The Hood Sail loft near The Moorings

Getting a Work Permit stamp in Jon’s passport seemed remarkably complicated. First an interview with a Government Minister to prove himself worthy of employment . Then a grilling by an Immigration Officer Mr Potter ( whom we had met many times over the past eighteen months). Next the affidavit from a lawyer and the Registrar’s office to say no police record. Then the medical, blood tests and the dreaded stool test (where a sample of poo had to be taken in a jam jar). Even more interviews with the Labour Department and then four passport-type photographs must be provided.

At the Immigration department, the uniformed official looked at Jon over the top of her glasses and stated,

“We do not grant work permits to people who live on boats.”

Bill Bullimore intervened to assure them he desperately needed Jon to start work as Production Manager to teach Tortolans the skills of sail making. With a straight face he told them,

“ As soon as Jon has completed his three month trial period, he will be renting a home on the island.” That was news to us. So that rule was waived.

There was still a hold up as we had not lodged our bond. What? A bond of $1000 per head for the whole family – even baby Belonger Oliver! This was needed in case we misbehaved and had to be repatriated to England. Thanks to Hoods that one was sorted out.So now would they stamp Jon’s passport?

“What about the rest of the family?” asked the stern faced Labour Department official.

“What about them?” Asked Jon in confusion.

“Where are their affidavits, health certificates, photographs and so on.”

Why had nobody told us this before? They agreed to overlook Oliver as “he born here” but Jethro and myself had to comply. Off we went to the photographers, Notary and hospital , even though we had lots of proof of my health and blood group from my recent stay there. More stool tests. More paperwork. Whew.

Jethro starts at St Joseph’s School

Jethro started school in his smart uniform the first week in June. He did not want me to go into the classroom with him on the first day. He kissed me goodbye solemnly and marched in on his own. When I collected him again at midday he said it was very nice but they had not played with any cars – even though there were lots there and a very nice garage. Instead they had played with plasticine and done some drawing and a lot of singing. Every day they practiced songs for the school speech day at the end of term.

By this time Oliver had turned into the phantom raspberry blower. Having mastered that art of making rude noises with his mouth and enjoying the way we all roared with laughter, he did it endlessly. His little chair rocked back and forth as he kicked his legs legs in the air, wearing just a disposable nappy and a sun hat. He was growing longer and chubbier. I started to supplement his diet with mashed banana and baby rice. He liked mashed avocado as well.

He loved being in a swimming pool. The first time I lowered him into The Moorings pool he did not even wake up. We went there most afternoons. Annie was there a couple of days each week teaching children to swim and dive. She would line them up squatting on the side with their arms over the heads and tumble in. Soon they were all diving! Getting them used to having faces in the water was the first hurdle. She was brilliant and it was a great way to keep cool in those summer months.

We had the use of Davina’s Jeep for a couple of weeks as she had taken Kuy to the Netherlands. Like many other cars on the island it was a bit if a wreck. The throttle pedal kept falling off. The floor was full of holes. It leaked like a sieve. The tyres were worn down to canvas. It only fired on three cylinders. But there was a child’s seat fixed in with a steering wheel attached which Jethro loved.

Jon – Production Manager at Hoods

Jon started work each morning at 7:50 am. He was a key holder and had to be there to open up and let the other guys in. Often he was there until 7 pm to oversee the two or three working overtime to complete the back-log of repairs. Also he liked to leave the loft immaculate, ready for work to start the next morning so he was last to sweep the floors.

He reorganised the working space, separating an area for canvas work from the new sails. Another corner was dedicated to sail repairs. All repairs were clearly labelled and stored alphabetically according to boat name, so everyone could find them. Finished jobs were on the other side of the work bench awaiting collection.

Bill seemed delighted with the improvements. Jon was determined to keep everyone working the same regular hours rather than the flexi-time arrangements they had been used to. They could not earn overtime until they had completed 37.5 hours in a week. He preferred to only have overtime being worked Saturday mornings. Jon did come back on board Camelot for a sandwich lunch and cold drink between 12.30 and 1.15 each day.

We were living at anchor in the middle of the inner harbour bow facing out into Road Harbour. Jon needed to go to Wickhams Cay 2 whereas Jethro’s school was near the prison on Main Street so I had to row the other way to Village Cay dinghy dock at 8.30 to take Jethro to school. Jon must have been one of the first people to commute by paddle board. He used the windsurfer with an extra long paddle Jethro had found in the mangroves. I fixed the Britax car seat into the bow of the dinghy when Oliver grew too big for the carrycot.

By the end of June the work permit was still not stamped in Jon’s passport and our 30 days visitors visas had expired so technically we were illegal immigrants! Each Saturday afternoon we would sail off to swim, windsurf and lie at anchor on one of the smaller islands. If it was just a daysail on the Sunday we always took shore based friends.

Jethro came home with his first school report. It said he was two months younger than the average children in his class, that he could not recognise his numbers, his writing was very poor and that they were looking for improvement next term. I went along to the Speech Day service held in St George’s Church. This was a grand old building on Main Street. Jethro’s entire school life until that point had been spent in rehearsals for this public performance. His class sat in the front row. They all got up and sang,

“If you’re Happy And You Know it Clap Your Hands.”

All appropriately accompanied by hand clapping, head rubbing, feet stamping for the rest of the verses and all of the schoolchildren.

It really was a magnificent performance from the entire school. Perhaps next term they might have time to teach some numbers, reading and writing. The headmistress Mrs Clough bore a striking resemblance to Margaret Thatcher and seemed to be a strict disciplinarian. So with luck Jethro would make progress.

More Alsops visiting Camelot

Jon’s younger brother James and his wife Ruth came to stay for three weeks. They had the two saloon berths and we moved Jethro onto a berth made in the circular seats between our aft cabin bunks, with Oliver sleeping in his carrycot on the deep aft shelf. That all worked out very well. We took them over to Cooper Island one weekend and The Bight in Norman Island the next. During the week when Jon was working, they went off exploring the island having discovered it was very easy to hitch hike.

One morning I heard Ruth cuddling Oliver in the cockpit. He was squeaking for his breakfast of creamed rice and banana which I was fixing in the galley. I was astonished to hear the words she was using in a kind and gentle voice,

“You are a scabby little monkey, aren’t you.” So presumably referring to his heat rash.

Prince Charles & Lady Diana’s Wedding

We celebrated the Public Holiday in honour of the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer with a party on board Camelot. We dressed the boat overall in red white and blue bunting I had stitched together on the sewing machine. The bunting extended from the mizzen backstay across the triatic stay between the two masts and down to the bowsprit. We served Earl Grey tea and cucumber sandwiches and sausage rolls from 5pm. Then Gordon’s gin and Schweppes tonic from 6pm with various canapés. On our music system we played Jon’s ‘Last Night at the Proms’ cassette and sang along to Rule Britannia and Jerusalem.

Roger and Jill Fothergill came on board for tea. They had just sold Tern IV to purchase a smaller Alden Schooner called China Cat and no longer did charter work. They had been living aboard and sailing Tern IV without an engine for over thirteen years. By then Roger was suffering from gout and Joy was finding ferrying people and shopping everywhere in the dinghy too exhausting. They were retiring. We learned that as a young boy in the Lake District Roger had owned “Swallow” the very dinghy Arthur Ransom wrote about in ‘Swallows and Amazons’.

Jeremy and Julia Harris came with James and Anthony and later in the evening Mack and Mo came on board with Vernon. Mick and Moria Blackwell were there with their children just back from boarding school, Lisa and Mark. Mick was head man for Cable and Wireless in the Caribbean. The Blackwells wanted us to house sit for them in August whilst they took a family holiday in Florida, which we looked forward to.

We all went over to the the bar area at The Moorings where we could watch the wedding at Westminster Abbey on a huge television screen at the same time as swimming in their pool. Jethro’s American friends did not believe there really were princes and princesses…”nah, only in Disneyland,” he was told.

The work permits were stamped in our passports by early September and valid for one year. However they only gave us 3 months to stay in the BVI because we did not have an address on land. “you get yourselves a home on the island and we’ll let you stay for a year,” said Mr Potter in Immigration.