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Starblazer - 18/01/2016 – Sorry!



The wind continued to tease us throughout Saturday with our ETA varying
between 2200 and 0300 Sunday, yes we’ll make it before the moon sets…. Wind,
come back! Etcetera, etcetera. We spotted the island from 32 miles off
which surprised us, however the highest point is something like 850 metres
so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Rounding the northern end of the
island the wind continued to play tricks. Initially it followed us,
fortunately because the twin headsails would probably not have coped with
the necessary course alteration, then it started dying. At midnight we had
0.97 miles to go to the finish line but the breeze hadn’t finished with us,
it died, it suddenly blew up to 17 knots, hooray! 0.03nM to go and it all
but disappeared, eventually we drifted over the line at 0015.

The day wasn’t all about frustration with the wind. We started well with a
celebratory breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs with some freshly baked
American style biscuits, made with rather scone like dough. Lunch was left
over couscous salad. I was just thinking about sorting out the ingredients
for dinner when John’s fishing line started pulling. He wasn’t sure he had
a fish but I spotted it surfacing on the waves. It was a relatively small
mahi mahi or dorado, we might have thrown it back but the hook had actually
snagged the eye and he was dinner size anyway! I used a Rick Stein recipe,
baking the fish whole on a bed of potato slices, surrounded by red peppers
etc. It was very tasty.

During the afternoon and evening we became a little concerned with the
amount of cloud cover, not from fear of bad weather but more for concern
about the amount of ambient light we might have to try to find a mooring
buoy. I didn’t go off watch at 2000, as I usually do, so I was in the
cockpit at sunset. I suddenly became aware of a bright orange disc sliding
down from behind a bank of cloud towards the sea. We watched mesmerised as
it quickly disappeared rewarding us with a brilliant green flash. Anna on
Ayama clearly saw the flash; we were at the bottom of a wave but rose up
just in time to see a piercing green dot, fantastic.

Once we had crossed the finish line we started the engine, rolled the genoas
away and headed north to get out of the way of the RMS (Royal Mail Ship)
Saint Helena which was heading down the leading line to Jamestown. We took
the poles down then cautiously motored towards the mooring field. I say
‘cautiously’ because John didn’t want to stress the gearbox/propshaft joint
too much and he didn’t know how much oil was left in the gearbox. Luc on
Makena very kindly came out to meet us in his RIB then guided us towards a
mooring buoy. We were safely tied up by about 0115, 2315 local time. Port
Control said he would contact us between 0900and 1000 to confirm when we
would see Customs and Immigration. We finally fell into bed at 2330 local
with an alarm set for 0800. A full night of undisturbed sleep, but no!

At about 0625 the insistent knocking on the hull finally woke John up.
Ayama had arrived at about 0600 and had been told to expect a call from Port
Control between 0900 and 1000. This had swiftly been replaced by a request
for the crews of Ayama and Starblazer to present themselves ashore at 0700.
The RMS St Helena was boarding her passengers early and taking 4 medical
emergency cases aboard for a swift passage to Walvis Bay, about 48 hours
away, then medivac to either Cape Town or Windhoek, Namibia. Customs and
Immigration decided they would deal with us at more or less the same time as
the departing passengers.

After clearing in we wandered up Main Street to the Consulate Hotel where I
had a coffee and John had a fried breakfast. Back down towards the yacht
club we met Tracey who was organising the day trip, found out the details
and hailed a water taxi back to the boat to grab cameras, water and some
snacks and dump our jumpers, then returned ashore. Leaving the jumpers
behind turned out to be a mistake! We toured the island in a 1929 open
topped Chevrolet with an engine from a 1945 Bedford truck. I’m not
convinced they have an MOT test here. We rarely got out of second gear and
laboured up the steeper hills but it was comfortable until the rain set in.
We stopped at numerous places to have the buildings explained and eventually
made our way to Napoleon’s Tomb though his body was repatriated in about
1841, 20 years after his death. From there we went to Longwood House, which
was a former farmhouse and was refurbished for Napoleon’s use. While we were
In Longwood House the rain came down but our driver pulled the hood over the
seats. After the tour of Longwood our driver took us to a viewpoint where
we could see the new airport. It was scheduled to open in February but is
running late. There was a trial flight in September where it was found that
the sea badly interfered with the signal from one of the beacons so it had
to be moved, the beacon not the sea of course! A second trial flight came
in during December, the report is still awaited. The runway is 2,050 m
long, on high ground with an approach over sea and sea not too far away from
its other end.

Our tour continued towards the centre of the island, circling around Diana’s
Peak, the highest point on the island, but sadly the visibility was poor.
Plantation House, our next stop, is home to the British Governor. It is a
magnificent building and is also home to 5 giant tortoises. The public
footpath alongside the end of the lawn gave us good views of both the house
and the tortoises. Johnathan, a ‘sprightly’ 184 years old, was busily
munching grass close to the fence. The final stop on the tour was at the
top of the famous Jacob’s Ladder, a very steep 699 steps which I might
attempt later today. I certainly wouldn’t want to go down them though
several members of our group did. Probably the most worrying part of the
trip was our descent, a steep, narrow road with blind corners, passing
places and oncoming traffic. The driver was in first gear all the way and I
was praying that the brakes wouldn’t fail!

We arrived safely at the bottom and were dropped off at the Yacht Club. We
had a curry at the Yacht Club before returning to the boat at 1900, a bit
more tidying up, in bed by 2100 and almost instantly asleep. Here I rest my
case, hoping I may be excused for not announcing our arrival sooner!

Joyce

Post script: Even later, John didn’t post this!




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