Jethro had his sixth birthday just before Christmas. A party for his friends was held on board in a slip at The Moorings so they could all have tea and cake on board then swim in the pool. He had a girlfriend by then called Scarlet, a school friend from Passea Kindergarden. Scarlet’s mother Jo very kindly gave us a blue Cindico pushchair for Oliver which she no longer needed. This came in useful for re filling gas tanks and transporting laundry as much as transporting the infant.
Sister ship Mayflower in BVI
We were anchored in West End one Saturday afternoon when Jon did a double take at a ketch anchored off the Immigration dock that looked remarkably like Camelot had looked when we first bought her. We looked closely through binoculars and were convinced it was another of the only twelve ever built. When their dinghy returned he went across in Guinevere to ask.
“Yes indeed,” said the owner, “Mayflower was built in Hong Kong in 1961 by American Marine.”
Jon invited them to raft alongside us, both at anchor. The owner and skipper of Mayflower was Hilton Davis, a mushroom broker from just outside Washington DC. On board was his wife Susy an English ex British Airways ground crew, and three daughters. They were en route to Trinidad for the carnival there in February, having taken the girls out of school for a year for an educational adventure.
Jethro was really impressed that the eldest girl could shimmy up the main mast! The ten year old twins were equally interested in the changes we had made to Camelot, having no doghouse roof and two working heads. Then Jethro was seen climbing their ratlines.
“I noticed your boat when we sailed in,” said Hilton. “But didn’t think it could be another Mayflower 40 because of the changes you’ve made.”
Stepping on board Mayflower, it was strange to know exactly where to put your feet on the steps down to the well decks. And surprising to see an aft cabin just like ours complete with transom and quarter windows. They had made a few changes . By doing away with the forward head they used that space to make a separate single cabin with a crossways berth. Mayflower still had her original engine, wiring and plumbing. It had cost them twice as much as we had paid for Camelot.
Should we sail up the ICW?
The seed had been planted that we should sail up to Annapolis ourselves to sell Camelot. We looked at their charts. “You could go into the I.C.W. In Florida and up 1000 miles of inland waters rather than the offshore route,” explained Hilton. We had heard of the Intra Coastal Waterway but never seen the charts before. What an adventure that would be.
Christmas Day in Trellis Bay
Meanwhile Jon had a few more days of work to complete in the sail loft before we took time off for Christmas. We had been invited to join the Snells for a private Christmas dinner at The Last Resort. We sailed round to trellis Bay on Christmas Eve. It was wet and blustery when we put the excited boys to bed. I tucked the boys gift-wrapped presents into two Peter Rabbit pillowcases and put one at the foot of each bunk once they were asleep.
There was a family tradition of adding carrots to the collection of gifts to represent a booby prize for being naughty during the year. At crack of dawn on Christmas morning we could hear them giggling and ripping open the Christmas wrappings. I went through to put the kettle on for tea.
Imagine my surprise to see in Jethro’s bunk the teddy bear and inflatable car that should have been in Olly’s bunk, and Oliver surrounded by carrots and only one or two of his half unwrapped presents!
“Santa must think Olly has been a naughty boy,” said Jethro with a straight face.
Roger and Joy Fothergill were in Trellis Bay on China Cat. They were happy to be no longer chartering. Roger was suffering from gout so Joy was limiting his alcohol intake. We had a lovely time with them and other guests tucking into a traditional Christmas dinner in The Last Resort, even if Roger drank more water than wine.
New Year 1983
Our good friends , and Jon’s most recent Fireball crew Jack with his wife Sandy Davis arrived with their children Andrew and Caroline on New Year’s Eve. We let 1983 in celebrating from 8pm which was midnight in England right through until gone midnight. Their family took over the aft cabin and Jon and I slept in the saloon with our two. Although a bit of a squeeze we were all good friends and it worked well. Jon took a few days off so we could sail to our favourite spots throughout the BVI.
When Jon had to go back to Hoods we went took Camelot into a berth at the Moorings again. That also meant we could have a shore shower redemption. Jack hired a car to tour the island for the rest of their stay, which was great fun. We explored the rain forest on top of Sage Mountain.
Before Jon had returned to Hoods, Bill had an order for a huge spinnaker for a magnificent 120 foot ketch called Sayonara. The order was too big for him to handle so he took the commission and had the sail made up in Marblehead. The spinnaker cost $8,500. The yacht owner wanted an image of a hammerhead shark across the centre panels which measured 75 feet across. An artist came into the Hood loft to spray paint that shark in shades of grey with an air brush.
The first mate on Sayonara was a 6’9”James Bond villain type called Jurgen. They wanted a demonstration of the sail in action before they left for St Maarten. Bill hired a launch to take the sail out to the yacht underway in the Francis Drake Channel. The total sail area was 6,500 square feet and it weighed a quarter of a ton in its squeezer. Jurgen winched the sail bag on board where Jon and Bill helped to set it. They were notching up 10 knots under spinnaker alone down the channel towards St John.
“I like dis new baby!” Exclaimed Jurgen. “Maybe we make 15 knots an hour now. Let’s go!”
Sail trials over and satisfaction agreed, they turned about to head out of Round Rock Passage. There was only just time for Bill to pocket the cheque before they hurried down to the waiting launch and return to Road Harbour.
Jethro lost his first baby tooth
Jethro was out sailing in Gwinevere on his own one weekend when one of his front milk teeth came out. He returned on board with a bloody mouth and no tooth. “What happened to the old tooth?” I asked.
“I threw it overboard.”
I looked in his mouth once we had cleaned him up and the new tooth was already growing. That night the thoughtful tooth fairy left four quarters under his pillow. The following morning we tried to track down fairy footprints on the beach. Those crab marks looked a lot like fairy footprints. Under a clump of sea grape we came face to face with an iguana about two feet long.
“That must be the BVI tooth fairy!” Squeaked Jethro with a gap-toothed grin.
The Tooth Fairy
We befriended some Canadians on a steel ketch from Toronto with two sons on board. They were on their way home after cruising down island and showed us their Klein Cruising Guide to the Bahamas and their portfolio of Intra Coastal Waterway charts. We made notes and knew we must acquire these for ourselves next time we went to St Thomas. In fact, within a couple of weeks we managed to acquire both of these essential items second hand from a yacht owner who was heading down to the Grenadines, in exchange for some impromptu sail repairs.
Oliver was thriving and getting very adventurous. His main Christmas present had been an inflatable yellow car that he could sit on and bounce around the decks. His word for a boat was “Bat” and an aeroplane was “Aah Bat”. These were used a lot accompanied by pointing at the relevant objects. His word for water was pronounced “wa ta” which is exactly the way the locals said it.
Jon carried on working hard and we saved up for the planned trip to Annapolis.
Bill was happy with the arrangement and said, “I can get in touch with the Hood loft there and see if they can offer you work.” With that positive suggestion he would leave after Easter.
Oliver’s 2nd Birthday
We celebrated Oliver’s second birthday on Cane Garden beach with five other children and their mums. I made a rainbow cake with four levels of sponge coloured with raspberry, orange, lemon and lime jelly, sandwiched together with butter cream and two candles on top.
Then it was time to say Goodbye to the Virgin Islands. The total distance from Tortola to Annapolis via the ICW would be over 2000 miles.