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Free & BrEasy - Nearly on the Rocks!



A week is a long time in a circumnavigator's life, at least that's what last week has been for us. After a peaceful, uneventful 1750 nautical miles of passage across the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Town, we sighted the clouds topping the peaks of St Helena, last Thursday morning. We had previously crossed the Greenwich Meridian and started acquiring degrees west of longitude, from zero, to get to 5 degrees 45 minutes West at St Helena. We had also put the clock back by two hours in a single day, to Greenwich Mean Time which is now the same as UK time. No more was the sun setting at 9 pm, but at a civilised 7 pm, which helped the night watches grab a few precious hours of sleep.

As is our wont, we were with the "slow boats" of the World ARC fleet and arrived too late to get a mooring buoy. We were directed to anchor in 40-50 feet in a spot right under towering volcanic cliffs, rather too near the rocky shore for our liking. We could go no further out as the sea bed rapidly became too deep for us to anchor. Not ideal as we have a Bruce anchor which gives poor holding on a rocky sea bed. To make sure we put down 200+ feet of anchor chain and tested the anchor by reversing both engines. All looked good! That night was calm and we woke up aware that there was a current turning the boats through 360 degrees but happy that we were still in the same spot and the anchor was holding. Off we went to the shore to get clearance from Immigration and Customs. Imagine our consternation when an hour later we were told that Nexus, one of the fleet boats, was urgently trying to contact us. Yes, our anchor had started to drag in the strong current and Free & Breasy was getting near the rocks! Hearts beating we rushed down to the docks and caught a ferry back to the boat, to find the Harbour Master's boat had attached a line to the stern and made fast Free & Breasy to a mooring buoy. Our relief was writ large on our faces! We owe a special thanks to Eric, Russ and Michael on Nexus who had first spotted the problem and contacted the Harbour Master. This was Eric's second "spot" of a drifting "anchored" boat during the circumnavigation and yet again shows the advantage of sailing with a large group of boats who are looking out for each other. Soon after, some of the fleet boats left the mooring field allowing us to moor with confidence on one of the few red buoys designed for heavy weight boats - and at 23 tons gross, that's us!

And now the announcement of the results of the great Fish Off between Roger and Marco; a draw at 0 : 0. They were trawling lures for 1500 miles with no result! Marco did appear with a silvery flying fish which had jumped into the boat and expired. We told him that did not count for the competition but undeterred he cooked it for lunch! When we anchored off James Town we noticed that the water was crystal clear and we could see fish. In fact Roger saw seven large blue Mahi Mahi swim by the boat as though they were mocking the puny efforts of the fishermen! Too much for red blooded hunters like Roger and Marco! Out came the rods and tackle, in went the lures and a second inshore Fish Off was held. The result; Roger 1 : Marco 0! However, Roger's fish looked weird and after some debate, we decided against eating it and threw it back in the water, only to see its mate immediately appearing alongside, obviously relieved! Who says fish have no feelings! The fish was grey-white in colour, quite flat and possessed two great big goggly eyes. We found out later that they were called Bastard Hogfish - honest! Who can wait for the start of the next Fish Off.

Approaching St Helena from the sea all you notice are the barren volcanic rock and cliffs. Jamestown is a tiny ribbon of houses stretching up the floor of a deep volcanic valley, with the port at the valley end. On one side, the towering rocky cliffs are covered with steel curtains to protect the inhabitants below from rock falls. On the other side is a stair way going 600+ feet up the cliff at an impossibly steep angle. This is Jacob's ladder which was originally a rope ladder replaced by a tramway, using donkey power, for taking livestock manure up to the valley ridge to improve the soil! At one point the school was situated at the top so children had to climb up and down each day, the 699 steps. I bet they were fit and healthy!

The houses in Jamestown have not changed for hundreds of years. On the main street, many have wrought iron verandas and with the small shops and old cars, gives the impression of living in the past. Halfway up the Main Street, a lovely green space with trees and flowering bushes has been maintained called the Castle Gardens where Annies Place is to be found. Generations of Yotties have left their flags and boat bits at Annies, and we were soon at home there, using it as a base for Wifi connection. In the evening the whole fleet enjoyed a sumptuous pig roast where we ate as much as we could to make up for the hardships of the ocean passage!
So, the end of a long week but not the end of the St Helena story. We are still a little in shock over the near miss with the rocks. There could not be a worse place in the world to run aground with the rocky shore pounded by seas and no hope of repair facilities or travelling the huge distances to the next port. The harbour in Jamestown already has a number of wrecks, one of which still appears above the sea surface, so we must be grateful we did not add another boat to Neptune's graveyard.




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