31 December 2018 – 24 January 2019 (St Helena – Cabedelo, Brazil)

St Helena is a small British Overseas Territory (10km x 16km), an Island of volcanic origin, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean and is one of the most remote places on Earth. It was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese, it then became a Dutch, then a British possession (initially under the East India Company, then the Crown). It was a strategically important port of call during the British Empire, until the opening of the Suez Canal and the advent of steamships. The Island also played an important role during the abolition of slavery.

The Island’s remote location meant it was used as a place of exile for key prisoners, including some 6 000 Boers, Chief Dini-Zulu, Bahraini princes and, of course, Napoleon. Napoleon was exiled here in 1815 and died here in 1821 and is probably the Island’s biggest claim to fame.

Arrival @ St Helena

I see St Helena

31 December, the last day of 2018. After a couple of celebratory drinks and a full night’s sleep without having to leap out of bed to take over watch, we were up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the Island. We had been warned by our friend Rob, who had been there a week before us that the 31^st and 1^st were holidays and the Island would be shutting down, so we hailed the water taxi.
Getting ashore from the water is a bit of a challenge, the water taxi boat, a hard wooden “Tommy the Tugboat” look-a-like, collects you from your boat, then it is brought alongside the concrete jetty, above which hang what looks like gallows for six, six ropes hanging from a large frame. In time with the swells one is to grab one of these ropes and use it to swing, Tarzan-like, onto the concrete step, then let go at the right time, before one’s momentum takes one backward and dumps one unceremoniously back in the boat, or worse, into the water. A real spectator sport this.
Getting back in can prove more challenging, an extra factor at play is usually the additional unsteadiness caused by a few cold beverages consumed at Anne’s and somehow stepping down into a boat is more difficult than stepping up out, especially when one has committed to the move and in mid flight the swell drops, so does the boat and suddenly one is plummeting out of control, coming to an abrupt halt as the swell rises again and the little wooden boat comes up to meet one in mid-air with a thump (my poor shin still hurts).  All this said, the water taxi costs £2 per person for a round trip, the alternative is not worth considering, taking ones tender boat ashore, it would need to be tied to a rope fixed to the jetty and left to float off, this would need some clever planning to get it back and could easily result in a swim, basically the water taxi has a captive audience and thus £2 is actually worth it…..

James Town

The Port Control guy met us at the jetty, he doubles up as the crane driver and one or two other jobs, really friendly chap and this was to become the mantra we all repeated whenever we met a “Saint”, escorted us to his office to clear in, then a walk right to the other side of the quaint little town, along Main Street which has been described as ‘one of the best examples of unspoilt Georgian architecture anywhere in the world’, past all the shops and a couple of restaurants, to the Police station to do Immigration, where we met the voice behind St Helena Radio, a friendly Capetonian who has moved to St Helena with his family to “Live the Dream”, back to Customs and we had officially arrived.
As the Island and ferry was about to shut down at 12:00 and we had been starved of wifi for 2 weeks it was a short trip up the road, back to Anne’s Place for good food, cold beer and catching up. Anne’s place comes with its own fame and reputation, it has been a haven for sailors for many years, the visitors books in which messages have been written date back to 1973 when Anne herself ran the restaurant and offered a place of comfort, good food, cold beer and the best apple crumble (we tried it, it’s good) to weary sailors arriving after a hard sail from Cape Town or Brazil.

Annes Place

Reading the books @ Annes

I spent quite a bit of time going through the books, reading entries from various yachts and crew, sadly I would have needed another week just to read them all, but was excited to find entries from Yacht Adamastor, 14 April 1991, our friend Eileen’s parents Brookes and Jeanne and nephew Joe, and Yacht Oryx, Malan’s brother Nic and wife Uta and their son Max on 11 November 1991. Also more recently our friends Alan and Chrissy and their Yacht Sundowner Rose.

Adjusting the mooring ropes
as they kept chaffing

The last sun set of 2018

Caught the taxi back to our boat and settled in to have our own little New Year celebrations on board, we even had live entertainment in the form of “Stagger man”. Stagger man was a crew member from the catamaran Bahati, moored in the bay next to us. He had been left alone on the yacht, the other two members staying ashore and he had been drinking, a lot, all day. He rose from his seat in the cockpit, attempted to move and crashed to the deck with an almighty thump. Up, he made it to the back to pee and his legs literally turned to cooked spaghetti, I have never seen anything like it. Down he went again. We spent the entire time we were awake just watching to make sure he didn’t fall overboard, he sure provided us with some laughs. The fireworks went off at 00:34, funny but the church bell rings at :34 past the hour every day too.

With everything on the Island being closed on the 1^st, we took our tender boat for a ride along the coast, a very rugged coast line indeed, then back to the bay where we donned our snorkelling gear and swam around the wreck of the Papanui, we were told by the local dive instructor that the ship was on fire and the captain purposely drove it in shore, wrecking it, probably to save the crew. Nice for us, as in crystal clear 12- 15m water we saw colourful reef fish again, haven’t seen the likes since diving in Sodwana.

The water was beautiful and warm

Coming from a world where everything happens fast and patience is a scarce commodity, finding an Island with a really laid back attitude took some getting used to. We hailed the water taxi on the radio and after waiting 10 – 15 minutes radioed once more, only for Paulie the “ferryman” to arrive and snarl in a most un-Saintly manner about waiting. Sadly Paul the ferryman was the only surly Saint we met the whole time we were there. The contract for the water taxi did however change hands and thus Paul changed jobs while we were there, so we give him the benefit of having a bit of stress in his life.

The Heart Shaped waterfall

Exploration time, Graeme and Michelle took what they thought was a short walk to the Heart Shaped waterfall, 4kms later they found it and there was no water, beautiful nonetheless and 4kms back, they were finished. A walk through the shops was interesting, a combination of British and South African non perishables and a very little local and South African fresh produce.

St Helena used to get their stores from South Africa and the UK on the RMS St Helena ferry which travelled between South Africa and St Helena, Ascension and two or three times a year to the UK. This ferry also used to carry passengers and sometimes yachts to and from South Africa. This meant fresh produce every 4 – 5 weeks.
The RMS St Helena was retired from service last year and a cargo ship now arrives every 7 – 8 weeks and only services St Helena and Ascension, takes no passengers and if its battling with space or weight the fresh produce is the first to go. No wonder the price of fresh stuff is so exorbitant, around 3 x the price of the UK according to one ex-pat nurse we met. For example locally grown tomatoes were £ 3.49 per kilo but were scarcer than hens teeth, South African tomatoes were £ 1.99 per kilo but were frozen and a little mouldy. After a bit of searching most things are available frozen or in tins and occasionally one can find local produce, we got a bargain when we found a lady selling green beans and lettuce from the boot of her car in the parking. Currency used on St Helena is the British Pound or the St Helena Pound and they are one for one with each other.

We got another shock when we took our gas cylinder to be refilled – gas is £ 4.50 per kilo, a 5kg cylinder cost us £22.50 or R427.50 to fill, ouch.

We discovered the Consulate Hotel has newer better wifi and they make great coffee and have a good chef so fresh cakes are baked daily. We took Graeme and Michelle there to get wifi and a drink only to find the stand in manager on his way out, he sold us wifi and told us to lock the front door on the way out when we were done! We were astounded. Another day we met Betty there and chatted over a piece of decadent chocolate cake, within 15 minutes she had invited us to have tea with her at her house which we would pass on our Island exploring trip, such friendly, trusting people.

Minor dents & scratches

We rented a car for 3 days from the Blue Lantern hotel. Car hire was a little pricey at £20 per day, but again we are a captive audience, on inspection it had a number of dents and scrapes and scratches which the owner brushed off as unimportant, in fact he said you’ll probably add a few, he was just worried about the glass – windows, windscreen and lights as these would keep the vehicle off the road for a while.

Windy scary roads

The reason for the dents and scratches was soon apparent, the roads through town are narrow 1.5 car width and like the UK with cars parked on either side of the road, but going out of town we were on to single cart track, winding roads that either go up or down, going up cars have right of way. Bends were very often hairpin, warranting 3 point turns or a small scrape of the car along the rocks and one is to hoot as one approaches these blind turns, it seems those big mirrors used to see traffic around corners are expensive so they don’t have many. Driving here is not for the faint hearted, white knuckle stuff indeed.

Looking right @ home in the library

Plantation House

Beautiful library

We wound our way to Plantation House where we had booked a tour. Built in 1792 by the East India Company as a country residence for the Governor, to be used in the summer months when the heat in town became unbearable, it is now the permanent residence of the Governor. A very well preserved, 35 room house with the most amazing library holding over 2000 books.

And more Johnathan

Johnathan

The current Governor, the first female Governor of St Helena, has opened the house to locals and tourists, on Wednesdays people are welcome to sit and read any of the literature in the library and are even served tea and cake whilst there.

Deep in conversation with Emma

Also, on any day before 16:00 anyone is welcome, at their own risk, to play tennis on the courts next to Johnathan the resident 180ish year old tortoise and his friends David, Emma and Fredrik (who used to be Fredrika until he needed a vet and his gender crisis was discovered) who are much younger at between 40 and 60 years of age. Johnathan is quite a celebrity, he is possibly the oldest living animal on the planet, brought to the Island from the Seychelles in 1882 at about 50 years of age.  The tour ended with cake and St Helena grown ‘Green Tipped Bourbon Arabica’ coffee, considered one of the finest coffee’s in the world.

Next was Napolean’s tomb in the Sane valley where he requested to be buried under the willows and was laid to rest on 9 May 1821. His remains were returned to France in 1840. The tombstone remains bare as the French requested the inscription to read ‘Napolean, born at Ajaccio, August 15, 1769, died at St Helena May 5 1821’. The Governor declined, insisting that Bonaparte be added. The French decided to leave the stone bare.

Almost next door we visited St Pauls Cathedral, or more importantly the grave yard. Graeme and Michelle were trying to trace a family member with the surname Truebody, from their family tree, who had lived on St Helena and married a Weston. They had visited the archives in town and got some information and been pointed in the direction of the cemetery to possibly find the grave, a task that proved impossible, there is no order to the graves and most of the headstones for that era were no longer legible.

Andy's Shop

A stop at the distillery to find it is the business of the husband of the very bubbly and uber informative Sally, the owner of the Standard Bar in town, with whom Graeme and Michelle had spent some time after their stroll to the waterfall. It was open for a tour at 9:30am the next day so we would be back and we then made our way to Rosies Bar, via Andy’s a little rustic, off the beaten track, shop/bar. Rosies came highly recommended by ‘Mr St Helena Radio’ as an upmarket bar/restaurant and it was, upmarket and extremely pricey, one drink each was enough. We did laugh gin and tonic was Island style, two double gins with ¾ of a tin of tonic between them.

Rocket fore and Banjo

That night Banjo, the first entrant in the Governors Cup race arrived at 21:30. The Governors Cup is a biannual yacht race from Cape Town to St Helena. Thanks to our support team back home, we knew pretty much what time they would be arriving and Kevin had popped a bottle of champagne in the fridge ready for them. On arrival we gave them a warm welcome then Kevin and Graeme launched our tender boat and scooted over to see if they needed a hand and to give them the bottle of champagne. Banjo is a small, fast, trimaran, there is no space on there for luxuries, much less champagne, so they were most appreciative.  Next in was Rocket, their first radio contact being around 04:00 and their arrival at 06:00.  When Kevin swam over to welcome them they already had the braai going and were consuming rum and coke, real sailors.

Getting its coat of paint

Looking all spiffy

Interestingly enough the couple of times we had been ashore we had been convinced the yacht club was permanently closed, the building looked shabby and neglected and was never open. Suddenly there were two men with purple paint transforming it before our eyes.

The distillery tour was very interesting, a one man concern that has around 8 – 10 wooden barrels, 6 – 8 stainless vats and beautiful German distilling equipment. Initially prickly pears were the only fruit in abundance on the Island and they made Tungi a Tequila, nasty stuff.

Fortunately they branched out and now make Gin, White Lion spiced rum, a lemon and a coffee liqueur, using the local coffee (both of which are really nice) and wine, a dry Rose, a Pinotage and a Sauv Blanc. I tried the Rose at the Standard bar and it really was quaffable, not necessarily worth £5 per bottle, but apparently according to the Islanders that’s pretty cheap plonk.

Sandy Bay

Black sand, pebbles & rocks

From there we went to Sandy Bay to
 a black sand beach, with black pebbles and rocks and adorned with rusted cannons, there are so many cannons on this Island. Apparently the Island is the result of the eruption of two volcano’s, this bay was created by the south-western volcano.

Atop whats left of the fortification

We explored the fortification overlooking the bay. In 1742 this Line was the longest fortified line on the Island. Looking back it was amazing to see how the landscape changes from the barren, lunar-like lack of vegetation where we were to the hills just above where it is green and lush.

Next stop High Knoll Fort which was built in 1798 and is an excellent example of the military defensive structures of its time. In 1811 troops from High Knoll fort quelled a mutiny over alcohol rations and six of the ringleaders were hung here.

High Knoll fort, sea in the distance

From the top we spotted Princes Lodge, that sounded like just the place for a cold drink, unfortunately they were packing up after a wedding and unable to help us, we did however meet the bubbly Gillie who was happy to give us recommendations for the best places to go the next day, these people never cease to be helpful and kind. We spent a bit of time in the Standard with the locals, listening to live music, loud but pretty good, then on our way to the ferry we found the yacht club open, entertaining the Banjo crew and with cold beer, that necessitated a pit stop too.  Yacht Naledi arrived at around 23:00 that night and we helped them figure out the moorings in the dark.

We awoke to a beautiful sight, what we thought was a manta ray with two remoras, swimming gracefully around behind our yacht, on went snorkels and masks and we went swimming with it. Stumpy turned out to be a most inquisitive, tailless devil ray, happy to swim up to and around us. According to the local dive instructor its resident and quite friendly, what an amazing experience.

Coffee bushes full of berries

Tumbling the berries to get their skins
off

We found Rosemary’s coffee plantation at Rosemary’s Gate. The rare coffee cultivar grown here was introduced to the Island from Yemen in 1732. Due to several things including its remote location, limited harvestable land
and long growing season it is the rarest and one of the purest and most expensive coffee’s.

Water helps them
tumble better

James removing rogue skins, manual
business this

 We knew the owners were away so tours were not available but on arrival we were fortunate to meet James, who does the majority of the manual labour, in the middle of his work, and he was more than happy to give us the equivalent of a guided tour. There were piles of bags of beans ready for roasting and this would be done by the owner who was returning that evening. James kindly offered to organise us a bag of roasted beans and drop it off at Anne’s place for us the next day but it seems the roasting just didn’t happen before we left, nothing happens in a hurry here.

Dry beans ready for roasting

Berries with and without skins

Ghost airport, not a soul in sight

The airport is over there

Saturday was a huge day, the Airlink Bombadier aeroplane arrived from South Africa. Usually this is a once a week occurrence, but due to the popularity over the holiday season there were two flights per week happening.

Bustling airport

The airplane ready to take off from
one end of the runway

We had stopped at the airport the day before and it was like a ghost town, deserted. Today the majority of St Helena Island seemed to be there, seeing people off, meeting those arriving and some people, like us, were just there for the sheer spectatorship side of things, we kept bumping into many of the people we had met in the last few days.
We watched the landing and departure an hour later and honestly, looking at that runway, I don’t know if I ever want to fly to St Helena, it just doesn’t seem long enough and is a sheer drop off on both ends!!!!

It was still dark at 4am!

Assisting Dale on Yolo

Very creative, making the flag

Michelle was kind enough to share her 50^th birthday with us, although I don’t think she bargained on being rudely awakened at 04:00 to watch Kevin and Graeme assist single handed sailor Dale on Yolo.

We made it up to her though, put up a couple of decorations and gave her the day off while we turned MaXScene into a laundry, washing towels and linen and clothes in preparation for departure the next day.

The flag hanging in Anne's, we made
our mark

Then we headed into town for birthday lunch at Anne’s and to hang a beautiful MaXScene flag that Michelle had made, among the other mementos left by previous sailors. We even managed a chocolate cake for desert, amazing what this little oven can churn out.

Laundry time

Our last day on the Island was over to the official stuff, Immigration, Port Control & Customs again. A stop at the bank to exchange Scottish pounds that we had and which are not acceptable currency in the shops, last minute grocery shopping, found some freshly grown tomatoes, a cucumber and lettuce, yay salad in our future, last lunch at Anne’s place,

Inside the yacht club

a stop at the yacht club to meet the Commodore who, together with his wife and children was also a participant in the Governors Cup Race and had arrived the night before. He and his wife run the yacht club, this would explain why it was closed. Seems James the Commodore, and crew, sailed to Cape Town to take part in the Race but on arrival there was mutiny and the crew came home, leaving James to sail back alone, so he flew his family over and found another crew member and sailed back. He and his family are no strangers to sailing having circumnavigated and he was excited to give us advice on places we should stop at.

Egg Island in the foreground

Eventually we made a 15:15 departure from the bay, sailing past Egg Island (we had heard many day charters going there so wanted to see what it was) which was simply a rock off the mainland covered in bird poop. From there we set the auto pilot and got on course for Cabedelo in Brazil. 

We arrived at St Helelna and met strangers and a week later we left many new friends, the Saints are going to be pretty impossible to beat for friendliness, helpfulness and just being pure awesome human beings. I couldn’t recommend a visit more strongly to anyone.

Smoking some of the tuna 

Splicing the frayed mooring lines
ready to do duty once again

The first couple of days conditions were really bumpy with a seriously scrambled sea state, which together with watch routines, took a bit of getting used to again. We were escorted by a school of dolphins including a really cute tiny baby, glued to its mom’s side. Interestingly we realised that we would be crossing 5 time zones before reaching Brazil, every 15 degrees of longitude we shift our clocks back by 1 hour to stay in the correct time zone. By the time we reach Brazil we will be 5 hours behind South Africa

Rummy Cub doesn't blow away

Garbage disposal, all plastic, paper etc
stuffed into empty containers

Shaving adds a new dimension

We continue to fly the parasailor by day and the genoa by night, squalls are a real threat and more likely on this part of our journey, so we stay on the side of caution. Our target Nautical miles per day is 100, most days we make more, shortening our journey all the time. We continue with normal cooking, cleaning, water making and laundry chores, got the sewing machine out to make one or two running repairs to covers and clothes and finally we were able to consolidate all the frozen food into one freezer, freeing the drinks fridge up again, suddenly morale improved. We have been entertained by many flying fish and Rainbow Runners that chase and eat them. These Rainbow Runners streak through the water, leaping in the air and diving around the bows of the boat, just like mini dolphins, such fun to watch. 

Fishing rods are out all the time but thankfully not many takers, one huge bite snapped the line and then we had a pearler, Graeme reeled his line and lure in, only the lure leapt out of the water and got caught in the wind generator! Kevin had to electronically brake it while Graeme carefully, in a rolling sea, standing on top of the cockpit roof, cut his lure and line loose. After yet another lure being stolen Graeme’s patience was finally rewarded with a 14.8kg Wahoo. Kevin and I were woken from a nap to find the hard work was over, the fish was landed, gaffed (Michelle’s first time) and ready for filleting (I stayed hiding in the cabin). The unwanted parts were thrown back when they noticed a sail fish swimming up to the back of the boat, Kevin got some pretty good underwater footage of it, might explain what keeps happening to Graeme’s lures.

As we near Brazil so we find shipping traffic again and the competition begins again, who has the most ships on their watches, I was in the lead when once again the magnet struck and at 02:00 we were doing donuts to take avoiding action around a vessel that would not answer repeated radio calls and was on course to be way closer than comfortable.

We were lucky enough to experience the blood moon on Monday 21 January, on shift change at 02:00 we noticed a black shadow at the top of the moon, over the next 3 hours we watched the moon completely disappear as though a blind was pulled down and then reappear in full as the blind was peeled off, to light up the ocean around us once again. Kevin managed to get a photo or two but the light and movement of the sea made this an almost impossible task.

The night of 24 Jan we were getting excited as we would be arriving in Cabedelo the next day. After a beautiful sunset, delicious dinner and while awaiting the moon rise, chaos – alarms going off loudly and often, our restricted radar zone had been breached 3 times, 2 ships to port and one in front, requiring motors and some haste to get out of his way. This was to be the way of things the entire night, by the time day broke we were all tired and happy to be able to enter the river and anchor outside the Marina Jacare Village where we currently enjoy caipirinhas and some down time.