Gym's Ramblings: February 2017

October 14, 2016

The pool deck on our ship was big enough to park the Santa Maria,
the Pinta and the Nina

The Crossing

Crossing the Atlantic ocean would be the climax of our trip. Our main plot had been developing as we made our way along the Mediterranean coast of Spain visiting various ports of call and introducing the conflict between two epic journey's; Gym and Mrs. Gym's transatlantic crossing of 2016 and Christopher Columbus' discovery of the new world in 1492. As we emerged into the Atlantic and docked in Cadiz, Spain and Madeira, Portugal a sub-plot began to emerge with our heros Gym and Mrs. Gym pitted against Hurricane Nicole. This blog posting will provide a partial resolution to the first conflict and a full resolution to a very juicy sub-plot.

We began our journey across the Atlantic Ocean much differently than what Christopher Columbus would have. At the get go, the 1492 voyage and our 2016 one clearly differed in that we knew where we were going and obviously, he didn't. This single fact made Mr. Columbus a much braver soul than Gym. It also meant that whatever was "discovered" in 1492 had never been seen before, whereas what Gym saw for the first time in person was nothing new. Furthermore, Gym had sort of seen the stuff that he "discovered" on the internet, before he arrived.

Today, one knows what to expect on a transatlantic crossing, whereas in 1492, Mr. Columbus didn't have a clue what was going to happen. When Columbus left Europe on his various voyages of discovery, all he had were his keen navigational skills and the observations he made with the naked eye. He did not have an internet full of maps, a computer, satellite transmission capability or anything like the stuff our crew had on the bridge. Gosh, even Gym had a MacBook Pro and an iPhone with satellite connection to CNN, The Weather Network and N.O.A.A.

Gym's and Mrs. Gym's crossing was scheduled for 5 days between Madeira and Bermuda. As mentioned in my last blog posting, this would be the longest stretch of open sea we had ever sailed between two ports. We would do the crossing in a modern cruise-ship that measures 180 meters in length and 25 meters in width. We were to travel in sort of a straight line, at a constant speed of 18-19 knots. We had all the conveniences of a modern cruise-ship including multiple restaurants and lounges, a fitness room, laundry services, a spa, a bingo machine, a library, a casino and even room service. Mrs. Gym and I enjoyed all of these amenities in the company of 550-odd other passengers and about 400 crew.

Poor Christopher Columbus! Our hero took about 36 days to cross the Atlantic. He sailed in his largest vessel, the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria was 18 meters long and about 5 meters wide. It has been determined by the experts that the average speed of this sailing ship would have been about 4 knots. And obviously, because there was no engine, poor old Christopher had to tack back and forth, to make any progress at all. His ship was crewed by about 40 souls. The Santa Maria's restaurant sucked and there was no fitness room or spa. And again, I must emphasize that he had no clue where he was going.

What was really weird though, was that after a couple of days at sea, even with all the advantages that we had over Mr. Columbus, Gym and Mrs. Gym felt pretty lonely out in the middle of the Pond. Every once in a while Gym would spot a container ship and take some solace in the fact that he had some company out there but I have to give it to Columbus and his crew, if I was feeling lonely, how did his crew feel on a much smaller boat with no casino?

The most memorable day was the 4th day after leaving Madeira. The seas were calm and the sun was shining. That day, the crew ran a bit of a country fair, up on the pool deck and incredibly picked the best day to have it. Gym and Mrs. Gym enjoyed the beautiful weather by doing 6 kilometres around the track above the pool deck. The exercise would be beneficial, given the little party that was planned for us that night. We were invited to dine with the Captain, at his table in the dining room. This was convenient too because I had wanted to talk to him about a hurricane.

The dinner was loads of fun. The Ukrainian Captain turned out to be a wanna-be Canadian. He was also a gracious host. Gym had a very memorable meal of Dover Sole and got to sit beside the Captain's "date", a beautiful British girl that was one of the dancers on the ship. All was good except the Captain really didn't give us any indication of the hellish time we were in for over the next 36 hours, as we past through the tail of the hurricane.

The Hurricane

Hurricane Nicole formed as a tropical storm south of Bermuda on Oct. 4, 2016. It meandered in the same general area for several days and briefly became a Category 2 hurricane on Oct. 6. It then weakened to a tropical storm again on the following day. By Oct. 10, Nicole began its crawl northward on a path that would take the eye very close to Bermuda. The following day it regained hurricane strength. Nicole then rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane late Oct. 12 with maximum sustained winds increasing to 130 mph. It made its closest pass to Bermuda as a Category 3 hurricane on Oct 13, at about noon. A last-hour eastward wobble appeared to spare Bermuda the eastern semicircle of Nicole, typically the location of a hurricane's strongest winds. However, the western eye-wall did not spare Bermuda, lashing the island with wind gusts over 100 mph in spots.

Having left Madeira on October 9th, Gym was able to see Nicole's expected track. It was northward and it appeared that it would intersect the planned crossing of our cruise ship. We steamed steadily westward and as we did, Nicole slowly moved toward Bermuda. Then the night before the last planned sea day we learned that Nicole would beat us to Bermuda. We would however suffer some nasty seas in the last day and a half before we pulled into Hamilton harbour, the nastiest ride of any cruising we had ever experienced. We would pass through the tail of the hurricane and then on the morning of October 14, 2016 we swung around to the west side of Bermuda and tied up to the pier in downtown Hamilton, right across the street from Flanagan's Bar.

Coming into port, and seeing that there were no other cruise ships there, it became apparent that we were the first ship to sail to Bermuda after the hurricane. I did not know what to expect but my over- active imagination had us coming to an island where the houses were flattened, the number of casualties was high and the small island nation would need the passengers and crew to help with the terrible aftermath..... Nothing could have been further from the truth. I do not think there were any serious casualties and no houses were destroyed. Why not? The simple answer is Bermuda is prepared for these things. Gym and Mrs. Gym looked hard for evidence of damage and the only proof that a hurricane had passed by were some swamped boats and a thoroughly destroyed lifeguard shack on one of the beaches we went by.

Bermuda

After 5.5 days at sea we site Bermuda and round the
northern tip of the island nation

All of the houses in Bermuda are built of stone! They even have stone roofs! Sure, they look pretty in all the pastel hues that make the island inviting and attractive but behind the paint are structures that will not be damaged by measly 100 mph winds. Bermuda will lose a few palm trees and some overhead electrical wires but everyone hunkers down safe and sound in their rock houses and then emerge after the storm passes with their rakes and brooms and tidy up the island for the next wave of tourists. We arrived only hours after the hurricane left and we did not need to help triage patients or dig children out of the rubble. The Bermudians had almost completely finished sweeping up the palm fronds and they were ready to show us around their island like nothing untoward had recently happened. Gym was amazed.

Residential homes built with Bermuda stone walls and
cemented slate roofs.

A rather larger home with matching stone outbuildings

Downtown buildings are stone and slate as well

Our ship was literally parallel parked on Front Street

The only significant damage we saw was this flattened
life guard tower.

Boy it is a small country but it has some very inviting real estate and cool, pink beaches. Yes, particles of pink coral give their beaches a pinkish hue and apparently the sand is a little cooler on one's bare feet but we couldn't test that out because it wasn't hot when we were there. Gym and Mrs. Gym would basically tour the entire island in the day and a half that we were docked there in Hamilton harbour and it was quite appealing. Gym added the island to his list of places to spend more time on during some future vacation. I was impressed with the looks of the Rosewood Tucker's Point Hotel and the Fairmont Southampton. Also on the plus side, Bermudian natives seem laid back, honest and friendly. Furthermore, Michael Douglas is a Bermudian and everyone likes him (we saw the roof of his house and drove through his golf course).

Crystal Cave - we went on a walking tour of this
subterranean cave. It was discovered by some boys who
lost a ball in a hole in the ground. They the
descended into that hole to retrieve it and discovered
something quite beautiful.

Looking down into the crystal clear water the guide points out the ancient
stalagmites.

Pink Beaches of Horseshoe Bay

This lighthouse marks the highest point on the island and
commemorates Bermuda's connection to the America's Cup

Town Hall of St. George's town

St. Peter's Anglican Church in St. George's town is the oldest
Anglican church in continuous use outside of the UK.

Hamilton Harbour

As we steamed out of Hamilton Harbour to start
the final leg of our journey our 25 meter-wide ship
passed between the two marked, points shown above.
I would be worried about a seadoo running through there
but miraculously we did not scrape the sides of the Sirena.