Misto - January 23-27 2018: St Helena, a remote British outpost

The last two days into St Helena were somewhat frustrating with the wind very much behind us and therefore difficult to find a good point of sail. We should probably have put up the parasailor, however we persevered with the main and gennaker or genoa.

We arrived in St Helena at 07h40 local time and picked up a mooring. Then it was a mad rush to get the water taxi to the dock and complete all the formalities. We were just in time for the tour bus to pick us up from immigration so that we could enjoy the tour of the island. St Helena is a small, volcanic island which, discovered in the early 1500's, became a staging post for ships. Latterly, with the opening of the Suez canal, it's importance diminished. Today it is a sleepy British outpost, where delightful English is spoken the the very friendly locals. It is still very isolated. Recently a plane service to Johannesburg has started with flights once or twice a week, depending on the season (and the weather of course!). A supply ship still calls once a month.

St Helena's claim to fame is the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there and died on the island. So we visited his grave, now empty as his remains were repatriated to France, and Longwood House where he was held captive in really quite opulent surroundings. The mountanous roads on the island give way to some beautiful views and, with more time to spend there, some lovely walks and hikes. From the town Jacobs Ladder stretches 699 steps up to the top of the cliff. This used to be a railway to transport goods from the town up to those who lived on the top of the cliff, but now it is a tourist attraction and challenge. We walked up and down Jacob's ladder on the day before we departed St Helena and it certainly provides a cardiovascular workout!

The following day we went snorkeling with whale sharks. These gentle giants of the sea and very inquisitive and do not seem to be afraid of the swimmers. It was really a tremendous experience to be in the water with these creatures. We were lucky to be on St Helena at the right time of year as they only come there for a few months to breed. In the evening we enjoyed a fish fry at the local Yacht Club.

Because of our late arrival on the island we decided not to depart with the fleet on Saturday but spend another day on the island. We did a little provisioning - which is very hit and miss - you have to go to all the small stores to see what everyone has available. There is a reasonable amount of local vegetables, along with the imports from South Africa, but there is a significant lack of fruit. This is surprising as on the tour we saw a lot of fertile, arable ground. However the tour guide told us that the farming on the island has pretty much stopped as the younger generation don't want to farm the land. This is a great pity and it seems to me that there is a great opportunity here for someone. On Nuie there was a fantastic hydroponic farm and surely there is a similar opportunity here. We also spent some time in one of the hotels doing some internet. It's only a couple of years that there has been a mobile phone service on the island and internet is still very limited and expensive. In the evening we went to Influencer for an "Austalia Day" BBQ. It was a great evening with a number of the fleet boats who have decided not to go to Salvador but to take a more northerly route to Cabedelo via Ascension Island.

On Sunday morning we set off at 07h30 for Salvador, with Timshel following a couple of hours later. We have decided to fly the parasailor when possible on this leg and it's nice not to have the crashing and banging of the boom as the wind is again tending to be behind us or putting us on a broad reach. The first day has been a mixture of sailing, motoring and motor-sailing, and we hope for a little more wind than we had today for the remainder of the passage.
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At 1/28/2019 1:18 AM (utc) our position was 15°30.63'S 007°24.09'W
Our course and speed are 285T at 5.5kts
Wind is 12.7 kts at 130T.