Thank you Bermuda!

By Anna Cummins on January 29, 2010

At 10:00 yeserrday morning, on our final day of preparations before setting sail for the Azores, a truck arrived at the harbor delivering two entire palettes of food from Butterfield and Vallis- the leading food supplier in Bermuda - all donated, a gift to our expedition! Steve looked on wide eyed as massive amounts of meats, cheeses, canned goods, breads, and more were piled in our carts and loaded on the boat. “We’ve got enough food to sail around the world!

Later that morning, Jim Butterfield himself paid us a visit, and we experienced first hand his tremendous generosity.

“I watch plastic trash accumulate here in our local waters”, he mentioned, and told us about watching mini-garbage patches form right here in the harbor. An avid sailor and environmentalist, Jim has also spent time on the high seas, observing the same plastic that washes up on Bermuda beaches. When our new friend Jennifer Gray mentioned our budgetary concern with provisioning a boat for 13 people, he made an offer we couldn’t refuse:

“Come to the warehouse, give us your wish list, and anything we can’t supply, we’ll buy for you at the local supermarket”.

Francois met us at the warehouse, and spent a patient hour going over our culinary Christmas list. His only concern was supplying small amounts, “I can’t give you 2 tins of tomato sauce, but I could give you a case, will that do?”

We’re incredibly grateful for the support and kindness we’ve been shown in Bermuda, and though all are anxious to get back to boat life, we’re not in a hurry to leave the Island. Our ten days of school visits, beach cleanups, guided tours of the incinerator and recycling center, and dinner parties wrapped up tonight with a final feast at the Hog Penny – where yet another supporter Jay Nichols treated 15 of us to a last supper on stable ground.

We must give tremendous thanks to a few other people that made our stay in Bermuda enjoyable and very rewarding. Judith Landsburg and our new friends at Greenrock were always at the ready to help with our needs. Judy Clee, Bermuda’s premiere beachcomber, showed us around the island, and a visit to the Aquarium to get answers to our fish questions from local experts. The folks at Keep Bermuda Beautiful and the recycling center welcomed us with tremendous smiles and eagerly took charge of meticulous measures of plastic waste on Bermuda shores. And JP Skinner at BIOS- his patience, good spirit, knowledge and passion defines what an educator should be.

We leave Bermuda with a strong desire to return. When we do, we will have plenty of information to share about our research, and knowledge that the people of Bermuda are at the ready to take the helm to conserve and protect our shared oceans.