JOHN’s BERMUDA ADVENTURE

John wrote his last songs in Bermuda in 1980. He named his last album Double Fantasy after a flower in the gardens.

Fairylands is at once magical, somewhere to escape the cares of a busy life.It’s the last place you’d expect, perhaps, to find a right-on rock star with an interest in world peace – but that’s probably why it appealed so much to John in June 1980.

Lennon stayed for two months and started working intently on new material, including, Starting Over, Watching the Wheels and Woman, with which he would return to the recording studios and plan to take on the road with a band.

John had got the sailing bug on Long Island where he and Yko had a house on the waterfront. He’d bought a dinghy at a local boat yard from Tyler Coneys who then taught him to sail. Though Coneys was many years younger, the men became friends and when Lennon decided to make a longer, offshore journey he asked Coneys to find them a yacht.

Lennon and Ono made many decisions based on astrology and the reading of tarot cards. These divinations told them that Lennon should make a long journey in a south-easterly direction. Bermuda lies south-east of New York, so that became the destination.
Coneys chartered the Megan Jaye, a 43ft sloop based in Newport, Rhode Island, and skippered by Hank Halsted.

He was relaxed and open with them, talking about his past as a Beatle and his life as a superstar. He was interested in everything and enjoyed learning about their lives, saying that Coneys and his two cousins, who formed the rest of the yacht’s crew, reminded him of himself as a young man.

On the voyage, the pop star was very much part of the crew. In fact, as the least experienced sailor on board, he was happy to be appointed ship’s cook and spent a good deal of time preparing food in the small galley.
They set sail from Newport to Bermuda in early June. The passage should have taken four to five days, but less than 48 hours out they were hit by a force-eight gale. Coneys described this as a “brutal experience” and he and his cousins were laid low with sea sickness.
Only Halsted and his inexperienced “cook” were left standing. After 48 hours at the helm, the skipper knew he needed to rest, so Lennon would have to steer for a while. Initially reluctant, later describing himself as “the cabin boy learning the trade”, with Halsted’s coaching Lennon got the feel for keeping the ship safe.

As mountainous seas rolled down upon them, smashing over the deck, Halsted left him to it. After six hours sleep, he returned to the cockpit to find Lennon still lashed to the helm, in control and roaring curses – and sea shanties – at the offending waves. For a novice sailor to keep the ship safe for so long in those conditions was remarkable. Halsted observed simply to me, “What an accomplishment.”
John later described the voyage as “the most fantastic experience I ever had”. Sailing through the storm had been an extraordinary and empowering adventure. Halsted and Coneys said they saw a new man standing on the deck afterwards. Being in a place that was nowhere, facing the elements and outrunning them had given him a new confidence. Coneys described what it meant to his friend. “This was an epiphany, this was imprinted on you, you could do anything now.”

What John wanted to do was work, to concentrate on making music again. And on making landfall in Bermuda he decided that this was the place to settle for a while and get writing songs.
Donna Bennett, an estate agent, helped him find a new home. She didn’t recognise him at first. Calling himself John Greene, he explained that he wanted to stay for a while and bring his family down from their home in New York. He was charming, diffident but above all very friendly, with no airs or graces. As she drove him around the island, he eagerly took in the new surroundings.
Bermuda may be virtually tropical but, this being a British Overseas Territory, there are many reminders of home: red telephone and letter boxes, cars driving on the left, and parishes sporting utterly British names such as Pembroke, Warwick and St George’s. For John,who had not set foot in Britain for nine years, there must have been something of a homecoming feel to the experience.

Bennett said:“John was looking for peace, he wanted to walk on to the dock, have a quick swim, and go for a sail”. When she took me to see Undercliff, the house he settled in, a couple of miles from the island’s capital, Hamilton, I appreciated that this place must have been ideal.
Though relaxed and friendly, John was clearly concerned that he would not be overwhelmed by fans and local journalists. A few others did not recognise him initially, but his presence was soon common knowledge on the island. The locals, used to the rich and famous holidaying among them, left him in peace.

Reassured that his privacy would not be invaded – he even had impromptu drinks one night in a bar with a couple of local journalists who volunteered to write a brief story about his presence on the island but nothing more – Lennon arranged for his four-year-old son Sean to come and stay with him.
Ono did visit, but mostly she stayed in New York managing their business affairs and the couple communicated by telephone, playing each other the latest takes of the songs they were writing and developing.

John told Playboy: "So I was driving the boat for six hours, keeping it on course. I was buried under water. I was smashed in the face by waves for six solid hours. It won't go away. You can't change your mind. It's like being on stage; once you're on there’s no gettin' off. A couple of the waves had me on my knees. I was just hanging on with my hands on the wheel - it is very powerful weather - and I was having the time of my life. I was screaming sea chanteys and shoutin' at the gods! I felt like the Viking, you know, Jason and the Golden Fleece. I arrived in Bermuda. Once I got there, I was so centered after the experience at sea that I was tuned in, or whatever, to the cosmos. And all these songs came! The time there was amazing. Fred [Lennon's assistant] and Sean and I were there on the beach taping songs with this big machine and me just playing guitar and singing. We were just in the sun and these songs were coming out."

John returned to New York at the end of July 1980. But as he left Bermuda he was looking towards a bright horizon, at peace with himself and the world and buzzing with artistic energy.