MY STUFF HAS ARRIVED!

Kirsty, one of my colleagues and I with the container.

After the best part of three months at sea the container with my belongings in it finally arrived in St Helena.  
It should have only taken around six weeks but things came to a halt in Cape Town due to high seas which prevented containers being offloaded from the ship they arrived on from Tilbury. 
So it missed the RMS to St Helena and had to sit on the dock side in Cape Town until the next sailing almost a month later.  

Better late than never, in early December I was informed that my container had been deposited on the Jamestown Wharf and to go down to have it cleared by customs. 

Anticipation was mounting by the second as not only did the container have household effects in it but also my car which I had been in two minds as to whether to send it down here.

Is this a VW Jetta?

 It was a hot sunny afternoon and the wharf was   full of people, cars, trucks and of course containers!  The container’s arrival had  coincided with the St Helena Christmas shipments, whether presents from afar or cranberry sauce and crackers from Tesco. 

Talking of Tesco, it reminded me of the pre Christmas Tesco rush! 

It took a while to fine a customs agent who was free and then a little longer to find a man with some heavy duty cutters to take the seal off the container.  

Eventually the contents were revealed. As I hadn’t packed the container I had no idea how it was going to look when opened, especially since the communication about delays due to high seas off Cape Town.   Where was my car?  On first inspection it didn’t seem to be there as my belongings had been piled around it.  Peeking over the chairs which were perched on the outside I could just make out the familiar silver of my  VW. 

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Almost out!

A couple of hours later the car had been  extracted from its temporary home and was handed over to one of the local garages for an MOT and to turn it into a St Helena Plated vehicle rather than a UK registered one.  

Inspecting it closely revealed a few scratches and a small dent but it started first time and I am happy to say is in good working order.

It has taken me the best part of a month to unpack (yes I probably brought too much stuff) and now I am pleased to say my little rented house looks more comfortable and homely and almost ready for my husband’s arrival in February.  
I had been told earlier that that one year the island's Easter Egg supply didnt arrive until June owing to bad weather delays so I guess I had been lucky!

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