Bermuda

I’m cheating a bit about Bermuda here, since Zanshin hasn’t been there yet.  But I did sail there as a crew member on Challenge Accepted in the 2022 and 2024 Newport-Bermuda Races, so I’ll sneak this country into my list. And perhaps one day I’ll visit the country with Zanshin as a stop between the USA and the Caribbean Island chain.

The links above lead to my pages with all the race photos, both mine and the other crew members’. It was a fun event, and each race was different, but both had a bit of everything. Storms. Calm. Water shortage. Power shortage. Equipment Failures. Good food. Great company.

I’d do that race again if offered the opportunity. I’m not sure that I’d sail my own boat there, though. It isn’t directly on the way, and it isn’t the cheapest of destinations, either.

Atlantic, not Caribbean

The country of Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean because it lies so far north. But because of the Gulf Stream, it has a warm, pleasant climate. It is, in my mind, the Switzerland of the Americas. It is not only clean and well-kept, but outrageously expensive. There is a lot of old money in Bermuda. It was the financial sector, not the agriculture (onions), which made this island affluent.

I haven’t had any chance to explore the island yet. Both trips so far were time-constrained at the end; most of my sightseeing was done while sitting in the back seat of my cab on the way to the airport the first time around. Had we done better during the race things would have been more relaxed, but in the end the timing worked to my advantage.