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Bermuda Besieged
We were supposed to leave on the Carnival Pride for Bermuda on Sunday November 6th. Saturday, I got a robo call from Carnival telling me that the ship had been delayed and not to leave until I heard from them. Eventually we found out that the ship ran into what turned out to be a tropical storm with seas of 20 feet on the way back from the last cruise and the young teen club and the arcade room on deck 4 were damaged. We would embark Monday morning instead of Sunday afternoon. So we drove up to Linthicum to stay in a hotel there. After we got there, Bob had to drive back to Leonardtown to get my passport. Note: The storm the ship ran into on the previous cruise later tracked us into Bermuda.
After the drill, Bob went down to unpack, and I went out to see the sail-away and take pictures. I got pictures of them taking off the lines,
of Fort McHenry with the 1812 flag
the Lazarette lighthouse,
and the red, white and blue buoy that marks where Francis Scott Key was anchored during the battle.
Also the Key Bridge and Fort Carroll. By then I was cold, so I came inside
We were on this cruise with a big group put together by Bob's brother.
Originally we were scheduled to arrive Weds. afternoon and leave Friday afternoon, but now we were not going to get there until Thursday.
It was a little rough getting out to Bermuda, which didn't bother us all that much. Close to 11:00 on Nov. 9th I put on a coat and went out on deck - it was sunny out and warm We could see Bermuda in the distance.
Eventually we saw Fort St. Catherine
and the pilot boat came out and we started around the island to get to the Dockyard. We were very slow getting in We saw sand stirred up in the water and speculated that we had run aground, but we found out from David (Bob's brother who was on the other side of the ship) that it was too windy for the boat to dock so that it was pushed sideways into the pier by the tugs. Since there was a tropical storm approaching, the Bermuda officials did not really want us to dock at all, but we didn't know that.
It was now 1330 when we were supposed to meet our guide Duke, but the ship didn't even have the gangways out yet. We went down to deck 3 and watched. You might have thought they had never done this before.
Finally the ship was cleared and we went down to A deck and walked off the ship. We didn't take the scooter because we thought there wouldn't be that much walking so I just had my cane.
Duke Somers our guide (with me here)-photo taken by Bob
took us to Gibbs Lighthouse (made of cast iron), which was my main goal
He also took us to the Heydon Trust Chapel. Gregorian chants are still held in the chapel on weekdays at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., and on Saturday at 3 p.m. This is the only church in Bermuda where such old traditions of plainchant<wbr>s are still carried out
It was once a cabin and has only been a place of worship since 1943 but the building dates back to 1616. We passed St. Anne's church
and went to where this huge banyan tree has taken over a whole block or more
Then he took us to Waterville which has (among other things) a lily pond with the map of Bermuda in it.
It used to be the home of one of the Bermuda merchants, but it is now headquarters of the Bermuda National Trust. We went by the Spittal Pond Nature Reserve
But there was no one there except some free range chickens. Duke said this was 'embarrassing'
After we drove through Black Watch Pass
and went through Hamilton, Duke let us off to walk into Fort Hamilton
His van was too heavy to go over the bridge. As we drove back to the ship, I got one more shot of Gibbs Lighthouse from the lower road.
Most of these photos (except Gibbs lighthouse and Fort Hamilton) were taken from the van
The next day, we got off and I did a little shopping, with the scooter (Bob's photo of me)
we headed for the Clocktower Mall but were caught in a rainstorm. We didn't have our raincoats, but I put my sweatshirt over the camera and kept going. In the Clocktower Mall we saw that they were selling Cuban cigars and the Cafe Amici was still there. They were selling clothing, perfume, Haagen Dazs, art, and jewelry. Davidson's still had the troll outside the door.
I also did some shopping at the Cooperage but when I went to pay I couldn't find my credit card. So Bob used his and he was annoyed and told me to look for mine.
At the ship I got off the scooter and walked thru the magnet archway and I think my watch beeped but they were too occupied with getting the scooter thru to notice. If we had looked at our phone messages, we would have seen that someone picked it up on the gangway and turned it in - it must have fallen out of my stuff when I got my passport out and my room key to check back onto the ship. But we didn't. So we canceled the card.
We went up on deck 10 to see the sail-away. Line handlers were waiting at various stations, and the line would be slacked and they would remove it from the bollard and it would be reeled in. Since the wind had us pinned up against the dock, the lines weren't really doing anything for us anyway. Finally the engines started churning up the water and we moved very very slowly away from the dock. I went over to the other side and saw the tug POWERFUL pulling as hard as it could on the bow.
That night the ship was doing about max speed - 22 knots - to get ahead of the hurricane.
After the drill, Bob went down to unpack, and I went out to see the sail-away and take pictures. I got pictures of them taking off the lines,
of Fort McHenry with the 1812 flag
the Lazarette lighthouse,
and the red, white and blue buoy that marks where Francis Scott Key was anchored during the battle.
Also the Key Bridge and Fort Carroll. By then I was cold, so I came inside
We were on this cruise with a big group put together by Bob's brother.
Originally we were scheduled to arrive Weds. afternoon and leave Friday afternoon, but now we were not going to get there until Thursday.
It was a little rough getting out to Bermuda, which didn't bother us all that much. Close to 11:00 on Nov. 9th I put on a coat and went out on deck - it was sunny out and warm We could see Bermuda in the distance.
Eventually we saw Fort St. Catherine
and the pilot boat came out and we started around the island to get to the Dockyard. We were very slow getting in We saw sand stirred up in the water and speculated that we had run aground, but we found out from David (Bob's brother who was on the other side of the ship) that it was too windy for the boat to dock so that it was pushed sideways into the pier by the tugs. Since there was a tropical storm approaching, the Bermuda officials did not really want us to dock at all, but we didn't know that.
It was now 1330 when we were supposed to meet our guide Duke, but the ship didn't even have the gangways out yet. We went down to deck 3 and watched. You might have thought they had never done this before.
Finally the ship was cleared and we went down to A deck and walked off the ship. We didn't take the scooter because we thought there wouldn't be that much walking so I just had my cane.
Duke Somers our guide (with me here)-photo taken by Bob
took us to Gibbs Lighthouse (made of cast iron), which was my main goal
He also took us to the Heydon Trust Chapel. Gregorian chants are still held in the chapel on weekdays at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., and on Saturday at 3 p.m. This is the only church in Bermuda where such old traditions of plainchant<wbr>s are still carried out
It was once a cabin and has only been a place of worship since 1943 but the building dates back to 1616. We passed St. Anne's church
and went to where this huge banyan tree has taken over a whole block or more
Then he took us to Waterville which has (among other things) a lily pond with the map of Bermuda in it.
It used to be the home of one of the Bermuda merchants, but it is now headquarters of the Bermuda National Trust. We went by the Spittal Pond Nature Reserve
But there was no one there except some free range chickens. Duke said this was 'embarrassing'
After we drove through Black Watch Pass
and went through Hamilton, Duke let us off to walk into Fort Hamilton
His van was too heavy to go over the bridge. As we drove back to the ship, I got one more shot of Gibbs Lighthouse from the lower road.
Most of these photos (except Gibbs lighthouse and Fort Hamilton) were taken from the van
The next day, we got off and I did a little shopping, with the scooter (Bob's photo of me)
we headed for the Clocktower Mall but were caught in a rainstorm. We didn't have our raincoats, but I put my sweatshirt over the camera and kept going. In the Clocktower Mall we saw that they were selling Cuban cigars and the Cafe Amici was still there. They were selling clothing, perfume, Haagen Dazs, art, and jewelry. Davidson's still had the troll outside the door.
I also did some shopping at the Cooperage but when I went to pay I couldn't find my credit card. So Bob used his and he was annoyed and told me to look for mine.
At the ship I got off the scooter and walked thru the magnet archway and I think my watch beeped but they were too occupied with getting the scooter thru to notice. If we had looked at our phone messages, we would have seen that someone picked it up on the gangway and turned it in - it must have fallen out of my stuff when I got my passport out and my room key to check back onto the ship. But we didn't. So we canceled the card.
We went up on deck 10 to see the sail-away. Line handlers were waiting at various stations, and the line would be slacked and they would remove it from the bollard and it would be reeled in. Since the wind had us pinned up against the dock, the lines weren't really doing anything for us anyway. Finally the engines started churning up the water and we moved very very slowly away from the dock. I went over to the other side and saw the tug POWERFUL pulling as hard as it could on the bow.
That night the ship was doing about max speed - 22 knots - to get ahead of the hurricane.
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