Our friendly neighborhood beaches

We live in Pembroke Parish which contains the Capital City of Hamilton. We live just to the west of the capital city, takes about 15 minutes to walk down to the major city. The pink stars on the map are 2 of the 3 locations where the cruise ships dock. The one on the left is the Royal Navy Dockyard and the one in the bottom right is where they dock in downtown Hamilton. The big pink house is where we live and the drawn path is how we get to the national parks by our house that contain beaches; Admiralty House Park and Spanish Point Park. The closer one, Admiralty is by far the more beautiful. It contains a tennis court where Sarah and will occasionally play, a cave, and a beach. It also has cliffs you can jump off though we have yet to do that. It's about a 15 minute walk or a 4 minute scooter trip depending on how lazy we are feeling! The parking lot is elevated and provides a spectacular view of the ocean.  Also, you can see the Dockyard from a nice park bench right by the cave entrance.

Checking out the cruise ship at the Royal Navy Dockyard

Doesn't seem so big

Cave Entrance

Panorama of the beach and the bay from the diving cliffs

Tennis Court with the Ocean View

The other park is the Spanish Pointe Park. This one isn't so much of a beach as a park. It's right out on the tip and has some islands you can get to with a short smim/walk.

Also, since I haven't done this yet, here are a few pictures of our house.

Pool and grill patio

Sally Bum Bum

The Sally Bum Bum is a 50 foot Catamaran charter boat that is very popular on the island. It's a blast! I have been out on it twice so far. Our first experience was for my birthday on May 13. We went out on a night cruise through the Hamilton sound. It was defininitely a great birthday event, scenic boat tour through a tropical paradise with our friends. Boat holds about 40-45 people comfortably. It was fairly windy the first night, definitely not swimming weather, so it basically turned into a dancing party.

The second time I went out was during the week so unfortunately Sarah wasn't able to come with us. This one was more of an exploration than a floating party. We went out around the dockyard down to David's Island. If you remember my post about the sailing trip when we passed around the HMS Vixen shipwreck and how it was my goal to dive on it, well, mission accomplished. We pulled up to the boat for about a half an hour. Plenty of time to break in my new snorkeling equipment. There were more fish swimming around the boat than I had seen in one place (up to that point). We even found some sea cucumbers. I picked one up and got a funny picture looking like I was taking a bite out of it. Chris also picked one up but that one shot some kind of liquid out of one of it's ends so I don't think he wanted to put it near his face. Had I known that I probably wouldn't have done it either. Guess I got lucky on that one. After swimming around for a bit, we got back on the boat and a huge school of fish swam by. The LOVE them some potato chips. Threw some overboard and watched the ensuing feeding frenzy. They chased the boat for quite a ways trying to get some more too. We eventually made our way back to the Hamilton. I am going out this Sunday again for Holly's farewell cruise, unfortunately Sarah had to go to Toronto for work so she's going to miss this one too. I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Norwegian Cruisline and Celebrity Cruiseline docked at the Royal Navy Dockyard

Approaching the HMS Vixen

Hanging off the front of the Vixen

Found a couple sea cucumbers. Didn't actually bite it.

Fish LOVE Potato chips!!!

Holy Busted Blisters Batman!!

On May 7th, Sarah and I, joined by Louise Park, attempted the 24th Annual End-to-End walk of the island of Bermuda. It involves starting in St. George, and walking along the south shore, down the railway trail and all the way to the dockyard. A total distance of 24.1 miles. As I am writing this today, 37 days later, I still have scars from the blisters on my feet. How's that for foreshadowing.

Realizing this was going to be the farthest distance we have ever travelled on foot, Sarah and I made a few training walks. Our farthest one was probably about 15 miles in which I got a blister on my foot. In an attempt to curtail this, I bought some padded gel insoles for my shoes AND after taking some advice from a walking website, got some Vaseline to rub inbetween my toes and my feet. Not sure if it made it worse, but it certainly didn't help.

We took the bus from Hamilton to St. George's pretty early to get there for the 8 am start. It was packed. We tried to wait for Louise who missed the bus and by the time we got on, we had to stand the entire 30 minute bus ride to St. George's during which the bus driver drove like he was running from the police. Louise had a nice comfortable bus ride on the next bus in which she was able to sit down. Definitely going to keep that in mind if we ever attempt this again. While we were waiting for the walk to start we looked around the town hall area of St. George. Saw a pirate ship and went in the town hall and sat at the Governor's desk. Louise got there a few minutes later and we decided to get an early start on our 24 mile walk.

Governor's Desk. It was another week until I was able to put my feet up like this again.

Getting an early start

Needless to say, it was a very long walk. Beautiful day however. There were refreshment stands every few miles where we could get snacks and water. At one of them, while Sarah was changing her socks, I struck up a conversation with a reporter from the local paper, the Royal Gazette. He wound up using my quotes in his article and I had a part about how I hoped I could make it to the end as I was worried about my flat feet getting blistered. (more foreshadowing). Unfortunately, I didn't save the article and it has since been taken down from the website. This is my quote:

One of the early walkers was Nick Whelpley and his wife Sarah. “I've got flat feet, so I'm at a disadvantage.” “I'm trying not to let the blisters stop me from making the end. We've just been coming along on our own most of the way. But the people out here for us have been very supportive.”

And we kept walking, and walking, and walking, and walking......

One mile in, 23 to go!!

My feet were already starting to hurt at this point!!

Already blistered

We stopped at the 10 mile sign to change our sweaty socks, which was also the start of the railway trail. Until this point, we had been walking on the road, but now, we were on a dirt trail for the home stretch. I had huge blisters on both my heels. Gingerly we all put our shoes back on and kept going. I made it almost o the Southampton Princess when we had to walk up a steep hill. On the way up, I felt a shooting pain in my left foot and began hobbling. Sarah and Louise quickly started to disapear and made distance between us. Now, if Sarah is walking faster than me, I got problems. After I took off my shoe and looked at the damage, I quickly realized the 6 miles I had left to walk probably weren't going to happen without risking some serious injury. After talking to the girls, and getting some encouragement that it was ok to quit, I hobbled down the bus stop in front of the Princess, making sure to take off and hide my walking number so as to avoid ridicule. The girls kept going on without me and I hopped on the bus to meet them at the finishline at the dockyard. I felt pretty bad about giving up, yet as the bus ride went on and on and on, I realized just how much farther I would have had to walk and realized I had made the right choice. When I arrived at the end, I quickly made my way to the medical tent in search of some guaze. They told me that all contestants got a free pair of flip flops and I proceeded to hobble on over and get the most comfortable pair of flip flops ever. I have since put them on, not so comfortable, haha. Anyways, I made my way to the finish line, knowing it would be at least an hour and a half until Sarah and Louise arrived. While waiting, Holly and Evey walked through, They had done the Middle-to-End walk, which I think is the way I will go if I participate again. We made our way to the Frog and Onion Pub where we got some frozen drinks to cool down. They finished their drinks and hopped on the ferry to get back to town before it got too crowded. Another brilliant idea from people who had obviously done this before. I waited a little while for Sarah and Louise and they both made it all the way. Really proud of them, I quickly led them to the flip flop tent. Exhausted, we went to the ferry terminal and quickly realized that we weren't going to be able to get on it as it was too crowded. Luckily we were able to get on the bus and get out of there. It was definitely an experience, and while I'm disappointed I couldn't make it all the way I really doubt I'm going to try to do it again next year. Think I'll be perfectly content to do the Middle-to-End OR ride a bicyle from End-to-End. My feet hurt just thinking about it and hopefully the blister marks will disappear some day!!!

Holly and Evey crossing the finish line



48 oz JUMBO Frozen Pina Colada. Made me almost forget how bad my feet hurt. And gave me brainfreeze!

Sarah and Louise strutting their stuff across the finish line

Better Late than Never

Can't believe it's been almost 2 months since we last posted on here. Been really busy and a bad internet connection at the house doesn't help much either. Been doing a lot of exploring around the island. Spent Easter weekend here together as a couple and have seen come cool things. As is tradition in Bermuda, we of course went to the beach for Easter. On our way to the beach, we went to the Spittal Pond Nature Reserve which is also home to Spanish Rock. The reserve is beautiful, while it doesn't have a beach, it certainly has an impressive shoreline. It also has a cow farm.  It is also tradition to fly kites on the beach and while we don't have a kite, we sure enjoyed the show and the relaxation.

I'm sure there's a Hereford joke here somewhere

Spanish Rock is really called Portuguese Rock 

This was a bronze casting of original engraving made in 1543!!

 After Spittal Pond, we made our way down to the John Smith's Bay for some R&R

 The following weekend we went to the Rugby Team's Mad Hatter's Ball at the Mariners Club downtown. Our friend Louise Park was working the bar in the beginning and made sure that we didn't go thirsty. For the party, I made what may possibly be the best beerbox hats in the history of beerbox hats. Now, anybody can make one with a 24 pack box and scissors, but only real men use 6 packs and a pocketknife. Honestly, it would have been a lot easier with scissors. But the final product turned out quite well.

What a sexy cowgirl face that is!!

Jim, Patrick, Monbill, and me

Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late

On April 7th and 8th, my friend Chris Staples and I joined an exclusive club of people who have sailed around an entire country in a boat with no cabin! As a last hoorah for both of us, he before he leaves, and myself before I start working, we decided to leave the women at home and venture around the country of Bermuda on a 2 day sailing excursion in his 26 foot sailboat. In true sailing style, I have mapped out our course on this digital picture of an old map of Bermuda


Day 1:
Forecast - "Sunny and calm. Best for beers but we may get a sail in if it picks up Friday" - Chris

Woke up at 6:30 to get ready for the trip. Packed up my gear, kissed my beautiful wife goodbye and made the epic walk to the bus stop. Feeling like a pack mule, I met Chris at the downtown bus depot at 7:45 to catch the 8:00am #8 to Ely's Harbor in Somerset Parish. Not a cloud in the sky, we arrived and loaded up the dinghy to cast out to the boat and begin our adventure. We loaded up the engine and took off for the gas station to fill up the reserves just in case.

Got gas and were out in the open ocean by 10 and started to the hoist the sails. The jib sail, which as you can see is covered in rust stains, went up easy. The main sail, not so much. In fact, it got stuck about half way up and took everything we had to hoist all the way to the top.

Laughing but not amused

So we finally got the main up and set sail only . . . . there was not really any wind. We traveled south a bit and as soon as we got around the corner, nothing. Well, nothing but views of this beautiful Island!

The Princess, our view forever

We sat in front of the Princess for about 2 hours or so and even considered going back for a bit, but decided to venture on under the power of gas. Dropped the motor and took off with the sail up. We passed a bunch of pretty cool things on the way, though honestly weren't close enough for the pictures to do it justice. There was a pretty stout line of reefs protecting pretty much the entire south shore that would have bashed our boat into little pieces. Fiberglass is pretty resilient, though I couldn't imagine 200 years ago running up on one of those things in a wooden boat patched together with tar! As we traveled around the south side of the island up to St. George's to dock for the night, we saw a lot of familiar landmarks I have posted in previous blog posts. Including the lighthouse we went up in the other week as well as my restaurant on Elbow Beach.

Can't imagine how much that stairway cost

Killer Reef!



My future place of employment in the bottom left corner. You can see the reefs in the way!

St. David's Lighthouse from the other week

Airplane taking off from the Airport

Cannons from the Lost at Sea Memorial

 We hit the far east side of the island about 5 o'clock and started looking for a place to dock for the night. We settled on Smith's Sound which is just around the bend from the Lost at Sea Memorial. We made our way in and started looking for a place to throw anchor. We found a great place next to the park with an open mooring and decided to tie up to a mooring and dock there for the night. However, after drinking beer and mango rum juice all day we weren't exactly, ummm, precise with our docking movements. It took us about 15 minutes to even maneuver the boat next to a mooring and even longer to pull it out of the water to tie up. We lost a pair of pliers, Chris got jibed in the head with a swinging main sail that caught its first wind of the day, and then took quite a spill when we ran the boat aground. At this point, an older rather unpleasant sounding man yelled at us from his porch where he had been watching us ineptly tie up our boat. In an accent that made me feel like Burt Reynolds in Deliverance, he told us we couldn't dock there, threatened to injure us if we scratched his boat, and then demanded we move in a way that contradicted both Southern and Bermuda hospitality. Now legally, we are allowed to throw down an anchor anywhere we darn well please but rather than deal with his rage we moved a little farther down the harbor and I made sure to thank him for his hospitality, laying on the sarcasm as thickly as I possibly could. We found another mooring to tie up to just as the sun started to dip behind the horizon and made our unfortunate dinners, warm beer and bread, they said it could raise the dead; well it reminded me of the menu at a Holiday Inn! dreaming of a cheeseburger in paradise, medium rare with mustard would have been nice, heaven on earth with an onion slice. However we settled for PB&J and some crushed up Doritos. Meal was great and the sunset was simply amazing. There was a jet flying across the horizon leaving a vapor trail between the clouds. The pictures simply don't do it justice.

Turtle Crossing!!

Relaxing for the night

 Now the boat had no cabin and isn't very wide and didn't provide much sleeping space. Add in another person and it was pretty uncomfortable. I don't think I actually hit REM sleep and woke up quite frequently as I was sleeping in a wedged up corner. At around 4:30 I was staring into the sky, which was pristine, no light pollution, and noticed a HUGE shooting star rocket over the boat. Realizing I wasn't going to get much sleep anyways, I climbed up onto the stern of the boat and laid down to check out the light show. Over the next hour or so until the sun started to creep up, I saw over a dozen shooting stars. Pretty crazy the amount of stuff that bombards our atmosphere. The sky was so clear, I was actually able to see satellites travel overhead in their orbit. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pics that turned out so here's the moon between the mast lines.

Day 2
The sun started peeking over the horizon around 6 and Chris got up and we pulled up anchor and made our way to the gas station to top up on gas and possibly buy some beer (for later in the day). However, this worthless gas station didn't actually sell gas AND despite my pleading and begging, wouldn't sell us beer either. Said we had to wait until 8am. Ridiculous! Deciding not to wait, we dropped motor and ventured off into the sunset to make the journey around the northern side.

We made our way out into the open ocean with our coffee in hand and were greeted with an awesome surprise. The wind was blowing like CRAZY!! Seems we weren't going to need that gas after all.

As you can see the wind was blowing like mad; at least 30mph and we quickly got the jib sale up. The main sail presented quite a challenge. As you remember, it didn't go up very easy on day 1. Now with the wind trying to rip it off the boat, it created a whole new set of challenges. It only took about a half hour, but by wrapping a towel around the line, and pulling with all my might while Chris pulled up right by the pulley, we were able to hoist it up about 2 inches at a time. It should have taken little effort and 2 minutes but it probably took years off our ability to walk and rubbed out hands pretty raw. But we were ready for some sailin'!! We were now going directly into the wind so it took quite a bit of tacking to make it around the corner of St. George's and Fort Saint Catherine. That's why you see the jagged line on the map for day 2.

As you can see from the pictures, the boat was leaning at quite an angle due to the wind. For this reason, I really couldn't take any pictures of the North side trip from the East side of the island all the way to the West side when we hit the dockyard. The wind was blowing, waves were washing up over the boat, and we were quite busy navigating and I didn't want to risk getting the camera wet so I locked it up in a plastic bag and hid it safely in the bow for the next 5-6 hours as we traveled across the whole North side. It was awesome, we hit a couple waves that were at least 10 feet high and the ride side of me was completely soaked through by the time we hit Spanish Point when the wind started to change direction and push us into the North Basin and eventually into the Dundonald Channel which is where the island fish hooks on the West side. We traveled into the cove for a bit and made our way over to the Dockyard to pull into port for a bit and grab a six-pack to finish the journey.

The clock tower building is the Dockyard "mall"

Tugboats for the cruise ships

The yellow building is the store and the brick building behind it is the jail where the P.O.R.C club is located

Jail and the mall

We illegally docked here to grab a six-pack. You can see the Omega sail on the end of the dock

Heritage Warf where the cruise ships dock

The Commissioners House and the 6" RBL Gun of the Keep

After clearing the Royal Navy Dockyard we started to make our way South again into the homestretch. All that was left to do was clear Daniels Island and the shipwreck Vixen (1896) and we could shoot right into Ely's Harbour. Except it looked like it was going to rain! So now we have to navigate though the most reef heavy part of the island, around a shipwreck, and try to beat a storm!! And oh yea, we're in the Bermuda Triangle!! It took us about an hour to pass by Mangrove Bay, 9 Beach resort and get to Daniels Island, and we were able to do it before the storm hit. Again worried about my camera, I dared not take it out in the heavy wind, splashing surf, and brewing storm. So I downloaded a pic of the Vixen. Apparently you can dive on the wreck which I fully intend on doing before I leave.

9 Beaches Resort from the air

HMS Vixen (1865-1896)

 After pulling around the Vixen it was just a straight shot into Ely's Harbour. Well, not exactly. We had to dodge dozens of reefs, sometimes tacking within a couple feet to avoid running aground. It started to sprinkle a little bit and after about 20 minutes of the most intense sailing maneuvers of the day, we finally made it into port, completing our trip about the island/country. We drifted into the mooring and tied up and the clouds just vanished. Not sure what happened, we really thought we be unloading in the rain, but it because absolutely beautiful again. Took us a while to unload, and we had our victory Bud Lights. The boat has since been sold and Chris has moved back to Canada but I do have to say it was a fantastic experience I'll never forget and a great time.

Back in Ely's Harbour

Loading up the Dinghy

Victory Beer never tasted so good