Having arrived in St. Helena under sail only on 11^th February with serious banking problems and a broken ”P” bracket I set about sorting things.
It seems the Indian call centre used by HSBC managed to pass my telephone banking codes etc. to fraudsters so when I phoned them there was a conspiracy of silence by putting me on hold for hours and me paying 1 pound a minute out of my food money. But Saints are very hospitable people and lent me money, thank you Craig Yon.
Then out of the blue I got an email from the HSBC fraud department saying we accept what you say and are repaying the stolen 10 grand but closing your account in 30 days where do we send the money. I had set up an alterative bank before leaving the UK but all my income was payed elsewhere so it had to be changed, this was difficult as St Helena has poor and very expensive internet and external telephones. It’s all done now except for my state pension that got cancelled 13 months ago and has still not been restarted.
For the first 2 months I lived on the boat to save money then as the bank was sorted I got a 200cc Chinese dirt bike to get around the island and up to the Golf club, moved into the small Gazebo cottage.
I applied for a job as an engineer with the Public Works department (PWD) in about May, had an interview which went OK with just the chief engineer and expat roads and buildings engineer. But this was just an interview about an interview which took place in June with about 8 people but no chief engineer, it was not good and a month later I got a rejection slip (win some loose some) then in August I was in the Standard bar having  just emptied the boat workshop that I had  rented for 2 months to build 2 dingys one a proof of concept that rows very well and the second an outboard type that splits in two and nests within itself thus taking up very little deck space. When the roads engineer asked if I wanted a job setting up a bridge register, data base, inspections and teach a Saint to maintain it. So I started 2 days later and will be working till the end of September / October with a break to fix CARIAD when she comes out of the water next week.
Sorry this report has been all shore based, In November I will be off to Jacare near Cabadelo in Brazil.

Tony