St. George's, Bermuda

 This is the first time we've been docked in St. George's, usually it's in Hamilton, so this was a nice change.  Our tour took us to the Crystal Caves along with a bit of a drive around this side of the island.  We drove by a couple of our guide's "favorite" beaches.  Our vehicle was a taxi van and there were only 6 of us, so it was a very interactive tour to say the least.  Our guide was a bit of a character, but knowledgeable.  The weather was quite warm with the temp in the upper 80s and humidity up there also so it felt more like the mid-90s.  The locals said it felt hot to them too.

This morning was the regular crew drill and they seemed to use our hallway as a main thoroughfare.  Many, many trooped by in their lifejackets for the lifeboat drill.

Such a gorgeous island.

The Crystal Caves were discovered by a couple of boys who lost a ball down a mysterious hole in 1905 (so the story goes) and decided to check out the hole.  The cave was located mostly under one private property, so that family bought out the other properties and turned it into a tourist attraction, and apparently has done quite well with it.  It wasn't quite as cool as we were expecting, probably because it is connected to the ocean and has tides and ocean water coming in all the time.  So, obviously the outside air is also coming in making it still warm and muggy, although certainly less than outside.  We were about 150 feet down.

Jerry, our guide, said that there was a vote some years back to decide whether Bermuda should become independent from the UK and almost 90% of the people voted against it.  He said he voted no because now he is a British citizen which means he can (and did) go to school in England for free, as did his daughters, and he could move to the UK any time if he'd like to.  He sees no advantages to becoming independent.

We had dinner with Pam and Ralph for one last time tonight in Compass Rose and it was fun as always.  The Captain said the seas should be mostly OK until tomorrow afternoon when we should get the effects from a big low pressure and it will be pretty rough all the way into New York.  Hope that changes.