Painting the hull black in that climate was a mistake. The tropical heat on the black paint was so hot the planks on the topsides were opening up. Jon wanted to take all the paint off and take her back to show off the bare teak. We needed to haul out again to apply new anti fouling and replace the zinc sacrificial anodes.
It had been agreed that Jon could take two months off. But first he must look after the Hood loft for a couple of weeks whilst Bill and Davina went to the States for a holiday. Amongst other things, Bill thought he had a buyer for the business and needed to talk that through. We had the use of Bill’s Landrover during this time. Jon had also arranged to make new hatch covers for Camelot in the loft. He used the same brown sunbrella cloth as the sail covers and Bimini awning.
Change school for Jethro
The new school term had started. St George’s were not prepared to let Jethro enrol if we could not promise he would be there for the entire term. And so we went to see Margaret Soares, the lady who ran the delightful wooden kindergarten school in Passea. She said,
“I am prepared to let Jethro attend whenever you are in Road Town and pay on a pro rata basis” which was perfect.
He already had several friends there and loved it. So he attended for the two weeks Jon was running the loft. It was an easy walk from The Moorings and I could pop into RiteWay on the way back for grocery and disposable nappy shopping.
Oliver was thriving and very easy to please. His favourite toy was three cotton reels and some tamarind seed pods threaded onto a shoe lace. We went back to Julia’s flat after a swim one morning and put Oliver in the playpen with Anthony on her balcony. Oliver was enthralled by a Fischer Price Activity Centre fixed inside the playpen. Anthony was even more pleased with Olly’s cotton reel toy. They were so easy to amuse, exchanging gummy grins.
I needed to make Camelot safer for Oliver now that he was nearly crawling. I had a netting needle. With this I could weave netting between the lifelines all around the decks, thus creating a forty foot playpen. In the centre cockpit we could drop the leeboards into place to make that secure. We also made Oliver’s bunk safer by fixing similar netting to the boards underneath his mattress in the port bunk, like an extended Lee cloth, and securing that to the underside of the deck on cup hooks, with the weight of the 6 inch deep mattress holding it all down . The bulkheads either end made this like a 6 foot by 2 foot cage.
Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race
We took part in Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race in September with Lee the electrician with his wife and daughter on board and Rich and Ginger. It was a spectacular event with some lovely boats to be admired. The starting horn was sounded at 10.00 am on a Sunday morning, the red flag went up and Camelot was first across the start line. With Jon’s racing instincts finely honed we tacked up the first windward leg to Sandy Cay. We were soon passed by all the lighter racier Bermudan rigs, being bombarded by water bombs made from balloons by mischievous kids crewing other vessels.
We were surrounded by a staggering assortment of wooden boats registered from all over Europe as well as the USA Bequia and Nova Scotia. There was even a veritable tall ship with more sails than I could count. By the time we rounded the mark off Sandy Cay for the reach to Little Thatch we were third from last. Poor old Camelot was no racing vessel despite the hours I spent with my Scuba gear removing every last barnacle from the hull.
Imagine our surprise at the prize giving at Foxy’s Bar that evening to be awarded two plaques as prizes! One for coming first in the 40’ to 50’ gaff rigged class ( we were the only boat in that category) and one for the youngest crew on board – Oliver at 5 months old. We won a flagon of Pussers Rum, 24 cans of beer, and 3 tee shirts .
Topsides back to varnished teak
We hauled out yet again at Nanny Cay for 11 days in October. Alongside us in the yard once again were the Fothergills in their new boat China Cat. Roger was changing the rig to a yawl. During that time we worked with face masks and power sanders to remove twenty years worth of topside paint and the red lead primer to get Camelot back to bare teak. We then applied 3 coats of Deks Olje, a Norwegian wood treatment with superb results.
Zinc sacrificial anodes had to be replaced again and new anti fouling applied. “Wow, wow, wow,” were the appreciative comments as we re-launched.
Immediately we went over to the Bight in Norman Island for Jon to crack on with more repair work to replenish the coffers. At least he now had a work permit. We made up ‘For Sale’ signs to hang above the life belts above the belaying pin racks. We anticipated it would take some time to find a buyer. It was coming up to two years since we left Norfolk and time to try to capitalise on our investment.
We had saved up enough for me to have a trip home to introduce Oliver to my parents. They would never make the journey over to see us due to my father’s failing health and the exhaustingly long flights. Also Jon could work on the boat more easily if we were not living on board.
British Caledonian Airways had recently introduced direct flights from Puerto Rico to Gatwick with extremely good opening prices. We bought one full fare for myself, a 25% fare for Jethro and a 10% fare for Oliver. All three return fares were less than $750, which was extremely good value. I would go for three weeks and be back in time for Christmas.