A family from the most remote inhabited island on the planet have started a new life in Isle of Man after an emotional drama which began 15 months ago

The Repetto family comprising Robin and Dawn and their two daughters Jade and Amber are now settling in well here and are fully embracing life in the Isle of Man.

But it was a different story in February last year for the family whose home was in the British Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha where the only way of travelling is by boat, a six day trip to South Africa.

Dawn Repetto took up the story on behalf of the ’Tristanian’ family.

She told the Examiner: ’We left the island in February last year for what we thought would be a six month holiday away in the UK.

’Of course when we arrived in the UK a week or so later the UK went into lockdown and we could not get back to the island.

’We could not even travel around to visit friends because of Covid.

’So we ended up looking around for jobs and we were based in Bristol. We stayed there and managed to find some work there.

’But we remembered that we had visited the Isle of Man in 2015 and we had really enjoyed staying there and had pleasant memories of the place.’

The family are friends with Bushy’s Brewery boss Martin Brunnscheweiler and his wife Debbie, based in Port Erin.

They had all liaised in a project that involved Mr Brunnschweiler brewing a special beer using berries from Tristan da Cunha.

Mrs Repetto, aged 45, said: ’We contacted Martin Brunnschweiler and sent him our CVs and he sent them out to a few agencies and my husband was lucky enough to secure a job which was a lifesaver amid all that was going on.

’We were able to travel to the Isle of Man last September.’

Eldest daughter Jade, aged 20, started a course at university in Bournemouth while Mr and Mrs Repetto and their youngest daughter Amber, aged 13, travelled over.

Jade later came over to the Isle of Man to continue her studies online but she plans to return to Bournemouth later this year.

Mrs Repetto said: ’We have started a new life in the Isle of Man and we don’t plan on going back to Tristan any time soon.

’This all started out as something like ’’oh my goodness what are we going to do?’’ But it has all worked out for the best.

’We are really happy here, the Isle of Man is a lovely place. It is like an island away from an island.

’If we were in Tristan the chances of us seeing our daughter while she was away in university would have been quite slim.

’So, moving forward, we think the Isle of Man is a better place.’

Mrs Repetto added: ’The people in the Isle of Man are so friendly and if anybody needed a change in their life I would recommend the Isle of Man as a place to be.’

Mrs Repetto was born in Tristan da Cunha and ran the tourism department there. She was also responsible for a gift shop and small bakery and a small museum.

The family are immersed in island life here - she has a job in the Mangrove cafe at the Wildlife Park - ’I love it up there and work with some really lovely people.’

Her husband Robin, aged 52, is estate manager at one of the island’s most well-known homes Bishopscourt near Kirk Michael.

And daughter Amber is studying at Peel’s QE2 school

’We really enjoy the country living’ said Mrs Repetto.

The family are looking after the house until the new owners of Bishopscourt can travel over from America.

Mrs Repetto was full of praise for Mr Brunnschweiler for his role in helping her husband secure the job in the island.

’Martin very kindly helped us with the transition and he helped to get us settled when we came over so we really do have a lot to thank him for.’

Mrs Repetto said a woman she used to work with on Tristan has taken on her job there of tourism manager.

’Our families still live in Tristan da Cunha including my parents and my brother and his family and we stay in contact usually by phone or email with the island nearly every day really to keep up with what is happening.’

Mrs Repetto recalled that when they were stuck in the UK they were prevented from travelling back because of travel restrictions.

’To get to Tristan we would have had to travel to South Africa and international flights had been shut down so we could not get a flight back and around the time we secured the job here things were starting to open up, but we had already made plans to move forward with our life.

’We feel that it was a great decision that we made to come and live and work in the Isle of Man.’

She confirmed: ’Tristan da Cunho is the most remote inhabited place in the world.’

She revealed that there had been some very happy news from Tristan last week - ’Up until yesterday we had a population of 246 people. But a young couple on the island have seen the arrival of a little baby girl so I should say that has increased the population to 247 on the island.’

Mrs Repetto said locals are known as Tristanians. Many speak with what sounds like a South African dialect and this is put down to the links with that country.

Tristan Da Cunha is about6,323 miles away from the Isle of Man.

The British Overseas Territory has its own constitution.

There is no airstrip on the main island; the only way of travelling in and out of Tristan is by boat, a six-day trip from South Africa.

The territory consists of the inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic

Martin Brunnschweiler spoke about his links with the family and the special beer produced in 2015.

He recalled: ’Robin, Dawn and daughters Jade and Amber were involved in every stage of the beer - they picked the berries on Tristan, added them to the brew here on the Isle of Man and then pulled the first pints when the beer was launched at Olympia in London at the Great British Beer Festival.

’My wife Debbie and I visited Tristan in 2016 (a seven day sail from Cape Town) and took some brewing equipment for Robin to make beer for the island’s only pub, ’The Albatross Bar and to sell to the occasional tourists who found themselves in the area.

’We also served the beer at the Foreign Office at a British Overseas Territory reception hosted by then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

’We knew that Prince Philip had an interest in Tristan da Cunha as its main settlement is called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (named after Queen Victoria’s fourth son who was also Duke of Edinburgh).

’We were persuaded to send some bottles of the Island Brew down to Buckingham Palace for him to sample as we were also assured that the Prince always drank beer with his food in preference to wine- a man after my own heart!

It is understood there have been no reported cases of coronavirus on Tristan although vaccinations have been taking place. Meanwhile the Repetto family are keen to continue putting their new roots down here.