BELCO power outages ruined Saturday nights for West End residents, but it also gave a romantic twist to some.

BELCO said the power outage was due to underground digging in Bermuda Athletic Association (BAA) field, which hit two underground cables.

BELCO spokesperson Lynda Smith, said: "BELCO crews were using the pole digger truck to erect a pole when they hit two 33,000 volt cables feeding from the power house to the Belmont substation which feed the west end of the Island.

"The area had earlier been marked out by our Records and Technical Services department, indicating where the cables were located, however subsequent to that BAA had also marked the field and the BELCO crew assumed that the new markings were drawn in an area approved by BELCO and therefore accidentally drilled into the transmission cables."

Ms Smith added: "Obviously this is not the type of information we want to share, but this is what happened."

BELCO offered an apology to all their West End customers and would like to thank them for their patience. Ms Smith said: "On Saturday night and Sunday morning all the efforts were focused on getting a quick resolution to the outage with crews working throughout the night to repair the transmission cables.

"From about 6 p.m. on Saturday engineers had managed to restore power to all the major customers in the West End, those being hotels, grocery stores as well as to a majority of domestic customers by rerouted power where possible.

"By about 11p.m. on Saturday night they had did as much rerouting as they could which left approximately 1,000 homes without power throughout the night. The two transmission cables were repaired overnight and were tested first thing this morning and everyone had power by 11.02 a.m. yesterday morning," she said.

The Bermuda Fire Service said: "We didn't have any calls, the alarm companies took care of the properties of people who were off the island. So no calls at all, it's been quiet."

A Spanish Point resident pointed out that the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse had no circulating beam when the power was out on Saturday night, saying: "I can't help thinking about boats coming in."

She said: "We saw the Somerset Ferry heading for a dock in darkness. The Southampton Princess was ablaze (bathed in lights), but it was amazing to see the rest of the west end other than Dockyard in total darkness.

The Gibbs Hill Lighthouse keeper, said: "The power was cut so there was no beacon, it was restored this morning.

"We usually have a back-up generator, but the old one was removed on Friday and it will be replaced later this week. The lighthouse does not play the same role as it did previously, because everyone now has GPS," said the lighthouse keeper.

An irate Spice Hill Road, Warwick, resident said: "The lights went out at 3.55 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and didn't come back on until 10.30 a.m. on Sunday.

"I want compensation as all of my food in my freezer has gone off. It's at least $60 worth of seafood, I had frozen shrimps, fish, chicken breasts and vegetables. Why should I pay to replace it? I don't think it is fair, I pay around $100 a month for electricity as it is, for a little studio apartment and I don't see why I should now have to pay to replace my food in my freezer as well."

She added: "I must admit I had hoped that by the time I returned home at midnight the power would have been restored. I saw one BELCO truck at midnight on my way home, but that was it."

She pointed out: "Can you imagine a Saturday night, people having dinner parties, wedding receptions and the like. BELCO has the monopoly and they should be held responsible for peoples losses."

A Hinson's Island resident said: "I was trying to get home and the ferry was not stopping at the Island so I was in my little dinghy trying to get across. All the markers were out and if I didn't know where I was going wouldn't have been able to get home and the sea was rough."

Mitchell Foot, assistant manager of Whites & Sons Supermarket, said: "We pretty much sold out of batteries, flashlights and candles."

"The power outage did not affect us at all, our back up generators switched on immediately. Power was restored at 9 p.m. by BELCO.

A Southampton resident said: "I just couldn't figure it out, if they knew where the problem was, surely they could've fixed it sooner. It's not like hurricane damage where there are isolated power outages all over the island. We had no lights, no stove and no water and we had to put the kettle on the BBQ to have a coffee this morning."

But she added: "It was pretty to see across the water up to Boaz Island in darkness and then the lights in Dockyard."

Despite Gibbs Hill Lighthouse being in darkness, The Lighthouse Tea Room, manager, Terry Iris, said: "We had a full house for dinner and we did not want to turn people away. We have a new chef, Andr? Green who only started this week and he said 'Lets do it'."

Mr. Iris said: "We sent someone to White and Son's Supermarket and they bought several candles for the guests and a few florescent lights for the chef. It was really romantic."

"We had candles in the window sills and on tables. The breeze was blowing in from the south so the restaurant was cool. We had around 25 customers, we usually hold more than that, but because of candles everywhere, we couldn't have anymore. It was a fun night."