The Wise Old Owls' Adventure: Week Twenty-Two

11.04.17

For the last couple of days we have had the pleasure of a Tall Ship docked at the Pier - SSV Oliver Hazard Perry - obviously stopping in Hamilton for a pit stop. At the beginning of June there is a Tall Ship Regatta where there will be a group of these ships arriving in Bermuda. These ships are stunning and I can't wait to see more of them arrive.

https://www.ohpri.org/ship/

SHIP BY NUMBERS

200 FEET

3 MASTS

13 1/2 STORIES TALL

DRAFT OF 13 FEET

7 MILES OF RIGGING, 160 BELAYING PINS

20 SAILS & 14,000 SQUARE FEET OF SAIL

TWIN 385 HP CAT BIO-DIESEL ENGINES

12.04.17

Kirsty's sister, Anne, has arrived for a week and with her she brought a friend .... a magic unicorn 🦄 especially for Arthur. Trouble was it was a tad big for little Arthur!

14.04.17

It's Good Friday and we have Neil at home for his last long weekend. Four days off and we are going to treasure these days as we don't know when the next day off will be. It's now not long until the America's Cup competition starts and once it does there will be no days off.

We are off to Horseshoe Bay to join in with the fun and festivities of a long standing Bermudian tradition, see the history below:

A Bermuda kite is a kite made using traditional, geometric designs, quite colorful, and is an art form as much as a recreational tool. They are traditionally flown in Bermuda only at Easter. The kites are typically hexagonal, though larger examples, particularly, may be octagonal, or have even more sides. They are constructed from flat sticks arrayed like spokes of a wheel, with a nail at the axis. A string passes around the ends of the sticks, marking out the edges, and concentric strings are arranged inside of this, all contributing to the rigidity of the structure. Colored tissue paper is glued into the spaces created between strings and sticks. Using different colors, patterns are created. The kite has a single stick secured at one end to the axis, and rising at a shallow angle from the plane created by the other sticks. This stick, which forms the head of the kite, extends considerably beyond the perimeter of the hexagon. It passes over the midpoint of one side of the hexagon, and a string creates a triangular shape from the corner at one side of the head stick, to its tip, and back to the opposite corner. Strips of paper are folded and glued along this string. A long, cloth strip tail is fitted to the kite, without which it would be unable to fly.

Every Good Friday, Bermudians of all ages build kites, usually of traditional Bermudian type (though plastic, store-bought kites have made inroads), which are flown to symbolize Christ's resurrection. Bermudian kites are very airworthy, holding world records for altitude and duration of flight.

A morning at Horseshoe Bay

Beautiful kites

Eleanor & Patrick flying their kites

A successful homemade Bermudian Kite flying high in the sky

Once we'd watched the kite flying and attempted flying our homemade kites it was unanimous that we should head to the Beach Club for lunch. Once there it was just nice to chill and not do anything.

Eleanor practising her headstands on a paddle board

..... and up we go

Clear skies & Palm trees

15.04.17

Since being on the island we have met some great people. Just by chance we have hooked up with a wonderful family who have been super kind to us and their hospitality has been above and beyond - Carol & Eric 💕

Today Eric came and collected us and took us up to St David's and Coopers Island to explore the beaches.

Well Bay

Well Bay - very protected from the wind and no waves

Well Bay - Neil and the children swam with turtles

Nonsuch Island

St David's

Long Bay

Turtle Bay

Clearwater Bay

Time for a bit of monkeying around!

Eric lending a hand

Cooper's Island Nature Reserve

Tuckers Town - View from Marc and Katherine's house

16.04.17

Easter Sunday: First on the agenda an Easter Egg hunt for all the children. The organisers hid over a couple of hundred eggs so plenty to go round.

Music and dancing with the big white rabbit

Time for the egg hunt

EGGS!! 🥚

Arthur isn't too sure of the big white rabbit

Now to see what's inside the eggs - lots of toys and sweets

Wise Old Owls with the White Rabbit

Now to make use of the plastic eggs - link them all together and make necklaces .....

...... or just one long line!

The super yachts are starting to arrive .... they look so plush. Wish we were brave enough to ask to go on board for a nose around!

The water was very clear today so we could see loads of fish in the Marina

Decorating the tree with our Easter eggs

Now the Easter egg hunt is over it was time to pop out and walk another section of the Railway Trail. This time we started in Hamilton and walked towards The Swizzle Inn (well we need some incentive - A Rum Swizzle and a bite to eat!)