Spartan visited Bermuda on several occasions. The crew were accommodated in the Bermudiana Hotel (Now demolished), in Hamilton. Very posh place, on the first evening we all went down for an evening meal. Only to be told by the Restaurant Manager that we had to wear dinner jacket and ties. Having explained to him that the only civilian clothing most of had were Jeans and T-Shirts, a partition was erected at the side of the restaurant and we had to eat our meal out of sight from the rest of the guests. That didn't bother us in the slightest as we understood there was a need for a dress code. The following night we went for a meal only to find the partition had been removed. We asked where we were supposed to eat now, and was told to join the other hotel guests at their tables. It turned out that the other guest's had been shocked by the way we had been treated, and insisted that we were allowed to join them in the restaurant.

I sat with an American couple with Florrie Ford, they couldn't understand a word he said because of his broad West-Country accent. The woman was wearing a large necklace of green stones, we asked if it was costume jewellery only to be told they were real emeralds, and worth a cool quarter of a million dollars!! The questionnaire in the rooms asked various things like how do you rate the service, where are you from, was it value for money etc. Noted that one of the questions was 'annual income', it started at "50-100,000 dollars" and worked up to "in excess of 20 million dollars", that was the sort of clientele this place expected. Needless to say it didn't have a box for "a mere pittance". So that section got left empty. Some of the local attractions were the Robin Hood Public House, Elbow Beach and Horseshoe Bay, where a beach barbecue and sports social event was organised for the crew. One night a few of us (Rattler, Freddy Fox and Wiggy Bennett) ended up on the wrong side of the Island, and got invited back to the Grotto Bay Beach Hotel by some American students who were celebrating end of University. Brilliant laugh, swimming in the pool in the early hours of the morning in underpants as nobody had brought swimming trunks. Situated in the middle of the swimming pool was a cocktail-bar. So we could have a drink as well as a swim. Probably not a good combination, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. Other favorites for the crew, was to hire mopeds and travel around the Island. The Hamilton Casualty Department was kept very busy, with crew members regularly attending it, for cuts, bruises and gravel rash.