As winds from Hurricane Ernesto subsided, Michael Pitts, a visitor from the United States, sat on a bench at Spanish Point in Pembroke thinking about his late Bermudian father.

While he reminisced and watched the waves left by the storm, he observed a boat bobbing up and down in the chop.

Mr Pitts next spotted the boat’s owners in the water, struggling to get the vessel under control.

He sprang into action to help them.

He said: “When they came over, I helped them pull the boat up to shore, so their boat didn't go to the bottom.”

Mr Pitts, who travelled to Bermuda on Thursday to experience Hurricane Ernesto, made a post about the incident on his Facebook page to keep his relatives and friends updated on the storm’s passage.

At that time on Saturday morning, the hurricane’s eye was over the island.

The Florida resident said: “I guess a lady saw my post in that Facebook group and asked if I could see her father's boat.”

The woman’s father was concerned about the vessel but he was unable to get out to check on it because he was ill.

“So I walked over to the bus stop and took some pictures and videos to show him it was OK,” Mr Pitts said.

“From what the woman said afterwards, that put her father’s mind at ease and that was well worth being out there for me at least.

“It did feel good. I was a volunteer firefighter for many years and I miss helping people so it was a very rewarding thing.

“It was the Bermudian thing to do.”

He added: “I felt my father there with me, being as he was from Spanish Point — it was special being out there.”

Mr Pitts was on his second hurricane-tracking trip to the island.

Last September, when Hurricane Lee neared, he travelled to the island to experience the storm.

Lee swept past as a Category 1 tropical cyclone, knocking out power and closing businesses and schools, although major damage was avoided.

“It was definitely more of a storm than last year,” Mr Pitts said of Ernesto.

“I've never seen waves in a hurricane, either here in Bermuda or in Florida, break so far out, but more so, come to shore in so many different directions. It was very odd.”

Mr Pitts travelled across the island to follow the impact of the hurricane when it was safe to venture out.

His storm tracking adventure started on Friday when he made stops along the South Shore.

He said: “On Friday, my cousin's daughter and I went to John Smith’s Bay. That's where I saw the crazy waves coming in.”

They also made a stop at Elbow Beach in Paget to observe the heavy seas.

On Saturday, he rode from Flatts to Spanish Point along North Shore Road, with stops to remove branches and debris from the road.

“That was no big deal at all,” he said.

Asked if he would fly in again should another storm approach Bermuda, Mr Pitts said his cousin would be surprised if he did not travel.

He added: “He asked his wife a day or two before I called them, if she had heard from me, whether I was coming or not.”

He said they all had a “good chuckle” about his cousin’s remark.

The former paratrooper said: “They know I've done crazy things my whole life. So this kind of fits into my personality.

“It makes sense to come here though, because nature, especially the ocean, is a beautiful thing — even storms. And Bermuda is the most beautiful place to be.”

He said the memory of his late father continued in his love for storms.

“I feel very close to my father out in this. He loved storms and I caught that from him.

“As long as you're safe, a storm is incredible to watch. Riding this storm out is for you, dad,” Mr Pitts said on his Facebook page on Saturday.