I’m out of my funk and feeling back to normal. We sailed from Bermuda around 1:30 PM yesterday afternoon. I didn’t go ashore there at all because the weather was never really good and we were a 40-minute bus ride or 20-minute ferry ride from Hamilton.
At lunchtime yesterday we had an ABBA sailaway party around the pool. Several friends and I ordered a couple of pizzas to share for lunch. That’s one of many nice things about Seabourn – you can order a pizza with the toppings you like (and of course there’s no charge). Our Cruise Director Ross is an absolute hoot and he was dancing around all over the pool deck and he eventually jumped into the pool fully clothed. He’s leaving on the next leg and we’re all holding our breath because his replacement is going to be someone from HAL who has never sailed with Seabourn before.
Last night for dinner I went for fried chicken with five other members of my trivia team. They are all very nice people and they are also very quick-witted so the conversation was very entertaining. After dinner I went to one of the bars to get my favorite after dinner drink, a luscious concoction of liqueurs, coffee and chocolate. Sitting next to me was a very interesting British man who retired from their Merchant Marine after spending more than 40 years at sea. He was a Chief Engineer and his last posting was on the QM2. It was fascinating talking to him because, like most mariners, he began his career literally on banana boats taking bananas and other fruits from the Americas to Europe and the middle East. I talked to him for so long that I missed going to the club. The band and the servers down there must wonder if I jumped ship.
I think I should write something about Bermuda and its significance in the western Atlantic. The first settlers to come to Bermuda were actually on their way with people and supplies for the Jamestown Colony. The flotilla they were sailing in was broken up by a storm and the flagship was driven aground on a reef, which resulted in all the passengers and supplies on that ship surviving. Word reached those people about the privations occurring in Jamestown and they refused to continue on so they settled Bermuda. Prior to 1609 Bermuda occupied an important position on the homeward leg of ships coming back from the New World to Europe. French privateers probably used it as a staging place to attack Spanish galleons returning to Spain with all manner of cargoes from its American colonies. After the British settled the island they used it for the same purpose during their wars. Shipyards were built on the island to build small, fast sloops with timber brought from the Americas. I didn’t realize it but by the 17th and 18th centuries many European countries had clear-cut many of their forests and timber from the Americas was one of the most valuable commodities.
After we gained our independence Bermuda played an important role to guard Britain against its two biggest threats, France during the Napoleonic Wars, and the newly created United States. During the War of 1812 Bermuda played a significant role. It was the base of the British fleet that blockaded US ports, and it was a squadron of Bermuda sloops that engaged in the campaign in the Chesapeake Bay which included the burning of Washington. During the two world wars, Bermuda was used as a staging area for convoys crossing the Atlantic and ships based in Bermuda helped to seek out and destroy German raiders. The US had military installations in Bermuda until about 1995.
Now Bermuda is a self-governing British Overseas Territory with a population of around 64,000. Its principal industry is tourism and it attracts a lot of wealthy people. In fact the per capita income because of that is over $110,000.
So there you have more info than you ever wanted to know about Bermuda.
I did do something really interesting yesterday morning. I was invited to go with a small group to tour the laundry here on the Encore. It’s down on Deck 2 where we passengers never go and where so many people work behind the scenes to make our cruise great. The laundry team consists of 13 crewmen, mainly Filipino, who wash, dry, iron and fold countless linens every day and additionally do the laundry of both staff people and we passengers who send it out to be cleaned. My laundry comes back to me beautifully pressed and folded within two days of being sent out. The laundry master Is a very nice man named Felix who has worked for Seabourn for 28 years! He is here for 9 months at a time. He and his staff are people who we never see but are such an important part of the cruising experience. On the last evening of each segment of a cruise there is a Crew Appreciation event around the pool area where these unseen people have an opportunity to come out and be saluted and thanked by us.
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| Felix the Laundry Master |
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| His team |
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| Just a few sheets |
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| Folding hundreds of napkins every day |
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| Never-ending piles of ironing |
That’s all for today. We have today and one more sea day before we get to Miami on December 2 and many of my shipmates get off. Tomorrow is our last trivia day with this team and I’m not sure where we stand. Goodbye for now.
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