After Durban Fireball Worlds

Our time in South Africa was only moderately successful as far as sailing the Fireball was concerned. With Jack Davis crewing, Jon just about stayed in the top ten overall . Not only was the class growing and many more good international crews taking part therefore the standards getting higher. Also I believe Jon was being weaned off small dinghy racing with the preoccupation of getting Camelot ready to sail.

Nevertheless, the beautiful landscapes, wild animals, amazingly friendly hosts and the magnificent Royal Natal Yacht Club were a wonderful experience. Even though we were banned from that venue for the Pimms Party one night because the of naughty behaviour from the winning animalistic British crew! Instead that event was hosted on the beach at night with the Pimms getting mixed inside a Laser hull.

Jon flew back to Tortola on 9th June with his good friend Dennis Trott. Dennis was a boatbuilder who had been his house mate in Sydney for the two years he lived there. Dennis was going to live on board Camelot with Jon for a working holiday and help him with the continuing restoration tasks. The first thing he suggested was to make a habit of chucking buckets of seawater over the decks first thing every morning and after sundown every evening, and scrubbing the decks with stiff brushes. This would help the wood to expand. So swabbing the decks became a twice daily ritual from that point on. It certainly did help.

Selling up Furniture in England

Meanwhile my task was to rationalise our possessions now that we were committed to living aboard a boat. Anything we needed on board could be shipped to the BVI by the Booker Line from Liverpool. Long term storage of our furniture was not an option, as we had no idea how long we would be away. So I had to pack up the precious things we could not bear to part with. We could store them in the attic of Jon’s parents house in Norfolk. All the bulky furniture would be sold through an auction house in Norwich. I acquired four tea chests for items we would be glad to have on board to make Camelot our home.

In Norfolk Jethro was either with his grandparents, visiting old friends or attending the same play school he had been to before. I carefully sorted through the contents of Beck Cottage that we had stored in a barn belonging to friends who lived in Shotesham House. It was a daunting task. A removal lorry came to take away most of the furniture to be auctioned.

Carefully I packed the tea chests with our possessions that would be useful on Camelot. Several pictures went into the boxes along with our favourite music on cassettes. Scrabble, a chess set, playing cards and my portable typewriter went in. Then a selection of Jethro’s toys that would easily fit into square ice cream boxes: one for Lego, another for toy cars, another for his books. I packed our foul weather gear and the summer clothes we would use. Sleeping bags, a few warm sweaters, lots of books, a comprehensive first aid kit, reference books… All was padded with sheets, towels and pillowcases. Everything else I either gave away to friends or took to charity shops.

Before he left, Jon had purchased a neat but sturdy Read sewing machine which could operate of 110 electricity or be hand cranked for simple jobs. He took that with him as carry-on luggage. With this he could do sail repairs and canvas work. A lot of his sail making equipment was packed into the tea chests along with turnbuckles, eyelets and cringles and other tools and dyes for his trade. He planned to subsidise our sailing by carrying out sail repairs.

Shipping 4 tea chests via Booker Line

I hired an estate car and drove up to Cheshire to visit my family with Jethro in a car seat and the four tea chests in the back. My father came with me to the Booker Line in Liverpool Docks where I left the tea chests to be transported to Tortola within weeks. It was good to catch up with family and friends better still to be looking forward to rejoining Jon on Camelot to continue our adventure.

Jethro and I flew to Miami on the 26th June. Accompanying us was my old friend from ITN, Chris Keats who was joining us for a holiday. We had to stay overnight in Miami before continuing to Puerto Rico and then on to St Thomas. Each aircraft got steadily smaller.

Jon was at the West End ferry terminal to meet us in Mack’s Landrover. Mack was often working in the USVI and would kindly lend us his trusty behicle when he was off island. Dennis Trott said hello and goodbye at the same time as he was returning to England. He had a very hard-working holiday and helped Jon make huge progress.

It was a pleasure to see Camelot in the water as we turned into Nanny Cay. Jethro showed Chris to her port side bunk in the saloon opposite his own. I was very pleased to see Jon had installed the new propane fridge amidships with a barrier of timber between it and the cooker/grill. The old fuel tanks had been removed and new ones were made up and installed. Ashton McCall dropped by to say

“Sorry Man. The engine missed the boat from New York and won’t be here until 31st August.”

Chris and I took Jethro to Smugglars Cove the next day in the Landrover leaving Jon finishing off the chart table where the refrigeration unit used to be. Dennis had turned the space below into a tool locker with opening doors. The extremely rough dirt tracks from Long Bay to Smugglars Cove were more manageable in this vehicle. We took a picnic and stayed the whole day, donning masks and fins to look at the coral. Jethro was still swimming with arm bands but getting more confident daily.

He pulled out his snorkel to say, “Look Mummy, it’s a Dennis the Menace fish ,” because of it’s stripes.

My Scuba Course / Blue Water Divers

Chris left in mid July the day I started a Scuba Diving course with Blue Water Divers. The course began with shore based evening theory lessons held in the bar area at Nanny Cay. There were fifteen others on the course. Some were locals, four were British ex pats working in Road Town for accountancy firms or lawyers and two worked on charter boats. The rest all worked for Cable and Wireless . Mike Royle was in charge with his brother Keith helping.

“Call me Muffy, everyone else does.” Mike said by way of introduction.

There was a lot of theory to learn before we started any water based practice. Figuring out de-compression tables, depth gauge problems, lengths of time at different depths… all required serious thought.

One of the first things we had to do on that night was to choose a diving buddy.
I was paired with a strapping Home Counties rugby player called Jeremy Harris. He was an accountant and so he was good at the necessary calculations. His wife Julia was with him but not diving. She was an excellent swimmer but only in pools having a fear of swimming in the sea. They had a three year old son James who was already a very good swimmer. He inspired Jethro to swim properly without any armbands. Julia introduced me to the pools at Prospect Reef, The Moorings and Treasure Isle Hotel. Each of these places would let you swim in exchange for buying lunch. A whole new world opened up.

How Nanny Cay looked in 1980’s