Decisions to end a dumb era

It's amazing the mental gymnastics your mind can do when you can't sleep. I'm quite impressed by this latest anagram for Bermuda: 'dumb era' seems to be quite fitting for the time we have spent here.
Well, since I promised everyone we would have a decision over the weekend, and I wouldn't want to keep you all chomping at the bit, here's the latest on the 'Saga of the Triangle'.
Jon came back from the US on Saturday, having been really impressed by the project in Maryland. I know I have said it was based in Maine, but please blame it on shared brain cells and the fact that the Bermuda sloop is going to be launched from Maine.
But more than anything, it made him realise how bad things were here.
We have therefore made our decision independent of what happens with the US project, as they are still not in a position to give Jon an answer. If they give him a positive answer, I will go into more detail about his visit and our prospects for the next year. If they don't give us a positive answer, we will manage.
After Jon got back, we spent a long time chatting things through, and we came to the conclusion that Bermuda is no longer tenable.
It's not just a case of the confusion over the visas, it's everything: we simply don't think we would be happy here.
In the past few weeks, Jon has been getting more and more stressed, to the point that it feels like he is eating himself up inside. He has nobody else to talk with here (apart from me), no friends and his only topic of conversation seems to be the ineptitude of those he is surrounded by, to the extend that it sometimes seems as though I am listening to a stuck record.
I'm not saying he is perfect and I'm not saying I am either. Neither of us suffer fools gladly, but I feel like we have been as patient and as reasonable as possible.
So, yesterday Jon wrote to Captain Chris and explained the situation and attached his resignation letter to the email. Unfortunately, Chris didn't get back to him last night and, so, early this morning Jon went into town to see Alan, the Chairman of the Foundation.
Last night he said that today was going to be one of the hardest days of his life, which is quite a comment from someone who used to provide security for journalists in Iraq. I think it's because he feels like he is letting Chris and Alan down, and Alan was pretty good to us and to him - letting us stay there when I was here last time - and he is worried that Malcolm will go ballistic when he finds out.
He said the meeting with Alan was really tough and that apparently Alan had gone directly to the head of Immigration and the visas had been sorted, but unfortunately they didn't do anything to tell us this and make it formal in writing and I had been led to assume otherwise by Malcolm.
Jon and Alan had a conference call with Chris and even though they offered Jon various things, he said he felt his decision had been made and that now he would just be rocking the boat (excuse terrible pun) if he stayed.
He feels very upset for having let down Alan and Chris and probably because he rightly didn't air his grievances about Malcolm, they probably think that he is getting worked up over nothing. I think the three of them are going to be able to keep it amicable, but I am not sure how easy it will be once Malcolm weighs in.
I feel really bad for Jon. He has re-written his resignation letter and said his decision was based on our personal situation, which makes me a little frustrated, but this is probably what they want to hear and there is no point being childish about it.
During the weekend, we decided that it was better for me to leave the Island as soon as I could to strengthen Jon's argument if we had to, so I am flying back to London via New York tomorrow and arrive early on Wednesday morning and Nanny Hils is coming to meet me, which I'm really grateful for.
As Jon wasn't sure what the reaction would be, we are also pretty much packed in case we needed to make a quick get-away. He's hoping to be able to leave as soon as possible and hopefully this will be Thursday.
It hasn't quite hit me yet what we are doing and I have some doubts, but then if we were all blessed with the gift of hindsight, we'd never learn anything. But, all-in-all, I know this is the best decision for us. I want to thank you all for your support and for the emails and electronic hugs that I feel we have been receiving.
I know we are both stubborn and often selfish, that we are free-spirited people and we have to make our own decisions, but the stress and uncertainty that we have faced in the past few months has been eased a great deal by you, our friends and family. Our problems pale into insignificance alongside those faced by many people and we lucky we've got you and we're lucky we've got each other. I know we'll look back on this episode in our lives and probably laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing.
For now, I hope you'll excuse the length of this posting. Lots of love from Han, Jon and the Bean xxx