24 May: Bermuda Day

Bermuda Day is a Public holiday in the islands of Bermuda. The first Bermuda Day was celebrated in 1979, replacing Empire Day which celebrated Queen Victoria's birthday. It's also the day when Bermudians go swimming for the first time in the year to celebrate the end of winter.

1. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory located in the Atlantic Ocean (not the Caribbean). It is an archipelago, made up of seven main islands and many smaller ones. From the air, it looks like a fishhook.
2. The total land area of Bermuda is 20.5 square miles (53.2 square kilometres), which is about a seventh of the size of the Isle of Wight. In 2018 its population was 71,176 making it the most populous British Overseas Territory as well as the oldest.
3. The capital is Hamilton, and the largest city is St George's.
4. Bermuda was named after Juan de Bermúdez who claimed the islands for Spain in 1503, though he never actually landed there.
5. In those days, people weren't all that keen to land there. As well as the treacherous reefs surrounding the island, at dusk the sailors would hear strange noises coming from the island, which sounded to them like hundreds of screaming babies. They believed the island was haunted by monsters, Witches and demons. There was, of course, a more natural explanation - the sound was the cries of thousands of seabirds - cahows (aka Bermuda petrels) to be exact. Eventually in 1563, Spaniard Don Pedro Menendez de Avila did land there, looking for his son, who'd been shipwrecked. He didn't find his son but left some Pigs behind so that anyone else who got shipwrecked would have something to eat. The pigs decimated the bird population which had evolved without any ground predators. Human beings and Rats saw off virtually all of them and cahows were thought to be extinct until a small colony was found on one of the islets in 1951. There are now over 100 pairs of birds living at a sanctuary on Nonsuch Island.
6. The islands weren't settled until 1609 after a British ship called Sea Venture sank in its waters. Bermuda's flag is the only national flag to have a picture of a sinking ship on it, commemorating this event.
7. Nowhere on Bermuda is more than a mile from the sea.
8. The island in Shakespeare's play The Tempest is thought to have been based on Bermuda. His island was located in the Mediterranean, but is described as being filled with pigs, noisy birds, and a drink made of cedarberries. (Early settlers on Bermuda had to make liquor out of whatever they could find, and Bermuda had a lot of cedar trees.)
9. Bermuda has more golf courses per person than any other country.
10. In the 19th century, Bermuda's main export was Onions. The word "onion" came to mean something really cool. On New Year's Eve, a giant illuminated onion is dropped from the Town Hall in St. George’s Town Square.

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two