A week of Up’s and Down’s

Last week Mrs Ethel Benjamin went missing on the Island. Her husband, Peter, works at the Castle as a caretaker. His wife’s  disappearance was a shock to everyone.    A search party was quickly organised and various areas of the Island were searched in attempts to locate Mrs Benjamin. Later in the day the searching commenced underwater particularly around James Bay. Several days later the searches were called off with no trace of her being found on the Island or in the surrounding waters. I was humbled by the amount of help and assistance readily given by many, many people who gave up their time to search on land or to dive the local Bay. Sadly, the wait goes on.

Several days later the RMS arrived from Cape Town – I watched from the quayside as a colourful selection of steel containers were manoeuvred from the RMS, anchored some distance out, via launches to the quayside and finally craned to land. One of those containers was carrying all my worldly goods and our car – I hoped! I’ve lived out of a suitcase for 6 weeks and although I have been supplied with a ‘transit’ pack (including a very old TV, bedding, crockery etc) it is not the same as having your own ‘stuff’

The wheels move slowly on St Helena, so I was not under any illusion that I would be claiming my possessions quickly. Twenty four hours later my work colleagues were getting more anxious than me! Annie called Customs to check my name was on the manifest – it was.  Following a flurry of phone calls, Customs advised me at lunchtime the following day that my goods had been landed and were awaiting clearance. ‘Clearance’ involves the customer (me) turning up with a detailed inventory stating the contents of each box. The customs officer then requests that the customer opens selected boxes and displays the content to ensure it matches the inventory. This can be some of the boxes or all of the boxes.

As I had a car to deal with too and Larry (man with a van) was out on the dive search, I opted to collect my possessions and clear customs the next day at 9 am. 

This was definitely a good move as the Wharf was quiet and nearing empty. Next morning, accompanied by fellow ex-pat friend, Paula, I wandered down to Customs. Paula and I made ourselves known to ‘security’ and I was immediately asked if I was there to collect a shiny new silver car with a top box! The car’s arrival was already noted and the topic of discussion by locals! (I was to be quizzed several more times during the day)

Having located my boxes in the warehouse, I was allocated a customs officer, who came over to go through my belongings.  The previous day, others had been asked to open almost every box and when there are 50-60 boxes, that’s a lot of stuff! I only had 12 boxes, 12 bags of dog food, a spare tyre and a set of golf clubs – referred to in an earlier blog all of their own! I opened around half my boxes, before we moved outside to look at the car.

We had crammed LOADS of ‘stuff’ in the car and Andy had reminded me lots of times about being cautious when opening the back – hence commandeering Paula to assist me! However, when the moment of truth arrived Paula was off chatting to Larry somewhere! I carefully opened the back and miraculously nothing fell out! At the back was a very ancient ironing board. Paula was curious as to why I had brought it rather than throwing it away and getting a new one. It was a wedding present given to my Mum and Dad in 1960 and cunningly incorporates a seat so you can sit down and iron!

The car was jam packed with ‘breakables’ Flat screen TVs, PC’s, monitors, glass units, guitars, ukuleles, amps etc, etc. and once Customs were satisfied that I had paid the necessary duty on goods and that I wasn’t smuggling contraband, I was allowed to unpack the car! Everything had to be taken out and loaded onto Larry’s truck for transportation to Piccolo Hill along with the 12 boxes, dog food, bed and mattress and so on. Larry and his mate Rodney (who was on the RMS from Ascension with me) were very adept at stacking, loading and transporting fragile goods from the Wharf up the side of a mountain to Longwood!

In the meantime, I left the keys to the now (almost) empty car with customs and phoned Colin’s Garage, with whom I had arranged for the car to be MOT’d and licenced. It’s a bizarre and alien concept to give keys to a complete stranger, than call another complete stranger telling them where to find the car and keys! But I’ve been told; many have gone before me and survived!

I jumped in the hire car and set off up Side Path, passing Larry’s truck half way up. I wasn’t sure why he had stopped, but figured I probably didn’t want to know either!

They arrived a short time after me at the house and proceeded to move my possessions into the house. They were brilliant, moving beds and other furniture so I could get my bed into the bedroom and re-arranging the house for me – great work guys! And no breakages detected to date!

At some point whilst moving furniture around the house I managed to fall over! I am now sporting some horrendous bruises, although it didn’t hurt at the time, I could barely move the next day.

After moving boxes and bags into various rooms, I decided to go back into Jamestown to purchase the insurance for the car. Whilst standing in the Insurance office, there was a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around a young Saint asked if I was Helen! (I was clearly the only person on the Island he hadn’t seen before!) He gave me the car’s MOT, told me where I had to go to pay for it and told me the car was ready for collection – all in the space of 3 hours including hunting me down! Amazing service – you’d never get anything like it in the UK. Having completed the paperwork (which does involve darting across Main Street between Solomon’s Insurance Office, the Post Office and the Bank several times) I drove the hire car to the fuel station to fill it up, then took the hire car back to Colin’s Garage where I swapped it for a newly MOT’d and plated Galaxy. The first thing to do was to fill the car with diesel! During transportation from the UK the tank has to be drained down to no more than 2 litres of fuel. The garage had put a gallon in to enable it to be driven to the garage and be MOT’d, so although there was now a bit in the tank, it needed filling! Diesel here is currently £1.17 a litre, but balance that against very few miles to the gallon due to the terrain, it is still quite costly, but essential, to drive.

I was also delighted to take ownership of a very nearly new lounge suite consisting of 2 X 2 seater sofas and 2 chairs! The suite in the house on arrival was clean but worn, which I wouldn’t have minded had it been comfy, but within a couple of days it was giving me back pain, but a quick call to Michael, the also incredibly helpful Housing Officer, resulted in an exchange and a new bathroom cabinet to replace the one that decided to fall off the wall!

All sorted now – just missing a husband, son and 2 dogs!