in the East End.

The deal between Mrs. Cathy Duffy and Mr. Nicholas Duffy and the new owners, Burford Ltd. and Mr. Dennis Cocklin, closed Friday. Burford Ltd. is owned by Mr. Henry Cox.

Mr. and Mrs. Duffy started the Wesley Street business two years ago. "The deli has been very successful,'' said Mr. Duffy. "But I am moving on to new ventures in Bermuda.'' Mr. Cocklin was a butcher at Miles Market for several years and is now with Cosmopolitan Liquors. There are plans to expand the catering aspect of the business, already considered to be very successful among international companies.

The deal was brokered by CAPCAR Enterprises, whose Mr. Barry Capuano said, "We definitely were surprised by the amount of interest, even though we knew it was a superb buy, as a business.

"You know, with all that's going on, we were very, very surprised at the amount of people who came forward who were interested.

"For the first two months of the year, everyone was running scared. No-one wanted to do anything. We ran a little advertisement in the newspaper and we actually got more people from word of mouth. It was unbelievable how many interviews we actually had.'' Mr. Duffy and Mr. Graham Maddocks will be partners in a new tourist venture based in St. George's called St. George's Adventure Tours.

"It was the right time and the right opportunity,'' Mr. Duffy said. They purchased the Deliverance replica in St. George's from the Bermuda Junior Service League at the beginning of the month and now run a new water and land tour business out of that attraction's ticket office. They have had a boat purpose built in Miami for the water tour business.

The 25-foot rigid hull inflatable was built by Miami-based Nautica Ltd. and is designed to accommodate about a dozen people. Mr. Duffy said that he would be in Miami for sea trials later in the week, once the 250hp Volvo Penta diesel motor is mounted.

It is hoped the boat will be in Bermuda for the start of water tours in a couple of weeks.

Mr. Duffy said: "We will be doing a lot of different types of water tours, depending on the weather. We will be doing tours out in the Castle Roads, around the islands were the forts are.

"We'll be covering a lot of the East End scenery which not only tourists, but a lot of locals, never get to see, off St. David's Head and Fort St.

Catherine. We'll be running around and through the reef areas. That boat is set up to be able to get into very close to a lot of the offshore structures there.'' Meanwhile the Deliverance exhibit is set to take on a larger role than it has in the past, as the Island's visitors will be treated to a real understanding of the ship's historical role.

"The hiking and boating tours will concentrate on the heritage of St.

George's. The heritage of the town is incredible,'' Mr. Duffy said.