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  If you have a favourite place of
worship, whatever the denomination or religion, easily reached by visiting cruisers and where visiting worshippers are
welcomed, we will be glad to publish details here.
Tell us what kind of services are held in your locality, the days and times of those
services, their usual duration and how long it is likely to take to get there from the
shoreline.
Do you know of a special place to be married?
Do you know a special hymn, prayer or blessing for mariners? You may like to
share it with our readers.
Is your place of worship particularly charming, or even beautiful? Send us a digital photograph or a drawing by e-mail and we'll be glad
to share it with our readers.
We'll welcome links to religious websites which can help our readers to
stay in touch with, or discover, the spiritual support which is
sometimes lacking to a voyager.
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  On
the right is a rather more imposing church, in the centre of
Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, in the Leeward Islands, higher up the
Caribbean chain.
We were somewhat bemused by the placard being held by a lady,
with her prayer book by her feet, standing outside the church
gates...we're not quite certain what it meant but it is the kind of
thing that we found quite disturbing about the Caribbean. The
placard read: |
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Baptist missionary, Pastor Tom Higginbotham, Caribbean
head of the International Mission Board, is based in Cole Bay, Sint
Maarten in the Caribbean. If you're around, you may be able to help with
one of the church-sponsored
projects in the Caribbean and find out more about Tom's work with immigrant workers and
how he helps the cruising community, amongst other things. He also runs
a VHF (Very High Frequency) radio net at 7.30 in the mornings.
Cruisers we met in Simpson Bay Lagoon told us that Tom is known for
giving tremendous help and assistance to victims of the various
hurricanes that have struck St. Martin/Sint Maarten in the last few
years.
 On
arrival in St. George's, Bermuda, in late July 2000, we were greeted by
Canadian missionary Phil Mitterhauser and his lovely wife, Shelley,
together with their beautiful little daughter, Melinda. We were in the
middle of a cash/credit card crisis and needed to organise a Western
Union transfer on arrival, before we could even pay our arrival dues at
Customs and Immigration!
Our outboard engine was in a coma and the
captain was recovering from near-fatal poisoning - (of which more
elsewhere) so we were extremely grateful when Phil, at the request of
the wonderful Danny Little at Bermuda Harbour Radio, appeared in his
launch, 'Spirit of Daddy Lowe' to give us a lift ashore, made it clear
we would be welcome to send an e-mail requesting immediate cash on one
of the Bermuda Island Water Mission computers, in their e-mail facility
behind Richard Allen, A.M.E. church, and even loaned us a pair of bus tokens
with which to get to Hamilton and back to collect the money.
He continued to give us lifts to and from the boat until another
visiting yachtsman, Fernando, from Portugal, took pity on us and him and
kindly loaned us a spare outboard he happened to possess.
The family were absolutely charming to us, inviting us to a barbecue on
the dock next to their boat, 'Akira', taking us to the beach for a
picnic and showing us round all the little bays off St. George's and
even inviting us to tour the wonderful Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo as their
guests!
The mission was being given unlimited free Internet access so
that they could help arriving sailors to stay in contact with family
and get necessary information but, unfortunately, the providers changed
their minds just after we arrived and visitors are asked to make a
contribution of US$3 for a maximum 30 minutes use of the Internet
facility.
Crew from visiting cruise ships are very grateful for the
facility as are yachtsmen - apparently the place was quite crowded out
during the Tall Ships race that came through! Shelley was due to give
birth to a sister or brother for Melinda within days when we left
Bermuda and was grateful for the air-conditioning in the office, as were
all visitors!
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Here's
a sweet Anglican church (left) on the seafront in Port Elizabeth, Bequia in the
Grenadines, part of the West Indies in the Caribbean.
