destinations, hotels, transfers and flights all working as planned, our holiday couldn’t be better. Thank you Harry O’ Hara, we’ll be in touch.

Our next adventure, watch this space......

Our next adventure, watch this space……

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4 Sea days and the Azores

Life as usual went on during the four days at sea.   Dave and I played Elaine and Christine at shuffleboard, the evening shows, both very good and not so good, happened each evening, the lectures on smuggling continued and the food establishments did a roaring trade. The only blot on the landscape was black Saturday, England lost to Ireland at Twickenham and were crowned 6 nations champions and to top it all, it was St Patrick’s day; perhaps this gave them more “Wiz”; Well done Ireland, I sought a bottle of Bushmills to drown my sorrows!!!!

There were 2-acts that do warrant mentioning, “Mark Shortland” again wowed the audience with his impossible illusions, and a newcomer to the ship, “Dave Howes”, a highly talented multi-instrumental entertainer. He was telling us how he got his inspiration by watching Roy Castle as a lad; this chap also got a tune out of a bathroom shower hose with its head still on, and blowing up the leg of a Zimmer frame; quite remarkable.

We arrived into Praia da Vitoria, the cruise port on Terceira. This was the 3rd island to be discovered in the Azores, hence its name, “Third” in Portuguese. We arrived around 0930hrs and soon after people were disembarking, and we eventually got off around 1030hrs, jumped onto the shuttle and 20-minutes later were dropped off at the top of this very pretty old town. It’s funny, though I visited 3-islands in the Azores in 2010, I missed this one so it was nice

Part of the waterfront

Part of the waterfront

that we both got to visit it together.

Settlers arrived to these Islands in 1450 and soon this place became the official stopover for ships plying their Atlantic routes; such as cargoes of spices from the East and Gold and Silver from the Americas etc. Charles Darwin even stopped over when returning back from Galapagos in his ship “The Beagle”.

The town of “Praia da Vitoria” takes its name from: the first

One of the churches

One of the churches

part after the battle of Praia Bay, when the Miguelists were defeated by the Portuguese loyalists troops in 1829; (this was all part of the Portuguese civil war known as the “Liberal War*) and the second part of the name was an honour conferred on the town by Queen Maria II of Portugal in 1837 for its loyalty.

The old part of the town is very quaint and as you would expect there were a number of churches of which we visited 2. One was fairly austere and its shape was far from conventional whilst the second had a ceiling covered in gold leaf. The outside of the houses, churches etc., were generally painted white but

Inside of the blue and white church

Inside of the blue and white church

they had either blue or yellow corners and window sills picked out, and
Another one of the many churches

Another one of the many churches

the streets added to the ambience with the small cobble stones set out in patterns; very attractive.
Gold everywhere amazing

Gold everywhere amazing

Firstly, we wandered down to the marina where there were several bars, restaurants and gift shops, all of which were full of guests from the Queen Victoria getting their Internet fix, us included!!! We had a wander about the marina and watched people climbing the 292 steps up to a religious statute, situated high up on the cliff; we declined. We walked through the back streets, getting the feel of the place but

Elaine walked to the top we decided to walk around the marina instead

Elaine walked to the top we decided to walk around the marina instead

unfortunately it was a dull and overcast day with rain threatening, which didn’t show the town off at its best. We decided we most probably wouldn’t take a holiday here though apparently the weather is usually better, as the weather normally comes up from the Caribbean with the Gulf Stream.

En route to the shuttle we did a little necessary shopping, then stopped in some gardens, there was a café/bar and we enjoyed a couple of drinks and sheltered from the rain. Once it had stopped we joined the bus and returned to Q V. As we went overboard with breakfast we were happy to give the dining room a miss and instead headed to the Lido for a snack before the show.

Tonight’s entertainment is a group called “The Rewind Project”, the group is composed of members of the two 60’s/70’s pop groups, “The Moody Blues” and “10 cc”. There wasn’t an empty seat in the theatre, all the old rockers were there bouncing in their seats; it was a nostalgic performance for many and went down very well. They have a second, and a longer show on our last night; I think to get a seat we will have to get there very early.

Well that’s our last port of call before we arrive in Southampton on Friday, so we have 3-sea days left, including one more formal night to enjoy before picking up our bar bills; our internet bills; our alternative dining bills, and any other expenses we have incurred; there won’t be many dry eyes on board then!!!!!

Next stop UK, ugh!

*        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Wars

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Sea day and Bermuda

We left Charleston ok, but when we hit open sea we were in for a bit of a shock as the weather had “turned”, and not for the better, oh no. It was raining, windy and the sea state according to our new Captain was rough. To make things worse, he advised us that this would most probably continue ‘till we reach Bermuda, this was not in the plan; still life on board continues though our arrangements to play Shuttle board were scuppered. Instead we introduced Dave and Elaine to Rummy cup as this was a game they hadn’t played before. It was quite a social affair; we sat in the Golden lion pub and enjoyed a few beers and another pub lunch.

At 1400hrs we had another lecture by our retired Customs officer, again interesting, but not so funny, probably as his talk cantered around 3-real case studies.

Tonight is again formal, but first we had another invitation to the Captain’s cocktail party so had to be ready an hour earlier. This was our first chance to see the new “boss” and he certainly has a better sense of humour than the commodore who has just left, and we think we have seen the new captain more over the last couple of days than the Commodore during the previous 17 days. Christine says he is very good looking and “scrummy” and too young to drive such a big ship.   During the course of his speech he did comment on the state of the sea but assured us the stabilisers were out; I would not have liked to be here had there not been any.

Dinner was normal though the waiters did have to walk at a funny angle at times. Our American fellow diners didn’t show, we think they were suffering and had taken to their beds.

Tonight’s show was due to be a “spectacular” with the Royal Court Singers and Dancers, but with the ship rocking ‘n rolling, it was unsafe. Fortunately we had another performer arrive on board in Charleston so he stepped into the breach. He was part of the West End show, “The Rat Pack”, he sang many Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Matt Monroe songs, to name but a few.   He was good and did well as of course he had minimal opportunity to rehearse with the band.

Map of the Island of Bermuda

Map of the Island of Bermuda

This morning we woke up to Q V navigating its way around the

Bermuda waterfront

Bermuda waterfront

rocks and coral that surround Bermuda. The Channel, though well marked with buoys, is still very tricky and it took a good hour to just get into the port area, then we had to turn and dock, still it all went well.

The cruise terminal is in the Old British Naval Dockyard. The

Part of the old Dockyard

Part of the old Dockyard

dockyard was started in 1811, but all naval activities ceased in 1995, and it has now been re-generated into a cruise ship port with tourist attractions utilising the old naval dockyard buildings; I have to say they have made a good job of it.

We left the ship soon after docking around 10.30, bought ourselves a day bus-and-ferry pass and headed off to the “ferry” terminal, the first leg of our journey to “Town St. George”, the original capital of Bermuda.

Bermuda is a small jewel in the British Territorial Crown in the Atlantic; it consists of around 138 small Islands, many linked by bridges, in a fishhook shape and about 22 miles long and 1-mile wide. Bermuda is about 600-miles east of the southern USA.

The ferry took us from the Naval dockyard for a 20-minute trip

Part of the old Dockyard

Part of the old Dockyard

across the very blue lagoon to Hamilton. Hamilton is in the centre of the Islands and was established in 1793; named after the Governor of Bermuda, “Henry Hamilton” and it has been the capital since 1815 as it is in the perfect place.

Upon arrival we headed straight for the bus terminal as we were going to visit St Georges, the original Capital, founded in 1612 and today a world UNESCO heritage site. The trip took around 40-minutes but we got to see most of the Island, the very blue waters, sandy beaches and lush vegetation as well as the international airport, built across the island.

The bus dropped us off and we walked down a quaint street, lined with old terraced buildings dating back to the 17th

The stocks in the square

The stocks in the square

– 19th century and into King’s Square. Here we popped into the White horse for a coffee and a drink, this was a place we spent quiet a bit of time in when we sailed here back in 2010 and 2012. The square is the centre of this small, but pretty place, with the White
The state house

The state house

horse and gift shop on one side and the old state house, built in 1620, and other buildings on the opposite side with the pier, customs house and waterfront on the third side. The town was built on St Georges harbour, a large lagoon with a narrow, but deep entrance. There are also replica
Inside the state house

Inside the state house

stocks, and a ducking stool where a few local volunteers
Replica of “deliverance”

Replica of “deliverance”

demonstrate their use. Here there is also a replica of the ship “Deliverance”. In 1609, Admiral, “Sir George Somers” was heading for Jamestown in his ship “Sea Venture” when a storm sent him onto the rocks here. All the 150 colonists and crew survived, and under the Admiral’s guidance set about building a replacement ship. This new ship, “The Deliverance”’ sailed for Jamestown 10-months later. Apparently this story inspired William Shakespeare to write “The Tempest”, which was published a few years later.

Having had a good walk around, we caught the bus back to Hamilton where we thought we would have a bite to eat, which we did; we found a “KFC”!!!!!

Views from the ferry

Views from the ferry

We caught the ferry back to the Dockyard, had a good look around then boarded the ship just before the gangway was hauled aboard.

As a final comment, I was surprised just how much history such a small island has; first seen and named by a Spanish Captain

Lovely waterfront

Lovely waterfront

“Juan de Bermudez” in 1503 but not claimed by Spain. There was the Admiral Somers incident in 1609/10.   Settlers arrived and established the capital in 1612; this was followed several years later when slaves were brought to the island, and it wasn’t ‘till 1684 that the Brits administered the Colony. Bermuda also played a part in the English Civil war: The American war of independence: The American Civil war: The Boer war, and not forgetting WWII, when the US set up a
Another view of waterfront

Another view of waterfront

base there.

Dinner as usual was followed by the show; a British comic, Jeff Stevenson, who tried to encompass jokes that all nationalities could understand, but though he was funny in places he certainly wasn’t the best comic we have seen, lets say we wouldn’t go out of our way to see him again.

We now have several sea days before we arrive In “Prai da Vitoria” in the Azores.

 

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