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Free & BrEasy - Toast to the Slow Boats



We are now 6 days out of St Helena on the 1960 mile passage to Salvador, Brazil. There was little or no wind for the first 3 days and nights so the motor was growling continuously, before light trade winds arrived only to go again! The metal monster has become our constant friend, at least until the diesel runs out!

We have all caught ourselves staring out into the blue yonder, lost in our memories of our short but eventful stay on St Helena. We were taken on a tour of the Island by Robert Peters, a sprightly 78 year old 'saint'. The inhabitants of St Helena call themselves 'saints' although for a population of 4000 there appear to be a lot of churches so perhaps it's a religious accolade as well! The crews of Merlin and Free & Breasy squeezed into Robert's rickety pickup and we rattled at great speed up the volcanic valley, clinging on for our lives. Robert was a great raconteur and frequently stopped to give us a guided history of the island complete with a port folio of photographs. He spoke English with a heavy accent that was a mixture of South African, Australian, American and Cockney - that must be a mid-Atlantic accent! From our vantage point above Jamestown we could clearly observe that the island is currently suffering a drought and there was no water going over the Heart-shaped waterfall. Despite the lack of water, the barren volcanic valley was rapidly replaced by green shrubs and trees which led to rolling hills and grassy pastures supporting contented beef cattle, reminiscent of Devon. On the hills, the pastures gave way to the coarse leaves of flax plants, remaining from a period when flax fibre was a major export from the island. In the distance we could see coffee plantations for the famous St Helena coffee, and on the high ridges, an occasional towering conifer which we had mistaken for leaning lookout towers when approaching the island.

Robert took us to Longwood House where we were told the extraordinary story of Napoleon Bonaparte's imprisonment and death on the island after the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was given the rank of General by the British Government and was exiled to St Helena complete with his top ranking army and naval staff, and their families, who were all provided with a comfortable lifestyle. Napoleon was not even under house arrest and used to go riding and had a local mistress. After 6 years he succumbed to a hereditary form of stomach cancer and died at Longwood surrounded by his Generals and Admirals! He was buried in four coffins only to be exhumed 30 years later by the French Government with great pomp and ceremony, on his way to the grand mausoleum at Les Invalides, in Paris. The Brits know how to treat their defeated top brass! Mind you it was a different story 200 years later for prisoners of the Boer War who were put into a concentration camp on the island.

From the higher parts of the island, including Halley's Observatory where the great astronomer mapped the stars of the southern hemisphere, the barren moonscape of the coast can be seen where a runway and airport is being built. A favourite topic of conversation for the saints is "life after the airport". At present, St Helena is completely dependent of ships from the UK and Cape Town. These will stop when the airport opens in 2016 and bring to an end just over 500 years of relative isolation. Threats of hordes of tourist ruining the beauty of the Island seem unlikely as there are no signs of hotels being built but the airport will change St Helena both for good and bad.
We were taken to the south side of the Island where a sign enchantingly pointed to 'Fairy Land' on the way to the black sandy beach at Sandy Bay. In the distance we could see Lot and Lot's wives, small rock pinnacles on a ridge called 'The Gates of Chaos'! Then we were driven to see the Islands Distillery which makes Tungi, powerful hooch distilled from local cactus pears. We finished our tour of the island at the Governor's colonial style residence, Plantation House, where we met the oldest saint called Jonathan, a 200 year old Seychelles giant tortoise, and at High Knoll Fort built on the hill overlooking Jamestown. That evening we were invited over to another fleet boat, Folie a Deux, with crews from other boats that are always last to arrive in ports on the World ARC circumnavigation. Our thanks to Tracy, Lucy, Brian and Tim, who hosted a great evening and fed us a delicious dinner. At the end of the evening a great shout went up when we celebrated a 'Toast to the Slow Boats'!

St Helena has a golf course so Roger was able to feed his passion with a round of 'scrub golf' (because of the drought) while the Marco and Michael plus crew members from Adela, entertained their love of walking by scaling the 2690 feet Diana's Peak, then walking up to the fortifications above Jamestown opposite High Knoll Fort and, of course, climbing Jacob's ladder. That night we dragged our tired limbs to Annie's and pigged out (again) on another excellent buffet.

Roger looked up his sister's St. Helena pen-pal from the late 1950's but could not find her name in the local telephone directory. However on enquiring at the government archives and Registry of Births and Deaths was told that the person had got married and changed her name. This was in the directory and upon calling and explaining why Roger was invited round for a meal with all the family. Unfortunately the lady could not remember the pen-palling but will contact Roger's sister to see if any memories can be uncovered.

It was time to Leave St Helena and also say goodbye to the crews of Sweet Pearl, Andromeda and Luiton who are leaving the rally to go directly to Europe via Ascension Island. After one year and over 20,000 miles of sailing together, it was a sad but heart warming farewell. In particular, we were saying goodbye to Alejandro, our Free & Breasy shipmate from the Galapagos to Cape Town. Not 'goodbye' but 'till we meet again'. Fair winds and safe sailing.

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