SUNGRL

On day two in Bermuda we had a round of golf booked at the Port Royal Golf Club which held the PGA Grand Slam in October. We caught a taxi to the golf course and the taxi driver happened to be a member there. He said there are six courses on the island but he considered Port Royal the hardest.

It was another beautiful day and I was excited to be out on the golf course again after about a three week hiatus. The warm up on the driving range went well which doesn’t necessarily mean anything in relation to how I will play but I am always hopeful.

I actually played well shooting 90. Unfortunately all Steve’s table tennis playing had taken a toll on his elbow so he was in a bit of pain hitting the golf ball but still managed a reasonable round. The rough wasn’t long but it managed to hide the balls well that strayed there – we were likening it to the Bermuda Triangle. Steve lost a couple of balls in this rough when we were able to see approximately where they landed – do do do, do do do….

Bermuda was hit by two storms in October and we saw some remnants of the damage – trees uprooted and fencing knocked down. The first storm hit the island on the Friday before the practice round of the PGA Grand Slam on the Sunday. 1,000 people turned up to the golf course on the Saturday to clean the course up so the tournament could go ahead. The players were impressed with how they had managed to get it back in playable condition. The Pro-Am was held on the Monday and the tournament on the Tuesday and Wednesday. The television crews and players left the island on the Thursday and the second storm hit on the Friday.

The PGA Grand Slam tournament is a play off between the four winners of the majors. This year Rory McIlroy won both the British Open and the PGA Championship, Bubba Watson won the Masters and Martin Kaymer won the US Open. Because Rory won two of the majors Jim Furyk made up the numbers as a previous major winner. Martin Kaymer won the PGA Grand Slam at Port Royal in a sudden death playoff with Bubba Watson.

The views of the Atlantic from the 8th and 16th holes were amazing. I couldn’t get over the colour of the water – it was this beautiful turquoise colour. The 16th hole is the signature hole – it is a par 3 that runs along the coast line. The taxi driver told Steve that he should go back and hit from the tips where the pro’s hit from. It is 235 yards or 212 metres with the majority of that over the edge of the cliff which is covered in flora and fauna. His first shot didn’t quite carry the flora and fauna but his second shot ended up at the back of the green. I hit off the black tees which was 135 metres – unfortunately I ended up in the bunker and took two to get out – the Atlantic looming on the other side of the green was a bit intimidating. I ended up with a 5.

History of Port Royal Golf Club, Bermuda
Located in the Southampton Parish, Southampton Golf Club, as the course was originally known, was founded in 1965 under the chairmanship of Mr. Reginald Tucker, with land being purchased in July 1965 after being given the go-ahead on 15 June 1965 from G.H. Taylor Director of Public Works. The plan however was potentially jeopardised because some of the area was originally farmland and one owner refused to sell his property to the course. Undaunted, construction finally got under way in earnest on 1 December 1967, and the project was renamed Port Royal Golf Course.

The course was the creation of golf course architect, Robert Trent Jones. Design had to be changed several times initially due to land agreements, however this rerouting lead to the creation of the world famous, and much photographed, spectacular 16th hole – the tee and green of which perch precariously on cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

The course was finally completed and opened in 1970. More recently, it underwent renovation in preparation for the hosting of the 2009 PGA Grand Slam of Golf. A member of the original design team, Roger Rulewich, has headed up this $14.5 million project and the course was officially reopened on 21 July 2009.

After five days crossing the Atlantic we were looking forward to exploring Bermuda. Our ship was docked at Kings Wharf, Bermuda for two days. Kings Wharf is also known as the Royal Naval Dockyard which was built by the British Navy in 1815. The Georgian style fort served as a North Atlantic base during the World Wars. In 1975 the Bermuda Maritime Museum opened, and restoration of the Dockyard has made it a popular tourist destination.

On the first day we got a day pass for the buses and ferries. First up we took the ferry across to Hamilton which is the capital of Bermuda. We were really impressed with the friendliness of the locals. Everyone said hello and asked how you were and they were all so genuine. We really liked the architecture as well – lots of quaint and colourful buildings all over the island. The building roof’s are also unusual in that they are tiled with a concrete or plaster covering. This finishing adds protection against the storms and high winds that sometimes plague the island.

We were studying the map and bus schedule on the ferry and one of the guys who works on the ferry came over and sat down to chat about the island. We had heard that Bermuda was very expensive and this guy confirmed this by telling us that there was very little property on the island that cost under USD1.2 million. He also said to be above the poverty line you had to be earning at least USD70,000. Almost everything is imported which adds to the expensive nature of everything. The local currency is the Bermudian Dollar which is valued at approximately 1:1 with the US Dollar.

Bermuda’s economy is based on offshore insurance and reinsurance, and tourism, the two largest economic sectors. Bermuda had one of the world’s highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century and several years beyond. Recently, its economic status has been affected by the global recession, however, the people of Bermuda enjoy a high standard of living.

We had a wander along the waterfront in Hamilton which is called Front St where the Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich has one of his super yachts, Eclipse moored – it was huge. They have some lovely shops and they wouldn’t be a British Overseas Territory without Marks & Spencer. Apart from Marks & Spencer I found it hard to comprehend that the country was British as the people were all dark skinned and spoke with American like accents. The island actually reminded me of an upscale Fiji or Rarotonga.

We walked up to the bus station which was next to the City Hall. We were heading to St George. The island has these pink buses which go all over the island – we learnt quickly that the bus drivers think they are driving in the Formula One. The taxi driver we spoke to on our second day on the island said didn’t you see the t-shirts that said “I survived the Bermuda Buses” – definitely summed it up.

St George used to be the capital of Bermuda. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and there are many remnants of the island’s involvement in the American Civil War. We went to King’s Square which is the social centre of St George and saw the Town Hall which was built in 1782.

After St George we caught the bus back to Hamilton where we had lunch at the Pickled Onion. The menu was extensive and we enjoyed a nice lunch overlooking the water. Back on the bus after lunch to check out one of the south shore beaches – Horseshoe Bay. The colour of the water is amazing and we enjoyed our walk along the beach. Apparently the sea temperature is about 25 degrees and there were a few people out swimming. Back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the ship.

Bermuda lies about 600 nautical miles off the east coast of the US. “The Bermudas” are actually a group of approximately 180 islands, with the seven largest islands connected by causeways and bridges. At the core the islands are volcanic. The land above sea level is limestone formed over long centuries by coral and crushed sea shells. The ruggedly elegant limestone adds a wonderful (and practical) character to the style of the island’s architecture.

Bermuda has been on navigational maps of the new world since the 1500’s but none of the European powers exploring the Americas thought of settlement until the English in the early 1600’s. Well marked charts were obviously of little help over the centuries to the hundreds of ships which met their doom upon the treacherous reefs that surround Bermuda. Today the misfortune of the early sailors works to the islands advantage. The multitude of shipwrecks, together with having the northernmost coral reefs in the Atlantic, gives Bermuda some fantastic sites for snorkelling and SCUBA diving.

Following the US Civil War, Bermuda was growing and exporting a lot of vegetables to US markets in New York; among the best and most popular exports were onions. All was going smoothly and profitably until 1898 when some Texans got hold of a packet of onion seed from Bermuda. The entrepreneurial Texans registered the name Bermuda Onions and started growing and exporting them all over the US.

In the best English tradition, if it is 4pm in Bermuda it is time for Tea. Nearly 5,000 years after the Chinese first boiled the little green leaves, tea finally reached England in the mid 1600’s (well after coffee). It quickly became one of the favourite drinks of the working class. The tradition of Afternoon Tea as it is known today is said to have started in the mid 1800’s with the Duchess of Bedford, one of the Ladies-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria. On a stronger note, locally produced Black Seal Rum is an island favourite. When the rum is mixed with ginger beer soda you have the popular “Dark & Stormy.” Another popular mixed drink is the Bermuda Rum Swizzle. This cocktail combines rum, fresh fruit juice, bitters for the snap and grenadine syrup for sweetness. The Bermuda Brewery Company brews some very good, dark, German-Pilsner style stout beers.

Bermuda is the northernmost point of the so-called Bermuda Triangle, a region of sea in which, according to legend, a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared under supposedly unexplained or mysterious circumstances. The island is in the hurricane belt and prone to severe weather.

The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the Western Atlantic Ocean that has become associated with mysterious disasters. Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, the triangle shaped area covers about 440,000 square miles between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida, and Puerto Rico.

The sinister reputation of the Bermuda Triangle may be traceable to reports made in the late 15th century by navigator Christopher Columbus concerning the Sargasso Sea, in which floating masses of gulfweed were regarded as uncanny and perilous by early sailors; others date the notoriety of the area to the mid 19th century, when a number of reports were made of unexplained disappearances and mysteriously abandoned ships. The earliest recorded disappearance of a United States vessel in the area occurred in 1918, when the USS Cyclops vanished.

The incident that consolidated the reputation of the Bermuda Triangle was the disappearance in December 1945 of Flight 19, a training squadron of five US Navy torpedo bombers. The squadron left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 14 crewmen and disappeared after radioing a series of distress messages; a seaplane sent in search of the squadron also disappeared. Aircraft that have disappeared in the area since this incident include a DC-3 carrying 27 passengers in 1948 and a C-124 Globemaster with 53 passengers in 1951. Among the ships that have disappeared was the tanker ship Maine Sulphur Queen, which vanished with 39 men on board in 1963.

Books, articles, and television broadcasts investigating the Bermuda Triangle emphasise that, in the case of most of the disappearances, the weather was favourable, the disappearances occurred in daylight after a sudden break in radio contact, and the vessels vanished without a trace. However, sceptics point out that many supposed mysteries result from careless or biased consideration of data. For example, some losses attributed to the Bermuda Triangle actually occurred outside the area of the triangle in inclement weather conditions or in darkness, and some can be traced to known mechanical problems or inadequate equipment.

In the case of Flight 19, for example, the squadron commander was relatively inexperienced, a compass was faulty, the squadron failed to follow instructions, and the aircraft was operating under conditions of deteriorating weather and visibility and with a low fuel supply. Other proposed explanations for disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle include the action of physical forces known to science, a “hole in the sky”, an unusual chemical component in the region’s seawater, and abduction by extraterrestrial beings. Scientific evaluations of the Bermuda Triangle have concluded that the number of disappearances in the region is not abnormal and most of the disappearances have logical explanations. Paranormal associations with the Bermuda Triangle continue to persist in the public mind.

After a day at sea crossing the Straight of Gibraltar we were looking forward to exploring Tenerife. We had booked a tour to La Laguna a little town inland from the Port of Santa Cruz. We were also going to do a wine tasting and visit the wine museum. It wasn’t the best looking day weather wise but with my eternal optimism I thought it would clear up. As I came down the stairs from the gym I heard one of the ship’s officers on the phone and he was saying something about all tours being cancelled. I mentioned it to Steve but thought I may have misheard so we continued to get ready as if everything was on track.

As we were going to breakfast they announced over the loud speaker that the Government had in fact cancelled all tours on the island that day. They didn’t give any explanation so we were a bit disappointed and cursed the Spanish Government. The weather at this stage was still a bit bleak but looked to be clearing. We decided to go ashore anyway and explore the town – although overcast it never rained again all day. Steve had overheard some people saying that apparently the roads on the island were not that good and with all the rain they were too dangerous for the tours to proceed. I had a look on the internet and there was an article about the deluge of rain the island was expecting overnight which didn’t quite materialise. The Government obviously cancelled the tours based on the original forecast which did sound quite dire.

Update on the cancelled tour scenario – we watched the Q & A session with the ship’s Captain yesterday and he said about a month ago two cruise ship passengers died on the island as a result of bad weather so perhaps we can understand their conservatism : )

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital (jointly with Las Palmas) of the Canary Islands, the capital of Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the island of Tenerife. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 within its administrative limits. The urban zone of Santa Cruz extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 507,306. This is the main city on the island of Tenerife with a population of nearly 1 million.

Located in northeast quadrant of Tenerife, about 210 kilometres (130 mi) off the northwestern coast of Africa within the Atlantic Ocean. Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands, when a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, as it remains at present. The port is of great importance and is the communications hub between Europe, Africa and Americas, with cruise ships arriving from many nations. The city is the focus for domestic and inter-island communications in the Canary Islands.

The city is home to the Parliament of the Canary Islands, the Canarian Ministry of the Presidency (shared on a four-year cycle with Las Palmas), one half of the Ministries and Boards of the Canarian Government, (the other half being located in Gran Canaria), the Tenerife Provincial Courts and two courts of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. There are several faculties of the La Laguna University in Santa Cruz, including the Fine Arts School and the Naval Sciences Faculty. Its harbour is one of Spain’s busiest; it comprises three sectors. It is important for commercial and passenger traffic, as well as for being a major stopover for cruisers en route from Europe to the Caribbean.

In 2012, the British newspaper “The Guardian” included Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the list of the five best places in the world to live along with the north coast of Maui, Hawaii; Sankt Paulidistrict in Hamburg; Cihangir district in Istanbul, and Portland, Oregon (United States).

The Canary Islands, are a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the southern border of Morocco. The Canaries are one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities and are among the outermost region of the European Union proper. The islands include (from largest to smallest): Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara and Roque del Oeste.

The archipelago’s beaches, climate and important natural attractions, especially Maspalomas in Gran Canaria and Teide National Park and Mount Teide (a World Heritage Site) in Tenerife (the third tallest volcano in the world measured from its base on the ocean floor), make it a major tourist destination with over 12 million visitors per year, especially Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.

During the times of the Spanish Empire the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas because of the prevailing winds from the northeast.

After we left Santa Cruz de Tenerife we had five days ahead of us crossing the Atlantic Ocean. This was our second Atlantic crossing this year – the first one only took 8 hours though! We were quite looking forward to these five days at sea – we had stocked our kindles with books and downloaded some programs to watch on the laptop. I had visions of it being quite cold outside but that didn’t worry me given we were heading for the Caribbean – plenty of time for warm weather there.

That first night on the boat after leaving Tenerife was pretty rough and we were rocked and rolled around in our bed for most of the night. We both woke up and I must admit it was a bit disconcerting – there were some quite loud noises as a result of the boat hitting the waves. It wasn’t much better by the morning and there was no way I was in any state to go to the gym. I ended up ordering some yoghurt and fruit for breakfast which I ate at lunchtime and we stayed in bed all day. I felt rather ill and bought that breakfast up late afternoon! Steve hadn’t eaten all day so we went down to get some dinner and spoke to some of the crew and other passengers – apparently it had been a very quiet day on the ship. We got some sea sickness tablets from reception and they worked instantaneously.

Day two wasn’t quite as bad and we managed to get out and about. Day three was a beautiful day with the temperature reaching 27 degrees so we spent the day on the deck. Steve played a few games of table tennis with his new found friends. I enjoyed the sunshine and topped up my tan. I even hopped in the pool which was mirroring the ocean – the water was whooshing in and out of the pool and causing mini waves – good fun. Day four had gone downhill again but wasn’t as bad as day one thank goodness.

We have only seen one other boat over the past five days and it was a freighter. The Captain of the ship did a Q & A session and one of the questions he was asked was about other ships on this route. Although this is the most travelled ocean (see below) he said on their radar they only picked up four other ships during this five days – this particular passage is mainly used by passenger ships and is not particularly busy.

Today is the end of day five and I am pleased to say it was sunny and calm again. The tan got another boost and Steve has spent most of the day playing table tennis with the old fullas. One more night and we can say we survived – not sure if I would rush to cross the Atlantic by boat again but all’s well that ends well.

To celebrate our impending survival Steve decided we should have a bottle of the champagne we bought on board. He called room service and asked for some champagne glasses and ice. They turned up with the glasses and asked for our ice bucket so they could fill it up. Steve goes into the bathroom and gets what he is convinced is the ice bucket – I’m telling him the ice bucket is out in the main cabin by the fridge and he is saying no, no it is in here. He comes out of the bathroom with the stainless steel rubbish bin. What a donut! He thought it was quite a clever design feature – building the ice bucket into the bathroom. He really does think outside the square doesn’t he?

Update as of 9am on Tuesday the 25th November – we are back on terra firma : )

The Atlantic Ocean, the second largest of the earth’s four oceans is the most heavily travelled. Only the Pacific Ocean is larger covering about twice the area of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic is divided into two nominal sections – the North Atlantic which is north of the equator and the South Atlantic which is south of the equator. The ocean’s name is derived from Atlas, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.

The Atlantic Ocean is essentially an S shaped north-south channel, extending from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Antarctic continent in the south and situated between the eastern coast of the American continents and the western coasts of Europe and Africa. The Atlantic Ocean proper has a surface area of about 82 million square kilometres. Including it’s marginal seas – the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the North, Baltic, Mediterranean and Black seas the total area is about 106 million square kilometres.

The Atlantic Ocean contains some of the world’s most productive fisheries, located on the continental shelves and marine ridges of the British Isles, Iceland, Canada (especially the Grand Banks off Newfoundland), and the northeastern United States. Herring, anchovy, sardines, cod, flounder and perch are the most commercial species. Tuna is taken off northwestern Africa and northeastern South America in increasing numbers. The unit catch per unit area is much higher in the Atlantic than in other oceans.

Actively mined mineral resources in the Atlantic include titanium, zircon, and monazite (phosphates of the cerium metals), off the eastern coast of Florida, and tin and iron ore, off the equatorial coast of Africa. The continental shelves and slopes of the Atlantic are potentially very rich in fossil fuels. Large amounts of petroleum are already being extracted in the North Sea and in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico region; lesser amounts are extracted off the coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea.

We left London early Saturday morning on a British Airways fight to Barcelona in Spain. We flew over the French Alps where we saw lots of snow but as we neared Spain the landscape changed quite dramatically.

We boarded the Rivera, an Oceania Cruise Lines ship at the Port of Barcelona. This is the smallest of the cruise ships we have been on this year – they cater for 1,250 guests and about 800 staff. The cruise is going down the coast of Spain before cruising into the Atlantic to Santa Cruz in Tenerife and then making the five day Atlantic crossing. This will be our second Atlantic crossing this year – the first one only took 8 hours though – it was on a plane : )

First port of call was Cartagena, pronounced Cartahenya. We didn’t go ashore as it was a Sunday and everything was closed. We instead enjoyed a lovely day exploring the boat. Steve went along to the Table Tennis competition and befriended Bruce a 67 year old table tennis playing lover. Fortunately for Steve he had bought two good table tennis bats on board with him so lent Steve one. Apparently Steve is no good without the right equipment as the boys back home know : )

It was a lovey day so I could break the bikini’s out again.

Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital city. The metropolitan area of Cartagena, known as Campo de Cartagena, has a population of 409,586 inhabitants.

Cartagena has been inhabited for over two millennia, being founded around 227 BC by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair as Qart Hadasht. The city lived its heyday during the Roman Empire, when it was known as Carthago Nova (the New Carthage) and Carthago Spartaria, capital of the province of Carthaginensis. It was one of the important cities during the Umayyad invasion of Hispania, under its Arabic name of Qartayannat al-Halfa.

Much of the historical weight of Cartagena in the past goes to its coveted defensive port, one of the most important in the western Mediterranean. Cartagena has been the capital of the Spanish Navy’s Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. As far back as the 16th century it was one of the most important naval ports in Spain, together with Ferrol in the North. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, and is home to a large naval shipyard.

The confluence of civilizations as well as its strategic harbour, together the rise of the local mining industry is manifested by a unique artistic heritage, with a number of landmarks such as the Roman Theatre, the second largest of the Iberian Peninsula after the one in Mérida, an abundance of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantineand Moorish remains, and a plethora of Art Nouveau buildings, a result of the bourgeoisie from the early 20th century. Cartagena is now established as a major cruiser destination in the Mediterranean and an emerging cultural focus.

Today we are in Málaga which is only an hour north of where we were staying in Sotogrande about a week ago. Another nice day although the wind has got up making it feel a bit chilly.

This morning in the gym I befriended Ken who is about 80 – he told me that he has never seen a woman doing full press ups before. Ken was also doing press ups although any good gym trainer would have been cringing at his form. He told me he had been to NZ a couple of times, the first time being when we held the America’s Cup – he was down there helping out with something.

At breakfast we then met a Canadian couple who had spent 15 summers in a row in NZ, mainly at Ohope Beach. They loved it and would join the local golf club every year. They said they are too old to travel that far now though. Are you seeing the trend re the ages of our fellow passengers? They are a bit younger than the ones on the Cunard Line and we’ve only seen one zimmer frame so far!

Málaga is a state and a municipality, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. The southernmost large city in Europe, it lies on the Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) of the Mediterranean, about 100 km (62.14 mi) east of the Strait of Gibraltar and about 130 km (80.78 mi) north of Africa.

Málaga enjoys a subtropical–mediterranean climate. It has one of the warmest winters in Europe, with average temperatures of 17 °C (62.6 °F) during the day and 7–8 °C (45–46 °F) at night in the period from December through February. The summer season lasts about eight months, from April to November, although in the remaining four months temperatures sometimes reach around 20 °C (68.0 °F).

Málaga’s history spans about 2,800 years, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. It was founded by the Phoenicians as Malaka about 770 BC, and from the 6th century BC was under the hegemony of Ancient Carthage. Then from 218 BC it was ruled by the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire as Malaca(Latin). After the fall of the empire it was under Islamic domination as Mālaqah (مالقة) for 800 years, but in 1487 it again came under Christian rule in the Reconquista. The archaeological remains and monuments from the Phoenician, Roman, Arabic and Christian eras make the historic center of the city an “open museum”, displaying its rich history of more than 3,000 years.

The internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso, Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol and actor Antonio Banderas were born in Málaga. The magnum opus of Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, “Malagueña”, is named for the music of this region of Spain.

The most important business sectors in Málaga are tourism, construction and technology services, but other sectors such as transportation and logistics are beginning to expand. The Andalusia Technology Park (PTA), located in Málaga, has enjoyed significant growth since its inauguration in 1992. Málaga is the main economic and financial centre of southern Spain, home of the region’s largest bank, Unicaja, and the fourth-ranking city in economic activity in Spain behind Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.