The Bermuda Secret

[Music] [Music] for sailors gave Bermuda their own spirit in return. This quiet green world was always here. It greeted the first wanderers with its thin green fingers. The island was uninhabited, untouched when the first weary sailors landed here more than 450 years ago. The virgin green jungle of Palmetto and Bermuda Cedar was all there was. But today, as you travel the roads of Bermuda at the national 20 mph speed limit, you find the island in an endless profusion of rich blooms, oleander, hibiscus, a vast sea of easterlies here, [Music] and a wall of point sienna there, brought from distant shores, almost as if each of the tall ships of some bygone time left a treasure, a smile in gratitude. [Music] One of the legacies of the sea is a different notion of time. So it is a weather vein shaped like a ship and a wind compass instead of a clock. Grace Hamilton Town Hall. [Applause] On this day, Bermuda welcomes her majesty the queen and the Duke of Edinvara. The 56,000 people of Bermuda are self-governing, but they pay allegiance to the British throne. Yet, this island is its own excuse for being. These varied people have emerged from a history of privateeering, ship building, and farming to become a name for hospitality. Today, on this peaceful island, there are more jobs than people. Of course, some of the people are a little too little to be noticed. at first, but the smallest of welcomes is precious. And even queens mustn't worry. On this island, everything is clean. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] The heritage of the British sailors who were shipwrecked here and then made their homes is evident in the rooftops of Bermuda built like the upside down hulls of boats. In the interiors of old Bermuda buildings, you can see the handcrafted knees of a ship. When they build a house in Bermuda, they carefully brush the top soil to one side and save it. Only an average of 6 in deep. It is precious. [Music] Many homes are literally built of coral blocks cut from the very sight of the new house. [Music] And you've heard of a housewarming party. Well, this is a roof wetting party. Everyone climb aboard. They christen a house as they would a ship. But in the sailor's practical manner, there is more room for the glass than for the roof. [Applause] [Music] There are no keep off the grass signs in Bermuda. There are no strangers either. Take this visitor for example. Elsewhere, people often turn away from a tourist's camera, but here, oh well, welcome to the wedding, friend. This is the secret of Bermuda. [Music] This is a place where no one is a bystander. [Music] It is everywhere. It's not unusual to find the governor's limousine parked on some main square. also quite willing to pose with you in the governor's absence. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] There is almost too much to see even for the queen, even for the passing vacationer. From the cliffs, look down on the long and lovely beaches mile after mile. Think of the wonder of the early sailors who brave the endless sea, expecting sea monsters in the edge of the world and finding a small paradise instead. This is the way Bermuda looked 400 years ago and the way it will look 400 years hence. This is what first greeted the eyes of Wanda Bermudez, the Spanish explorer in 1503. He left the island his name, but can you imagine he never claimed it for his country? [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] These soft beaches are embellished with history, like old Fort St. Catherine outside St. George, the island's oldest town and its first capital. High above the beaches are the large and small hotels with their own blue waters and their own tantalizing leisure. [Music] [Applause] [Music] And this will be your toughest choice. Blue water here or blue water there. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] The waves break on a distant reef and And the ocean has the tranquility of a pool. Suddenly in these gentle waters, there is no tick of a clock, just a slow motion world where only the sun is at work. [Music] And yet the life of Bermuda goes on around you. You may see a fisherman pulling in his net and the net full. He finds helping hands among the visitors. Because in Bermuda, everyone signs on, participates. Everyone is a member of the crew. Everyone. America's Eugene Fodorchaikovski award winner practices and shares his violin from a hotel terrace. [Applause] The annual Bermuda Festival attracts the great performing artists from all over the world. [Music] The island is alive with music. As Carlos Montoya, like many great artists, borrows a hotel dining room to practice because it is more like a concert hall. [Music] [Music] [Music] And now it is Garrick Olsen thrilling the audience with his piano. [Applause] When the music dies, the artists and the audience become one. One goes home with the echo of Yehudi Manuan's violin and a chat with the master afterwards. It is the nature of the musician to share his music and the island like this music class is richer for it. If devotion could be played on musical instruments, then these young Bermudeians would be a symphony in starry eyes. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bermuda's festival of the performing arts enhances the winter seasons. [Applause] Now the light magic of modern dance charms the stage. The imagination of the palobilist dancers finds humor and beauty in the gestures of the human form. [Music] [Music] Oh, Bojest, even the morning has its own dance filled with promise. On an island that abounds in citrus and other fruit, there is no treat like the Bermuda cherries that grow in hedges along every roadside. Yours for the picking. [Music] [Applause] So much for the quiet of a Bermuda morning. There is an active, busy Bermuda, too. Bermuda may be only 21 square miles, but it sports over nine golf courses, more per square mile than any other country in the world. Each course has a character of its own. [Music] [Applause] Watch the swinging form of US pro Laura Ba send the ball flying over the hazards. A lesson that in golf form is not everything. It is the only thing. And on the fine putting greens, nothing is impossible. Lovely. Just luck. Not at all. Bermuda pro Walter King tries. H. Tennis came to America by way of Bermuda over 100 years ago. Today, there are some 100 tennis courts on the island. This century old racket is a cherished reminder of those early days and a curiosity too. It draws the beused whimsy of Ilan Estasi and Jimmy Connors who have come here to play. It may not help their game, but it helps their disposition. [Music] [Music] [Music] There is always one of the oldest sports of all, croquet. A game popular in the courts of the French kings. Now making a comeback on this island. All you need is a deaf touch and a little patience. [Music] But this is a patient island. You can see it in these quaint streets of St. George, the first capital city. Carl streets that never wear away. The byways for the island's small cars, just one per family. And the motorbikes yours to rent. Wherever you are, there's a majesty about this island where no one is more than half a mile from the sea. Today, as they have for centuries, the tall ships and the wind jammers move through the narrow channels and the carefully kept harbors of Bermuda. They bring with them a kind of nostalgia for days past. A reminder that life was not always easy. But it was always rewarding when these shores were reached. A reminder that time was once measured in weeks and months, not hours and minutes. [Applause] [Applause] The great ladies of the sea squeeze into the harbor with new wanderers to share the old delights. The truth of it is this is the 20th century and Bermuda is only an hour and a half by jet from the eastern United States and only two from Canada and only 5 hours from Europe. by wind and sail. It would take weeks. [Music] These were the first traffic lights in Bermuda, or the Mid-Atlantic for that matter. Naturally, they are for water traffic. Everyone stops to let the mast of a sailboat pass through the smallest drawbridge in the world, and anyone around lends a hand. There were plans for a bigger bridge, but Bermudians turned them down. Here, bigger is not better. From a high place, you can see across this island, only 20 m long and barely 2 mi at its widest. [Music] Bermuda's ferry boats are the stage for a thousand vignettes of island life. The cast changes with every stop, with every turn of the head. But some things never change. One by one, the tall ships always return. [Music] [Applause] This is one of the smallest front seats in the harbor to watch sailors jump ship. [Music] It is a place to do homework, a place for visitors to meet Bermudians. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Just wave a red flag at an optional stop and the ferry will come to you. The little docks along the way are places for hells and goodbyes. All of them temporary. [Music] [Music] The harbor is a place where the smallest dare the largest and where the smallest prevail. [Applause] [Music] This is the secret of the island. Reflected in the pace of the people, the visitors, the ordinary Bermudians. The mood is buoyant, a lift to the spirit. This is the center of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital. [Music] And this is Front Street, Bermuda's Fifth Avenue by the sea. A long and luscious row of shops and restaurants, all facing the harbor. Here on Front Street, the cruise ships dock, the streets fill with people, and the shops beckon with goods from around the world and the fine handiccraft of Bermuda's artisans. The pace is gentle. A policeman directing traffic can take time to show two little girls how. Need help? Talk to anybody like this taxi driver. Many Bermudians carry extra maps to show you your way. In fact, any Bermudeian will help, providing you don't interrupt the practice of the island's major pastime. [Music] [Music] You can see the mood of the island by the way people walk together. There is a different step for shopping, a different step for walking the beach at the surf's edge, a different tempo for every moment in the island's life. [Music] It was Robert Lewis Stevenson who wrote, "I will make you brooches and toys for your delight, of bird song at morning and starshine at night. I will make a palace fit for you and me of green days in forests and blue days at sea. Such is the poetry of the island. [Music] I don't know. One kind of poetry yields to another. Like the unique sound and rhythm of the Talbot brothers band, but I'm going home. [Applause] But I'm going on home. I'm going on home. Going on home. Oh yeah. But I'm going home. But I'm going home at home because I got the blues or seek out the resonant beat of the steel bands. [Music] [Applause] or challenge the impossible contortions and primal pulse of the limbo. But the main attraction is peace. Perhaps listen to the tree frogs and the soft sway of the lighted masts in the harbor. more vivid on an island that forbids neon lights and outdoor advertising [Music] and wake in the morning to the promise of new excitements. The tall masts parading the harbor are symbols of the riatas and races and events of all kinds that make their port here. [Music] [Music] What a sight they are. But the sea and sailors vying for position and a race sometimes disagree. There was a touch of mayhem as some of the great ladies of the sea tangled. A sad note any sailor would grieve. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] The tall ships brought their secrets and their treasures to this gentle island centuries ago. They left their sense of comradeship, faith, adventure. And now when you leave, you take that spirit with you. Today, as then, there are many merry and warm memories of this island, recited in many an English pub, many an American home, and before many a Canadian fireside. Bermuda lives in the secret hearts of wanderers everywhere. Heat. Heat. [Music]