Bermuda

Bermuda answers to no region. Six hundred nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras and eight hundred and fifty north of the nearest Caribbean island, it sits entirely alone in the North Atlantic — a thirty-mile limestone crescent walled by two hundred and thirty square miles of living reef, ten times the island's own area, that has taken upward of three hundred ships since the Sea Venture drove onto it in 1609 and left her company no choice but to found the place. Every approach still runs through that reef: Bermuda Harbour Radio talks each yacht in from well offshore, through Town Cut into the UNESCO-listed lanes of St George's or up the Narrows to Hamilton, while the Royal Naval Dockyard holds the deep water at the island's far western end. It has worked as a waypoint for four centuries — for sail traffic then, for the Newport Bermuda Race and the old spring passage east to the Azores and the Mediterranean now — and as a destination in its own right for just as long, not least for the three miles of rose-pink sand along the South Shore.

Two hundred and thirty square miles of reef around one thirty-mile island — and the only landfall for six hundred miles in any direction.

Signature anchorages

A working waypoint since 1609, still entered on the reef's terms — from the UNESCO harbour at St George's to the old Royal Navy yard at the island's far western tip.

• St George's Harbour — Ordnance Island & Powder HoleBermuda's port of entry, and for most yachts the only way in without prior arrangement. Clear customs at Ordnance Island, home to the island's dedicated Superyacht Dock — alongside or Med-moor (bow- or stern-to the quay, anchor out) berths verified to 150 metres, the closest deep water to the open Atlantic. Well sheltered once through Town Cut; yachts waiting on a berth anchor in Powder Hole, a quarter-mile out on good holding.
• Castle HarbourA wide, reef-fringed pool at the island's east end, under the lee of Tucker's Town and the fairways of the Mid Ocean Club. Deep water, good holding and shelter from most quarters make it one of Bermuda's most settled overnight anchorages, a short hop from St George's.
• Great Sound — Hinson's Bay & Granaway DeepThe island's principal natural harbour, ringed by land on every side but the north-east. Hinson's Bay and Granaway Deep both hold well through the typical May–September pattern and put Hamilton a short tender or car ride away; Paradise Lakes, inside the Sound, is the standing day-stop for flat water over sand.
• Royal Naval Dockyard, West EndThe old Royal Navy yard at Bermuda's far western tip, its South Basin rebuilt as marina and event village for the 35th America's Cup in 2017. Pier 41 berths private yachts to 120ft (36.5m) year-round; King's Wharf and Heritage Wharf, built for cruise ships to 300 metres, absorb yacht overflow when the calendar allows. The National Museum of Bermuda holds the old fortress Keep behind it.
• Ely's Harbour, SomersetA well-sheltered tidal creek behind a screen of islets at the island's western tip, reached beneath Somerset Bridge — reputedly the smallest working drawbridge in the world, its 22-inch span cranked open by hand for a passing mast. Shallow to moderate draft, entered with care on the tide; one of the quietest overnight stops on the island.
• Mangrove Bay, SomersetA calm, sand-bottomed bay on the West End's north shore, sheltered from the prevailing south-westerlies and backed by Cambridge Beaches, Bermuda's oldest cottage colony (the main clubhouse-and-scattered-cottages resort style native to the island). Host each August to the Non-Mariners Race, an entirely serious Sandys Boat Club institution in which nothing that floats is meant to.

The scene

A cricket holiday that stops the island, the oldest trophy in match racing, and the wreck that founded the place in the first instance.

Table & stay ashore

No Michelin presence on the island — Bermuda's strength is the grand hotel and the cottage colony, not the standalone table.

A week, sketched

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