Bermuda: England's Paradise on the other side of the Atlantic

[Music] a colorful group of islands in the middle of the Atlantic a small remaining part of the former British Empire [Music] on bermuda shorts are the official dress code [Music] traffic tickets are delivered by boat and the favorite food is kale Bermuda the crown jewel in the Atlantic Bermuda has 65 thousand inhabitants the group of islands is a British overseas territory every year the Bermudian celebrate the birthday of their queen in the capital of Hamilton Tania Smith and her bandmates do a rehearsal of their performance one week before the big parade it's kind of like passive you listen to music and you're kind of moving so when we're when we're marching it's kind of the same thing we're playing the music and your feet adjust however people who are out of step when we're playing that makes you question Bermuda has an army of 700 with a small budget there's hardly any money even for the sheet music army fire brigade and police attend the rehearsal Major Dwight Robinson is the conductor and head of the military band the only permanent employee he needs to coordinate his band with the other units and doesn't want to make mistakes [Music] little rusty at the moment it's the first time that they've actually played this kind of performance typically we do hotel engagements so the mood is a little little more relaxed now with because it's a ceremonial parade they're a little more switched on so there's a little bit of anxiety there that we just just gotta overcome a little bit the rehearsal begins following the lead of Dwight's band the musicians reach their mark as planned they'll stay there while the other units march up and down as the Queen won't attend in person the royal banner will be honored in her place [Music] [Applause] that's it now a critique of the maneuver a few new people that have seen music for the first time we've had two groups that didn't show up for the rehearsal this evening so that kind of threw a spanner in our works we were not expecting that it's hard to play a piccolo against the wind as you're blowing this way over the hole the winds going the shot wasn't part of the rehearsal hopefully the eardrums weren't perforated the weapons safety obviously was off [Music] the Bermudas are a holiday paradise but the islands were strategically significant in history they're the ideal stopover between Europe and the new world as they are located about 1,000 kilometers off the North American coast trade routes could be controlled from here which is why the British built fortresses on the island hundreds of years ago [Music] British culture plays a significant part in everyday life everybody plays cricket [Music] there are some similarities with the Caribbean but Bermuda isn't part of them the Islanders emphasize that fact they live in their own world [Music] and in that world mark Suarez is something like the caretaker of all the ships if there's a problem he takes care of it but today his way to work is already a problem we can make six knots so it's going to be a slow process let's see how we go here here we go that's bridge it's egg tide and this is the only outlet of the big sound in the middle of the islands in the beginning everything seems to go smoothly but then it comes to a halt [Music] Braun against nature [Music] [Music] maybe another try with a new technique extreme towing [Music] no chance [Music] in today's struggle the sea has the edge on man in st. George's in the north of Bermuda mark manages a small marina he's the handyman and his mother works as the concierge for all the big yachts we did have a call from yachtsman who is anchored over I believe in the convict bay area tried to move on his anchor is firmly stuck needs a diver he's quite prepared to wait because he knows that we're busy so it's not going anywhere cuz he's stuck and he can't go anywhere because he's haha [Music] at the pier there's another order waiting for Mama Suarez flowers no flowers white ones just to put in the tables and Muscovy I don't know one one meter honking dog that must be white not an easy task on a Sunday but mama Suarez is well-connected orchids would be quite nice and I need them ASAP so any chance of delivery within an hour you can have very strange requests for example if an owner's wife is flying in for the weekend and she decides that she wants a specific type of let's say vanilla ice cream and they might not sell it in Bermuda then they will fly it in from Miami and if she's only here for two days that's quite a big order to get a point of analyzed cream just a little example fuel tankers arrive at the door the yacht collects diesel fuel for its passage to Europe sixty thousand litres they need to take their time so that the fuel in the tanks doesn't ignite fire damage would be quite expensive the yacht costs about 20 million dollars mm either everything's okay now with the speed now we are feeling 200 liters per minute on this single passage the yacht consumes more fuel than most car drivers in their lifetime Bermuda is just another world same goes for nature here [Music] there are hardly any mammals but a lot of birds and a special species that doesn't exist anywhere else biologist Jeremy Medeiros has dedicated his whole life to it has been a bird of mystery in fact it was called the ghost bird here because for a long time everybody thought it was just a myth like a legend more or less and it's because it appears mysteriously only at night in the dead of winter you know in November and December white-tailed tropic birds are everywhere but the Bermuda petrel hardly ever shows the cacao as it's called here was considered extinct until some remaining specimens were discovered to protect the remaining 18 breeding pairs dedicated bird lovers rebuilt a complete island Nonesuch Island they killed all the rats and established the native vegetation [Music] Jeremie visits the island every day during breeding season he weighs and measures the fledglings so that he can immediately notice if something is wrong with the population the birds and their eggs were almost completely exterminated they got eaten by imported ship rats and hungry seafarers meanwhile there are more than 100 breeding pairs raising their breed in artificial caves birds with special skills as the tube nose on top and in the nostrils are glands that actually what they can drink seawater directly and the glands act like like a desalination plant they actually extract the freshwater from the sea water and then they will sneeze out the drops of concentrated brine or salt that's left Jeremy doesn't consider his work as strictly scientific I'm a father I have two children of my own and I feel a bit paternal towards them you know I I do feel quite a responsibility not only for the species but for individual birds and especially here in Nonesuch these are kind of special because all of the the parents of these these chicks here our birds I've raised by hand myself and they've all come back and now they're raising their own families so I guess I consider myself like a godfather to lovely scientists have researched the Bermuda petrol for 40 years but only in the last year they made more discoveries than ever before thanks to a new sort of camera the cacao cam it's changed our whole understanding it has already told us many new things about you know the how the the adults cows feed the chicks so we're pretty excited so every day Jeremy is able to watch the petrels private life this will help him if he's required to feed a fledgling again what we've seen is that it takes about ten minutes of preening by the adult to calm the chick down enough so that feeding can actually begin because it just can't do it successfully it's just like the chick is like feed me feed me feed me and it's just too enthusiastic you know I can relate because I'm five foot seven and my son is six foot three and there's times when you know I come in and there's like what's for lunch dad and everything so I can sympathize with the adult you've got to work with him a bit use a bit of psychology and calm him down first feed of cos he eats about as much as three of me you know and there's another discovery nobody could imagine how the fledglings could train their wing muscles before they left their nest from one day to the next the caves seemed too small for that we had no idea until this camera actually should you know revealed the secret life of the cow in the darkness you know in which we just have never been able to see before men in shorts are very common in the streets of Hamilton the islands capital Bermuda's are the normal office attire they originate from the British Army's tropical uniforms the English sports shop has specialized in the sale of those shorts ronald mon shops for new ones here back again I need a new pair of shorts yeah okay what color are we looking for today the Navy the sports shop had 7,000 shorts in 14 colors produced for this season yet half of them are already sold out what about the darker green people do think we look funny and I guess they think the same thing of a Scotsman and his kilt but it's like a national dress for us what the normal reaction is can we take your picture or it looks so cute can we take your picture and all this on a daily basis yeah two or three ladies one on each side one with the camera and it's picture and then the net with swapping positions so we don't have three different people I don't know what they do with the pictures that worries me at the sports shop the price for a pair of Bermudas starts at 40 per muted dollars that's about 30 euros lost a bit of weight it just seems a little a little loose this problem can easily be solved by the in-house tailor one floor up Ian Jones is an expert in Bermudas the native Englishman doesn't only do the fitting he also designed the house fashion there are strict rules for Bermudas whoever wears them without knee-length socks or combines them with lace up shoes becomes a laughingstock we're only a short distance from the United States and yet we've got our own culture our own dress our own style it's a great thing there really is when the king and queen visited the island the store owner gave Prince Phillip a pair of Bermudas as a gift well if you know anything about the joke he's got quite a dry humor and when he looked at the president just said what you almost dropped my trials are here to try them and if you look at the smile on our presidents face you can see it was quite a little witty anecdotes throw out somebody you know it just puts the crown on top if you'll excuse the pun Ronald shorts have been fitted now look at the bike ensure that the seats all sitting in line yeah the key thing to love is this all nice and flat across you see I feel like I'm in a pair of shorts that were made for me you're all ready for a day's business looking good life is expensive on Bermuda nearly everything must be imported even the food and the v80 is high apples are one dollar a piece a single melon costs $16 [Music] not everyone can or wants to afford that therefore some clever Islanders came up with the idea of growing their own vegetables like Suzanne male and her vegetables are in high demand what we would call in Bermuda night farmers lately which is actually thief's so we had a lot of onions stolen so lately we've been afraid that there have been more thefts the gardening area belongs to the community every gardener leased a plot of about 15 square meters they grow their vegetables organically so thieves aren't the only threat to the amateur gardeners crop kale is especially popular with gardeners and snails they harvested throughout the year kale is very common here kale will just keep growing and growing so it's one of those easy always produces food hard to kill easy crops staple crops I'd call it irrigation is the biggest problem for growing vegetables on Bermuda there are very few wells so the Islanders need to collect rainwater buying water would be too expensive I know I'm trying to hearth up the patio me these strawberries yeah my chance - I don't buy vegetables for about nine to ten months a year you know only in the middle of the summer said July of us that I would buy greens from the supermarket or the stores because I generally grow what I need it's hard to quantify in money terms but it's it's a huge savings Henry Thomas grows very little at home to save water at the community garden everyone pays his share to the water fund it helps a lot you know especially with the water situation sometimes in the summer when it doesn't rain for a long time say three four weeks and depending on the amounts we use we sometimes have to buy water my tank might probably take suits for three loads just about $750 if he goes down to the bottom yeah say that can be quite pricey a water tank covers the whole area below the patio Henry doesn't know its exact holding capacity but the water level looks good today that's enough for a while Henry's water source is the roof as it is for all people on Bermuda he cleans it regularly it's very important to keep the goddess clean because you can have all kinds of things go in the tank everything that goes in is what comes out of the other end you know because we don't really have much in the way of filtration system sometimes you have dead birds a lot of things on the on the roof and you don't want that screen in your tank the lime layer on the roof is also supposed to purify the water there are regulations on how a roof must be built on Bermuda are mandatory so that each roof can collect as much rainwater as possible Bermuda's colorful houses with their white roofs are the islands trademark at st. George's the big yacht still waits for its flower delivery [Music] speedy delivery the captain ordered flat arrangements for the dinner tables and now he gets towering plants will he be happy with that good thank you thank you okay hope you guys enjoy them it's good sometimes you cannot get exactly what you want today a Sunday and then it's difficult to get but it's good you get flowers in Sunday you get from the agents and you get good service it's not with an offer a good service the boat caretaker mark Suarez is on his way to another assignment coming very short okay there's one rock down there and over the years the anchor chains that turn it into a mushroom shape I wouldn't be surprised so the first thing the best thing for us to do is just get in the water and go and have a look they're familiar with the problem the anchor is free that's not the cause both ends of the anchor chain lead to a rock it's really stuck and can't be released by hand now mark is their last best hope decide which is the best place to pull on trying to figure out which is the best spot bit of power you might be unlucky down and now his marks boats strong enough for this task it couldn't fight the current and this rock may be an even tougher adversary mark pulls the anchor chain aboard with a rope putting all his faith in his engines the chain moves and so does the rock just one more bit of gas mark moves the anchor so that it's chain doesn't get stuck again yeah put a few more down so the rocks over there don't go that way [Laughter] that's it for today time to go home that's Suzanne mails home it's time for supper she serves kale this winter vegetable is available here throughout the year when it gets hot here you can't grow a lot of the more delicate greens so the kale is pretty Hardy and juice it stir-fry it steam it put it in soups you can do just about anything with it I feel very sorry that you only eat kale once a year that seems like a real shame does it need a frost it does feel very grave just like I don't eat you know once a year Suzanne throws it in the pan and serves it with chicken and sweet potato mash and what does Suzanne's husband io think of his wife's favorite veg no it's okay it's a nice little staple leaf I think is very healthy [Music] [Music] shipping traffic slows down in Hamilton Harbor [Music] at night there's not much activity on the island [Music] next morning it's a holiday on Bermuda the Queen's birthday [Music] but ornithologist Jeremy needs to work anyway fledglings are waiting to be fed he moved them separated them from their parents for a good reason as their nests were in danger we had a big hurricane in 2003 and it ripped the whole side of the island out and that's where many of the original nest birds that the the Bermuda petrel nested in were located and they're very faithful to those original locations and so they were trying for years to scramble in the rubble and we could not rebuild them because the audit has gone there was completely demolished to avoid this happening again Jeremy moved all the fledglings to Nonsuch Island this year they memorized the location of their nests and will return there in four years time to breed their themselves until they fledge Jeremy needs to collect them and feed them with shellfish without this service the little ones wouldn't survive it's a big responsibility to about the middle of June I am out here in this our everyday rain bluer sign and there's times when there's a storm warning it's small craft warning and see you know it's blowing 50 or 60 knots and you have to come out here and do this Jeremy defrosts the fish and squizz shortly before feeding time the food must be fresh so that the little ones don't catch germs a fledgling eats about 50 grams per meal feeding goes slowly and the animals don't always cooperate thank you it just helps to calm down after date a big thing like that and wait for the birth just like a baby and then they're not gonna regurgitate it it's like children some don't want to eat their broccoli and their carrots and stuff and it's like you must you must eat your broccoli but I don't want to yeah so it's it's like children every single one is an individual it's very different from any other the little ones gain weight from day to day Jeremy's decision to move the fledglings proved to be right even more hand raised birds survive the first four years in comparison to those who stay with their parents I'm just trying to be the best stepfather if possible to make sure that they're fed and they they go in very good condition it's sort of almost like bringing back you know the dodo you know or bring me back a dinosaur from from extinction because it was flawed extinct for so long it's just very exciting you get to be part of that [Music] WaterGuard Linnell williams starts her holiday shift in hamilton harbour today will be busier than usual [Music] public holidays we always expect a lot of people and now we expect you because you have more people getting jet skis like every season it's somebody that you never someone who want to be four before boat or jet ski the whole of Bermuda seems to be on water [Music] it's a peaceful celebration until someone races a jet ski near the shore where only five knots of speed are allowed [Music] he doesn't stand a chance against the police they quickly catch the traffic offender [Music] okay I read it to a hundred meters all you need is the 100 meters I came out the gate all right took off Susan came out the gate justice warrants good morning begging doesn't help like I never break the rumbling there's water for ten years you never have to get here ticket Linnell sometimes even has to issue a ticket to a friend just like anywhere else on land you'll run across people that you know and most of the time if your friends know what you do so they know if they're wrong you have to deal with them the lowest allure I know if my friends they know that if I do something and I have to speak to him that I'm just doing my job they're not gonna hold it against me the military band has assembled in front of the Parliament building it's the Queen's birthday it's show time because today's actually like the most important career that would be playing in hopefully my uniforms up to standard and I'm all shaved off first officer a bayonet is also part of the uniform right well if you don't have rifles why do we have one just in case yeah a dozen cases Tania Smith knows some tricks about how to spruce up her uniform it's quite an effort even though less and less spectators attend the parade I remember as a kid because my dad was regiment so it was like yes granted parade I'm gonna see my dad March and you know I was really big the preju meant stretch cross front street the cannons are gonna go and then I think over time it lost that we are part of the the Queen's portion of the world and everybody ready to celebrate that holiday on Monday but that's really pay tribute to the one who's given us this back ed your arrow six inches bedrooms hey honey when we fall I would see if he can get your spike to point upwards of the place that way all of your belt brass this morning don't look like you did help brass tomorrow honey beats too honey you got something on your trousers and this belt brass on this side you can put it the other way around so it actually hold your belt shut otherwise it might fall off morning how are you good thanks in here I'm here polishing bell brass this morning certainly did alright I was buckling bayonet frog this morning y'all have had plenty of warning plenty of warning I know on several occasions I've said if you don't know what to do come and see me and nobody has alright now come on this is a parade you're in number one and number three's in your ceremonial dress better arms cut oh they all need to do some touching up before the parade begins the number of party boats on the water has increased the mood is cheerful and water police woman Linnell williams spots someone else who gets carried away it's four people on a jetski that has only approved to carry three hey you guys that's not the most sensible thing you're doing right now your beetle is licensed for three person that skis has a sticker says three persons maximum three persons no you're gonna take one in one one to make one little move no you would take some back and they'll come back and get the other one oh you can get a ticket you can leave one bar there's rocks but I like that one the driver tries to comply but not fast enough for Lynne Elle's taste hello are you understanding what I'm saying okay you can leave too if you want and they need to tell one right and this is still a five in that area so just be mindful okay taking a bath is punishment that's Bermuda the birthday parade in honor of the Queen starts at Hamilton's front Street [Music] the Queen won't be present but her representative George Ferguson the governor of Bermuda will take the salute [Music] basically the governor is the head of state he appoints the Prime Minister and the members of the Senate he was appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the British government [Music] the banner symbolizes the Queen's presence [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when the banner is taken down the Queen has symbolically departed standing still is hard say a word a marching band essentially so actually being in motion is good for us and standing still is like Kevin Simmons survived his baptism by fire [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 41,804

Rating: 4.6713614 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, BBC documentary, Bermuda, England, Ocean, Atlantic, Paradise

Id: 4bYq8XTxHZU

Length: 43min 19sec (2599 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019