Thursday 15th January ? Sunday 18th January 2009
ST.HELENA: HELLO; GOODBYE
15th January
St Helena first presents itself to us in the early hours of this morning as a dark mass on the horizon. As the morning unfolds the weather formulates a series of grey clouds and choppy grey seas and as we approach this tiny island in the middle of the south Atlantic, her sheer barren cliffs loom in to focus, shielding her from her enforced isolation and the persistent south-easterly trade winds. St Helena is only 10 miles long and 6 miles wide. Her neighbours? She is 1200 miles from Africa, 1800 miles from South America. Her nearest neighbour is the Ascension Island, one of her dependencies, which lies 700 miles to the northwest of her.
We skirt around the east coast of her and approach James Bay anchorage from the north, keeping at least 1.5 miles off the coast to avoid the wind acceleration zone. We are in regular contact with St Helena radio and port control and they are particularly welcoming and helpful and we soon find ourselves anchored in 14 metres of water.
We all scuttle ashore to do various jobs: dealing with customs and immigration, filling up with gas, offloading our rubbish (which has accumulated over the last 12 days) and provisioning the boat for the next leg. But we all know the best laid plans of mice and men. I think (cough, cough, splutter, splutter) Sam and I were the first to find ourselves in the Consulate Hotel, overlooking the quaint mainstreet of Jamestown, enjoying a cold beer with the crew on board Kasuje and Andante. By this time the grey skies had given way to a more seductive blue sky and the sun was shining. Soon the rest of Quasar V had located us and we were all enjoying a drink, exchanging fun stories of the last leg.
However, whilst Lindsey and Malcolm make the sensible decision to continue with the plan to do some initial provisioning of the boat, Sam and I are accosted, yes accosted by Kasuje and Andante and proceed to join them in a pub-crawl!! We tried to escape from the clutches of Nick, Steve, Norfy and Ann, but we couldn't could we Sam? Thankfully we were finally rescued by Linds, Ian and Malcolm and went for a bite to eat before retiring to bed.
16th January
The following morning we went on a tour of the island. We visited the Briar' Pavilion and Longwood House. To you educated folk out there you will know what these two places have in common. Yes that guy called Napoleon resided at both places. Apparently upon his arrival at St Helena, he complained of the state of Longwood, a derelict farm; he considered, as prisoners do, that his place of residence, as self-appointed Emperor no less, that he should dwell in a more comfortable abode. So whilst they extended and repaired Longwood for his use, he stayed at Briar's Pavilion for a couple of months. We then went to visit his tomb. Napoleon was exiled on St Helena in 1815 and died 6 years later in 1821 and was buried there, at a place of his choice; the most tranquil and idyllic of places, a luscious green path led us down to a glade, embraced with colourful flora and fauna, where his tomb lay peacefully and emptily; he was exhumed in 1840 and his body returned to Paris.
Our tour then took us to Broad Bottom and Deadwood Plain, presently used as farmland and for grazing but of previous note, 6000 Boer prisoners encamped there in 1900-1902. From my perspective it presented as a rather barren and neglected piece of land, but boasting the elusive national endemic Wirebird. With the stealth of Richard Attenborough, Linds managed to get a photograph of one.
Next on the tour guide was Plantation House, the residence of the island's governor, who was notable in his absence. The house stood resplendent in grounds overlooking the sea but 4 tortoises housed at the end of the garden summoned our attention. The oldest tortoise was 175; Jonathan. I think from memory a gift in 1882 from the Seychelles.
Our final destination was to the Ladder Hill Complex, at the top of a valley overlooking Jamestown; consisting of fortifications, barracks & batteries; you can see why this only held our attention briefly but looking down Jacob's ladder made us feel a little giddy. The ladder was built in 1829 as an incline plane used to haul manure up and send goods down to the town. It is 600 ft high and there are 699 steps at a 45 degree angle. Now there lies a challenge.
After the tour we had a few drinks but before we were to have supper we needed to expend a little energy. Ian, Malcs and Linds went for a gentle stroll in to town whilst Sam and I decided to climb Jacob's ladder. We felt so sick when we reached the top that we couldn't even contemplate climbing down. I guess after a day's tour and a couple of bottles of wine we had mistimed our ascent! So we sought a lift back down to Jamestown. We were scooped up by a fisherman called Phil (Wangy to his mates) in his clapped out old car. He stopped on an incline to pick us up; the reason being he had ran out of petrol and was freewheeling down to Jamestown!!! Plus his car stank of rotten fish and decayed seaweed which made Sam and I wretch even more. He turned to Sam and said, 'tell me if somethin's coming up the hill as I ain't gonna stop, I can't stop!' I just breathed through my mouth and stuck my head out the window!
17th January
This morning we busied ourselves provisioning for the next leg, which had us all shopping around and loading the boat with food. Finding a fresh tomato in St Helena proved a near impossibility, as did yoghurt. They had run out of fresh bread, fruit consisted of kiwi's and grapes; veg consisted of carrots, potatoes, onions and peppers. Everything was sold in about 20 different shops. As for herbs, they were non-existent. It was only when we were eating supper at a restaurant that evening we negotiated fresh tomatoes and lettuce from the restaurant owner.
In the afternoon, we decided to climb Diana's Peak, an ecologically valuable area on St Helena, with its Dogwood, Whitewood, He Cabbage and New Zealand Fern and wild fuchsia. The ascent was magical though and we were gifted with glorious views of the island. It's surprising how the barren cliffs on the coast belie the verdant lusciousness of the valleys within. It's surprising that the islanders don't exploit the natural resources of the island a little more.
We were left wondering whether there was a deep-seated apathy amongst the islanders, borne from the comfortable dependency and reliance of a ready supply from the UK and Cape Town. We were informed that in the last 12 months the population had dwindled from 6,000 to 4,500 with people seeking opportunities elsewhere. In conclusion, we found the Saints friendly, happy people but pondered whether this safe and sleepy island, would ever become independent. It would be interesting to see whether any progress is made to build an airport on the island.
Sunday 18th January
Today we left St Helena, and a sad farewell it was to. However, before we left for the high seas we went to the church service at St James and received a warm welcome and wish for a safe passage. We received a blessing by Reverend Alan Bateman and scooted back to the boat where Malcolm was waiting at the helm tapping his fingers. 'Get me up the mast I need to change the bulb in the masthead light,' he bellowed with authority, 'and then we're going!'
By 11.30 we had weighed anchor and were off, sailing on a starboard tack initially with our yankee and mainsail up; then hoisting the spinnaker due to the light winds and then finally putting the engine on over lunch because the wind disappeared altogether. It was 18:00 before sufficient breeze presented itself on our port beam.
We have about 13-14 days of sailing ahead of us.