Bermuda Beaches

In case you weren't fully in awe by the beauty of the land on Bermuda, the island chain has one more talent to take your breath away; the beaches.

The beaches in Bermuda are amazing, gorgeous, and wonderful. Brightly colored fish are right at the waters edge as the entire island is surrounded by a barrier reef. All the fish at the beach are actually deep inside the protection of the reef, they are merely in shallower waters at the moment when you get to enjoy them.

The really mind boggling part of the beaches is that just past the colorful fish and beautiful coral is nothing. The closest point of land is around 700 nautical miles away, and that is only if you are looking to the West. If you are looking East, the next point of land is 1800 nautical miles away in the form of the Azores. To the South is the Caribbean, and to the South East is Africa. You are standing at the edge of the land gazing out onto a view normally only seen by blue water sailors. When you gaze off into the distance, there is nothing obscuring your view of the horizon and it is a sight that should be appreciated and respected. 

The beaches at Bermuda are amazing, as well as humbling as you know you will soon be out there for some beach goer to gaze out upon you on the horizon! 

Sand Ridges

When walking along the perfectly sandy beach in the Bahamas, you will notice small ripples in the sand. At low tide, these can come out of the water creating what almost looks like a fingerprint on the shoal. 

These sand ridges are actually caused by the oscillation of surface waves as they come upon the shore. Based on depth and wavelength, the period between the ridges can be determined. This also means that if waves are consistent, so will the ridges in the sand.  

Areas where the ridges differ from the norm or run at a new pattern are indicative of changes in the wave period as it approaches the shoar. 

Another cool thing, especially if you encounter these ridges at low tide, is they will tell you which direction the waves were coming from. 

The ridges always have the short side facing the direction the waves were moving towards and the long side facing the direction the waves were coming from. In the picture above, you can see that the long sides are to the right, and the short side is to the left. This means that the waves that formed these ridges were coming from the right and running from right to left.

This information is useful if you are walking along an exposed sandbar and want to know where the waves will be coming from as the tide returns. All you need to do is look at the ridges! 

Paradise

Our next anchorage after Johnny jumped ship was pure and perfect paradise. Once again, it was just Maddie and I. We could walk along the beach holding hands as we listened to the waves as all of our cares and worries washed away with the outgoing tide.

Maddie and I explored the tiny island and watched the waves crash in from the Atlantic side onto the steep cliff faces where powerful waves turned into mighty spray. We then returned to the calm beach overlooking our boat Wisdom.  

We had a nice picnic dinner on the beach as we watched the sunset. Everything was perfect!