BOAT RENTAL WITH H20 WATERSPORTS
After our fun jet ski tour with H20, we had reserved a whaler boat to rent for 3 hours.
Boat= $80 first hour $30 every hour after and renting for 3 hours total (charged for 2 hours) =$140 for 3 hours.
(plus gas at $11/gallon up to 5 gallons?) (take $40 for gas)
They gave us a map...which is the same map that you will receive when you get off the ship or the map they will send you on the Bermuda site if you request a packet. They will circle where they are located at and the area that you are allowed to take the boats. It does not go all the way toward the Southshore beaches. It's mainly around the Somerset area, circling into the bay and down around the ship and back around the other side going past the snorkel park area.
I knew I wanted to hit up sea glass beach as a stop and circle all the way around and head toward the ships for some pictures. Then continue into the bay until we got to the bridge by Somerset, passing H20, head back to the Vixen and then finish it off with a trip to a private island I had found on google earth.
Those were my plans...would it happen? Would ANYTHING go right for me as planned on this trip?
This is the map they gave us with the markings as to where we could go.
They started at the H2O location, under the Watford Bridge in the bay under the Somerset Bridge circle around toward the Vixen and back. Well, this is what we just did on the jet skis so we really didn't want to do that again.
I told them I wanted to head toward sea glass beach and circle around the ships and then back so he gave me that drawing...which of course is obvious what to do without a drawing or a map. Just saying...
From the markings he made on the map it looks like you can go all the way over to Pembroke Parish in the City of Hamilton if you'd like, but I'm not sure what is there and since I didn't research it, it wasn't something I was interested in doing. I see several little parks and islands listed on the map.
In the opposite direction you could go just past Sandy's Parish area all the way to the start of Southampton Parish. I remember reading about a pretty beach there, but I don't recall the actual name. Oh well, next time around we'll adventure out a little more now knowing where all you can actually go and having a map, I can plan a little better.
So like I said, my goal was to hit up sea glass beach. I did print off walking instructions just in case this was something we decided to do on one of the evenings...but I was talked out of that by our wonderful people here on cc saying it was too dangerous to do along the roads. So, plan 2 was to take the bus to the military cematary and be dropped off to walk down to the beach. Plan 3 I thought sounded so much funner...take our own private boat there instead!!! woo hoo
Here are my directions I printed prior to going:
The above was done by another cc member, I just copied it onto a word page and added things. So credit does NOT go to me.
We headed out and since I do such heavy planning and research, I knew what to look for when it came to Black Bay Beach. I immediately spotted it and knew that Sea Glass Beach had to be next to it...and it was very easy to spot.
We pulled up, but this area is VERY rocky. Not really a beach you would swim at and definitely not a beach/water area I would recommend just jumping in the water without water shoes on.
We pulled up and anchored, jumped out and headed for the beach.
The will be the very first time that I have ever seen what this "sea glass" stuff is. I hear (read) people talking about collecting this stuff for years now and never knew what it was. So here I am.
And here it is...
Tons of sea glass everywhere.
So what is sea glass? It's basically "trash" that people have thrown into the ocean such as glass bottles, pottery, jars and so on. With the waves of the ocean and churning over and over, for many years, the glass becomes rounded and the entire piece feels smooth. Then the waves takes it to shore. I'm really not sure what determines how all this glass ends up particularly on THIS beach (and down on Alexandra's Battery Park) and I guess that would be something neat to look up. Maybe just the way the tide and waves come in. I don't know. I'm not an ocean expert, but I find it kinda neat.
This beach mostly had browns, greens, tans, white, off white and a few milky frosted looking light blue. I remember reading that red and blues are highly sought after and are very rare. I mean when I think about it, how often do you ever see any bottles that are red or blue these days? I remember some of my moms and grandma's knick knacks, but that's it.
The only other people that we seen there that day were 2 ladies. I will say that they had BAGS FULL of sea glass. At least 2 bags per lady and they weren't little bags either. I don't know if they were locals or from the ships.
Now I know I had read in the past that they have started posting signs that say that you are NOT allowed to remove any of the sea glass from THIS beach. However, you are allowed to take a few pieces from the sea glass beach over in St George. My question is How the heck would anyone know WHICH beach you took it from? Seriously? It's all the same. So, it seems like there have been reports of some of the sea glass being confiscated upon entry to the ship at times with no questions asked as to where you obtained them.
Oh well, I guess it's worth a shot and I will not admit nor deny anything that we did. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I also did not see any such sign saying you are not allowed to remove it...I came from the ocean, not the road. I plead the 5th, just saying. I did read someone say they had some in their hubbys shorts because it's not like it's detected in an xray machine, however I would think if you are thinking about taking more than a few pieces, then jingling will give you away...just saying.
Ladies in the background taking their MORE than fair share of goodies.
Some of the areas had it stacked pretty deep, others are just spread out on top of each other in places. I guess it would all depend on the tide that day.
We spent a good 1/2 hour there and then noticed this....our boat had floated up toward the shore. Oh just great! We knew this was going to be an adventure trying to get it back out because we were now going to have to hand push it out because we couldn't start the engine in the water there with all the rocks.
I adventured over to where they have these cheesy looking concrete walls that people have made and put designs in them with the sea glass.
On the other side of this was even more of the sea glass along that beach as well.
There was plenty of it under the water not washed up on shore as well...(my attempt of an underwater shot)
Kendra was busy making her own little creation:
Then it was time for us to head out. We all started pushing the boat out and "trying" to get in the boat. I have to say this...it's NOT easy at all. They do provide you with a ladder that you hook to the side of the boat. It can only be hooked in 1 particular place and it attached there. Whenever I would try to get in, the entire boat ladder would kind of go under the boat (if that's not a sign to lose weight, I don't know what it is) and it would kind of throw me back. The other problem was that there's nothing to grab on to on the boat itself. The only thing around there are the strings/ropes/whatever you call it that holds up the little "sunroof awning" which isn't going to hold you. So, you are forced to have all the guys "trying" to hold your hand and pull you up. It took us all forever to get in the boat.
By the time we made it up there, we had drifted too far over toward the big rocks in the area. That was not a good sign. Kendra and I quickly jumped on the front of the boat and put our legs out to keep the boat from hitting it...the last thing we needed was any damage to occur to a boat that's not ours, and the guys once again had to jump off the boat and pull us back out then attempt to get back on in deeper water. Ugh.
WE MADE IT FINALLY>>>>WOO HOO
We were finally out deep enough that we could safely start our engines and get out of there.
We were off and headed on down toward the ships. The water was just so beautiful and it seemed to be a much nicer ride in the boat than what the jet skis were earlier. Not as bumpy. However, you could tell that Billy was trying to get us wet on purpose and I caught one of his "splashes" in the following shot.
The kids were absolutely enjoying it. It was even neater when Sakari yells...there's our ship!!!
I'm really glad we decided to go down to Snorkel Park that first night and look around. Otherwise, I would have never really had a feeling for where we were at. In this following picture, I knew from the looks of it that this was the putt putt place within snorkel park.
And of course snorkel park...from a different perspective than what we had the other night. If you haven't noticed...we didn't have Billys sister or her daughter with us today for the simple fact that 1) she couldn't afford to rent the jet skis with us (and thank goodness because there wouldn't have been one to rent since most were broken down) and 2) the 17' motor boat is only allowed to have up to 6 people on it and we were already 6 people. So, her plans for the day was to go to Snorkel Park with her daughter and hang out. However, we would later find out that the daughter didn't want to go and had a bit of a sunburn, so they just hung out on the ship that day in the shade.
We came around the corner and we could see the ships. The kids got excited and to tell you the truth, I did too.
Everyone knows that I was on turtle hunt the entire time I was in Bermuda. I was determined to get a shot of one. I would yell STOP!!!! several times and it almost became like a game with Billy to see just how fast he could stop the boat when I yelled. Although it was always too late for me to get a picture, but they would at least see the turtle before it dove under again and they knew I wasn't lying.
We are headed toward the ships and I yell again
STOP!!!!! OMG STOP!!!!!
Now I have to tell you a little story first. Before we left on our boat trip I was talking to Stephan about getting out and snorkeling and fish and barracuda and everything else. He assured me that "You will not find anything in these waters that will hurt you" I had to laugh at the statement and he said to prove to him someone that had been attacked by a barracuda or any fish or anything in the waters like that. They are just curious and intimidating because they don't run from you like most other fish. He also said that you usually don't see sharks. I know I have read about barracudas attacking, maybe not in Bermuda, but I have read it before. I know that shiny jewelry and stuff will peak their curiosity and I usually don't stay around long enough to find out how curious they'll get.
With that being said....here we go.....again STOP THE BOAT RIGHT NOW!!!
Here's my find for the day:
Yep, a Portuguese Man-of-War. Tell me there's nothing in these waters again. Yep, you bet I told him when I returned about my find. He said "no way!" I said "Way and I have the pictures to prove it". I just wish I could get the pictures to him. LOL Maybe I'll email H2O and tell them to show him. LOL
It was weird to watch this thing. It would kinda curl up weird and then inflate. I'm not sure if that's the way they swim or that meant they just caught their pray in their tentacles. I do know that I had read that these are sometimes found around the Horseshoe Bay and Elbow Beach areas and I do recall seeing a sign over by Horseshoe. But this was no where near there. This was right over by the ship area.
Sorry this picture is a little blurred
Ok, that was no turtle, but I guess it will have to do.
We headed on around to the ships. Does anyone know if there's a certain "stay away from the ships" rule? Like how far away you have to be? H2O did not mention it to us and I know they said you could go over by the ships, but it just seemed weird that they would let you close to them. We didn't have any police chasing us or anyone telling us to leave the area, but I kept telling Billy not to go too close for fear that we might be breaking a rule or something. Just wondering if anyone knows the laws about this.
After a few pics, we let a ferry go by and somehow ended up behind a wall that you can't get out of. LOL So we had to turn around to head back out and around the wall.
Down the bay we went checking out all the homes in the areas.
I just love all the bright colored homes in Bermuda. I hated that this particular picture came out so blurry because it was just loaded with the colors. You win some you lose some I guess.
We were coming to the bridge that I had calculated to be the Watford Bridge that we would need to go under and head to the other side.
As we approached we could see a guy standing up on the bridge right in the middle of the bridge in the highest section. We didn't notice until it was too late that the guy was fishing and his lines had moved toward the entrance of us going under the bridge and it caught our boat. Yes, he acted a little perturbed with us but my question is "why are you fishing right in the middle where it's the tallest place for boats to go under and we are not the only one passing under this area?"
Billy cut the engine on the boat and we tried to figure out where it was tangled at. The guy ended up just taking a knife out and cutting his line. Meanwhile...our boat didn't want to start up. Oh great did this line just mess our engine up? When it would start and you would give it gas, it would stall. We tried it over and over.
We seen another boat coming toward us. It was definitely bigger than us and one we would not want to play chicken with. I believe it was either a glass bottom boat or just a sight seeing tour. We could get our boat to start and go in reverse, but forward would just kill it. Finally Billy decided to rev the engine up and just go and it worked. I did mention this to Stephan when we returned and he said "Oh yea, I forgot to tell you that you can't ease into it in forward, you kinda have to gun it" LOL Well, that's what we did and he was right it worked. It just would have been nice to know prior to this happening.
We made it under the bridge with the other boat right beside us. I guess there's no courtesy rules in Bermuda and anything goes?
STOP!!!! STOP THE BOAT NOW!!!
Ok, I'm getting my picture of a turtle dammit! We are going to practice this stopping on a dime technique until you get it right Billy.
He stopped, I got my picture...although not a very clear picture, I still got one.
Hey Dude...you are gnarly.
We headed back past H2O and toward the small islands that I had researched on google earth that looked interesting. I also noticed that the big boat with tourist that almost plowed us over was heading that way too. I had REALLY hoped that they weren't heading to MY island I had planned. Please o please o please don't let it go there.
The other boat kept going and we immediately claimed our private oasis. It was beautiful and secluded.
We docked our boat a little ways out and Kendra and I didn't waste any time jumping in the water and snorkeling. We left the kids and the boys to fend for themselves. Us water girls don't waste any time I tell ya. I really didn't think there would be much to see around here since it looked like it was mostly a sandy bottom beach area, but I was wrong. There was lots of coral to see and really pretty.
The fish immediately came running to the boat as soon as we pulled up.
The color of the coral in this area was just gorgeous!
The kids got out and swam to shore to check it out
Then I spotted a sea cucumber. I love these little no brain animals. Yes, they have no true brain and instead have a nerve "ring". They don't have eyes but have a mouth. One fact I bet you all always wanted to know is that it breathes by drawing water into their anus and expelling it. That's all I really remember knowing about them when I looked it up once I found my very first sea cucumber at Little French Key in Roatan a few years ago. LOL But I guess those are the only facts one really needs to know about these things right?
I took it over for the kids to see because Sakari is just like me and has great interest in everything salt water. She has held them before, she knows not to keep it up out of the water and to gently release it back to the ocean floor. She knows that if it gets flipped over by mistake that it can and will flip itself back over on it's own.
I still can't believe this child trust me to continue to put things from the ocean in her hands after our last adventure of me putting a bearded fire worm in her hand that gave her multiple stings that would last for a good hour of solid crying. Yep, this girl still trust me after that with no hesitation. Just saying...
More snorkeling time.
There were sea cucumbers everywhere. I think I must have seen at least 8-10 of them all in one section there.
More sea fans, soft and hard coral. Not as big as what we had seen the day before over at St George, but not small like we have seen in the Caribbean either. I just wish the pictures could show the true sizes of these things. They are just gorgeous!
I managed to find some fire coral (or at least it looked like it). I believe it's the only fire coral that I came across while here this trip...and Stephan said nothing will hurt you in the waters. Just saying...
I found this shell for Sakari. The sides were still attached to each other. All the others we have found were always apart. She brought this home with her. Kendra found some too, but still had creatures in them so I made her put them back and not open them.
Now I become very disgusted with my pictures after this. I decided to get out and explore the little area of the island. AND I HAD MAD WATER SPOTS. GRRRRR!!!! Man way to ruin a picture. I have been getting so good lately of checking for the water spots on the camera before taking a picture and I guess I just didn't do it this time and they all ended up with spots. I'm sorry. Sigh
As you could see, here comes that boat that almost ran us over and I took that as a "we're about to get crowded on this small island oasis and it's time to move on" hint. The fam was already either in our boat or getting in at that time and I headed back down the steps and back into the water.
Of course I didn't want to leave this island oasis until I at least got a good selfie before heading back to the boat. I believe we were probably here about 45 minutes to an hour. I know it was so beautiful and we were having such a good time that I didn't even bother to look at my watch because I could have cared less at that point. hee hee
Oh I did want to mention that I also came face to face with a barracuda while there snorkeling and I didn't stick around to see how nosy he wanted to be with me.
I will say that I discovered this time getting in the boat was a little easier and now I know why...so take note people. Everyone was over trying to help pull me up since there's nothing to grab onto, such as a handrail, on the boat. Once again, the ladder would kinda tip and instead of being verticle it would start to go horizontal and kinda under the boat. Finally I was like "everyone is on this side of the boat and weighing it down...go to the opposite side of the boat!" Once they did that, the ladder no longer went under the boat and up I climbed. Easy peasy. I'll know better next time. LOL
We headed out and around the 3 little islands there and I said I wanted to head back over to the vixen.
There were some cute little cottages on the water. I bet those would be fun to stay at for a week. "Hey honey, I'm going to play in the front yard for a bit"...drop, kerplunk, and snorkel.
We made it to the Vixen and the fish come swimming like they were under attack mode. I had originally wanted to go back to kinda stick my camera under water and see if I could get any pictures of the ship itself, but there were people snorkeling in the area (a couple) and we kinda stayed back some.
Wow, I just noticed that it really doesn't look very deep right here??? I see some soft coral. Hmmm That's weird.
I really didn't realize it was this shallow. Is this ship sunk in a very shallow area? Is the ship not that big? I know that Stephan said that it was "blown up" unexpectedly and didn't remain whole, but I guess I thought there was almost a whole ship in the area and the water was deep. Am I wrong? I'll have to read up more on this.
I really can not believe the amount of fish at this location. It just amazes me. I know I have read many reviews talking about coming here to feed the fish alone and I just never imagined the AMOUNT of fish there are. More than I have ever seen any other place.
We cut the engine and kinda floated there admiring the fish and me taking pictures. We were all caught up in the moment that we hadn't realized that we had floated toward the ships bow and the snorkelers were trying to get out of our path. Oh my! I'm so embarrassed and now we are risking running into the Vixen! Just our luck. Kendra assumed the position of putting her legs out again. I couldn't help since I was all the way in the back at the moment. I guess it's a good thing that Kendra is used to this and they have owned several boats and go boating every weekend. This must happen a lot with them. LOL It's like natural instinct to stick your legs out to her.
A small little video of the fish coming to us...from far away:
Once again, Billy had problems starting the engine and getting it to go forward. He's like "hold on" and gunned the motor and away it went, right before we ever made contact with the Vixen...or should I say before Kendra had to make contact with it. Whew!
We apologized over and over to the snorkelers who had decided to swim back to their boat. I guess they had had enough of us at that point. I really did feel so bad. Geesh. I hope they're not reading this and learn my true identity.
We decided to head out after our little scare of getting too close to the Vixen and the hubby decided he wanted to drive the boat. I seen this as a good thing since I knew he would go a little slower for me to take pictures.
I know it's a little too dark and maybe hard to see, but would you look at that face. LOL
Along the way back toward H2O, I know there was a time I got to yell STOP!!! with the hubs driving the boat. I did spot another turtle but can not find the picture that I tried to get of the turtle. I'm really not sure what happened to it because the rest of the pictures all looked as if I was just taking pictures of the land around us. Hmmm But, he did stop quicker than Billy does...but then again, he was driving a lot slower too.
We passed the glass bottom boat and I'm pretty sure that's what this boat was. I remember seeing it docked somewhere (maybe at the dockyard on the day we took the ferry to St George) and it said glassbottom boat on is somewhere. I honestly took the picture because I really liked the pretty mural that was painted along the side of it, but with it being such a bright day and the blue water reflecting onto it and it being blue to begin with, it turned out a little darker than what I had hoped. Oh well.
We pulled back into H2O I think around 3:30pm-ish.
It was agreed by all that we had the most awesome day ever and this would definitely be something we will do again. I think we were out in the boat for about 3 hours and 30 minutes. The guys at H2O were awesome and treated us so well with the situation of having the jet skis break down and they were more than compensating. Like I have always said, I make the most of any situation I possibly can, even with these little bumps in the road, it was an awesome day!!!
We were to rent the boat for either 3 hours total and get a free hour making it 4 hours. We told them before we headed out that there's no way that we would be able to be out that long with our ship pulling out at 5:30 that day. I knew that I wanted to be done by 3:30 so that we would have time to catch a cab back to the dockyard and at least do some shopping and looking around before having to be back on the ship by 5pm.
They told us that we could have the boat for 2 hours and the 3rd hour would be free. For 2 hours at $80 for the first hour and $30 for the 2nd hour, that would have been $110 for the day PLUS gas, which I believe their website said $11 a gallon. Now the boat comes with 2 tanks on it. The first time that we couldn't get the boat to start, we thought that it might be possible that we used up all of the gas in the first tank (although later we figured that wasn't it). So we unhooked it and used the 2nd tank. So I really have no idea out of the 2 tanks how much gas we used total...but our final price they charged us was only $100 for the boat. $100!!! They wrote on the paper $80 for the boat and $20 for gas and that's it. Tell me these people aren't awesome and accommodating.
So that was a total of only $330 for the rental of jet skis and a boat for a day full of fun from 10am until 3:30pm. You can't beat that!!! Plus, we split that between me and Kendra...so now you are only talking about $165 for the day.
I swore that I would return to Bermuda and when I do, I would be using H2O again. Bloopers in the day are not always a bad day and when a company can still have those issues and make it a good day, you know they are a great company!!! I highly recommend them and I highly recommend Stefan. (Sorry I just realized that I think I have been spelling his name wrong and I just seen where he wrote his name on my receipt) He was just awesome during the entire experience.
We ask him to call us a cab and he did. The cab showed up within 10 minutes and he was dressed like a true Bermudian. He was extremely nice and we ask him if he would drop us off at the Clocktower instead of the dock because we wanted to do some shopping. Now I'm not sure when this guy actually started his trip meter, but he drove us a shorter distance than the taxi that started all the way down at the pier and this guys fare said $15.85 when we got out. LOL Oh well, it didn't matter we were going to give him the same amount anyhow and we all pitched in for the ride and tip.
I ask for a picture with him and he told Sakari to "jump in here with me". Now after talking about the cover ups and how it's disrespectful...I really feel bad now looking at this picture because Sakari only had her tee shirt on, she didn't put her shorts back on and she had no shoes on. Eeekkkk. But this guy was a true gentleman and so very nice. I believe that Stefan called him "Jones".
