Hamilton

The 18-mile run inside the reef down to Hamilton was uneventful. The route is traveled by cruise ships bound for The Dockyard (home of the Americas Cup venue) and is deep and well marked. As we pass we see the race venue, the AC boats, a couple cruise ships and a couple mega yachts. This should be fun! We arrive in Granaway Deep, a designated anchorage, and start scanning for potential spots to drop the hook. We’d like protection from forecast strong southwesterly winds and a short tender run into Hamilton. We leave Granaway, weaving our way past several islands. We end up in Hamilton Bay proper with a terrific view of the city but the holding is not great. We make several attempts to set the anchor and eventually settle on a spot. I watch a chartplotter zoomed in to maximum and see that Tivoli is holding quite nicely. So, we launch the tender and join our friends on Roam for the short run to the public dock. It seems the size of a postage stamp but it will have to do, there are no other convenient places to dock a dinghy. We stop at the prestigious Royal Bermuda Yacht Club to see if tender tie-ups might be available there for members in clubs with reciprocity. We were kindly asked to submit a letter of introduction to the secretary for a judgement. Their space is very limited in any case. Tender space could prove to be a major problem given all the boats expected for the races.

Today is Bermuda Day and we’ve arrived just in time for the parade! Front Street is lined with people waiting. A cruise ship is in port contributing to the crowd. We stand on the street for an hour, it is hot, eventually some motorcycles drive by, 30 minutes later a car with a dignitary, 30 minutes later a band marches by, then a long gap….we decide snacks and drinks might be better use of our time. When we return to our boats we find them in the same spot, thankfully, but still remain uncomfortable with the holding. So we weigh anchor and move to another spot, anchor won’t grab here either, on to plan C, finally we get a good anchor set in a spot surrounded by islands in all directions but northwest.

We have a great view of the race course and can see three of the teams practicing with their chase boats and helicopters. These boats are wickedly fast! Jim and I take the tender back to town to pick up race and ferry tickets from Hamilton to the venue at Dockyard and learn Friday, opening day, is sold out. So we get tickets for Saturday. Unfortunately a front with predicted gale force winds caused cancelation of all events on Friday leaving us uncertain as to how events will unfold Saturday. Time will tell. Today we will hunker down on Tivoli for the approaching storm (predicted gusts to 35-40 knots). Generator is on, Deanna is washing clothes, we are charging batteries and making water. Another day on the hook in paradise!

Only one other boat here besides Roam and that is a sailboat that came in with a second (spare?) sailboat tied alongside. Naturally he chooses to anchor directly in front of Tivoli and puts out a tiny anchor, doesn’t set it, and lets out enough rode to achieve a scope of 2. Then he leaves! We will have to keep a close eye on this one as the wind builds.