St Helena Island

St Helena - Tuesday 8th March - after 13 days at sea.

We could see the island from 20 nm away. As we got closer we could see the huge cliffs rising up out of the water looking barren and stark. Someone commented that it looks like the landscape from the Jurassic Era.

Land at last!

Jamestown

The last few nautical miles to St Helena took forever. We thought we would never get around the island, but eventually we motored into James Bay after hailing the Harbour Master, Steve Kirk, on channel 16. Flying our yellow quarantine flag we attached ourselves to a yellow mooring ball and waited for the officials to arrive.

The officials came out on Wednesday to take our boat papers. We were told that we were not allowed off the boat at all, not even to swim. We were not allowed to have any contact with any other boats or people until we had received negative covid test results on Friday. They took their Covid protocols very seriously.

Boat cleaning and maintenance became the order of the day. We washed the boat, washed clothes and stowed things away. It was excruciating watching the other yachties go to shore and swim off their boats. A little bit of relaxing after all the boat cleaning was necessary!

Time to relax

We recognized a few other boats

On Thursday, 10th March, what would have been my late father’s 83rd birthday, we had our PCR test. More boat work and more lazing around.  

Last fillet

The last fillet from South Africa. It was delicious! Little did we know it would be the last steak we would have for a while.

Games to pass the time

Friday was an exercise in patience. Although we were told that we would get our tests back at 9 or 9:30, we only got them at 12. All negative! I have never been so happy to fail a test.

Just after we had been tested on Thursday, we heard The Kraken on the radio, calling Steve Kirk. He had actually made it. They only do PCR tests on Thursday at 1pm. Elric had missed it. Once he had picked up a mooring buoy he got on the radio with Steve and basically begged to be tested. He was lucky. Another cat came in late on Thursday night and because they were doing tests in the town on Friday, the nurses came out and tested both Elric and the German Cat next to us. They got their tests back on Saturday morning. So lucky that they did not have to wait a whole week for their tests. We have since met a few people who had to wait a week.

We were very worried about the ferry dock as we had heard scary stories from other sailors about how hard it was to get ashore. It can get quite rough when the tide is changing and the surge can get big. Thank goodness, each time we went ashore or went back to the boat Dave and Justen were with us. Between all of us we managed to help Laura get on board without falling off or slipping on the wet cement dock. Johnny, the main ferry driver, was very friendly. The ferry started at around 8am and ran on the hour, every hour. The last ferry was at 6pm, but there were a couple of times when we arranged for a later ferry back to the boats.

Off the boat at last!

Dave and Justen

The first steps on land felt very strange, like the 
world was moving

Waiting for the ferry

Customs and immigration wasn’t too bad. It is all in one building which makes life much easier. Steve Kirk was efficient and he and his staff were friendly and helpful. We managed to get all the paperwork done and our passports stamped without too much trouble. Then it was time to explore this beautiful town.

The people are so friendly and helpful. People walking past on the street say hello. People in cars raise a hand as they pass. We were told not to wear masks as nobody wears them and they would be seriously worried if we did. It was so nice to be able to go ashore in the knowledge that the island was Covid free and not wear a mask. We were exempt from quarantine because we had spent almost 2 weeks at sea. Those who flew in had to spend 14 days indoors.

The town has one long Main Street that goes up a hill. The buildings are very close together, if not right next to one another with no space in between. There are houses at the top of the hill that must have magnificent views. It is quaint and like a step back in time. There are little shops along Main Street, quite a few supermarkets, a post office, insurance office, hardware store and gift shops.

Looking up main street with 
the town square behind Laura

Ann’s Place, is a restaurant at the bottom of main street, where we spent quite a bit of time over the following few days. The currency here is British Pound, so we had to multiply everything by 20 something!! It gets scarily expensive. We could get Wi-Fi at a cost! Three pounds for 30 minutes. It was patchy and there were times when only one person could be on it at a time. As there were quite a few families from boats who gathered there, there were times we had no internet even though we had paid for it. It was valid for 24 hours, so all was not lost. We were also able to use the code on different devices. We just had to log off on one to be able to change devices. This meant that we were each able to get a few minutes to check mail and WhatsApp messages. Thirty minutes goes in a flash. Laura was happy to have some Wi-Fi whenever we were there. Jenny, who ran the restaurant was very friendly and helpful. Her food is good and we spent a lot of time there talking to other cruisers.

Ann's Place

Expensive, unreliable Wi-Fi

Ann's Place

View of the garden from Ann's Place

Communicating with loved ones back home

Laura is happy with some Wi-Fi

The St Helena Yacht Club opened their doors for the first time in a while and were offering a vegan dinner on the Friday evening. We decided to go for a few drinks and hopefully meet some interesting people. The family from Saoirse were there and we had a lovely time catching up with them. They were heading to Brazil the following day.

Justen, Dave, Siobhan and Laura

Just to prove Andrew is here!

On the way into Jamestown

There is a mark on the wall near our heads
where the water has risen to in the past

We had signed up for a boat ride to go and swim with whale sharks on Saturday morning. The ferry came to fetch us at around 9:30 to take us to the big motor boat. We drove for about an hour, searching for the elusive, shy whale sharks. Sadly they were not showing themselves. We all jumped in the water anyway and had a snorkel. The waves were quite big and it was a struggle to get back on the boat. Laura enjoyed every minute of it! There were quite a few other cruisers on the ride with us. We met up with Matt and Jen and their two boys, from Perry. We had met them in Cape Town before they left. We also met Chris and Paul from Georgia who ended up being very helpful later in our trip. More of that in the next chapter!

No sign of any whale sharks

Looking for the big one

Dave had lost his phone the night before and went ashore to look for it. He searched everywhere to no avail. Later, local kids who swim off the dinghy dock, found it in the water. It must have fallen out his bag when they were coming back from dinner that night. He put his phone in rice for days, but sadly it never worked again.

Then it was time to tackle Jacob's Ladder. This consists of 699 steps going straight up the hill. It looks daunting from the bottom but we met the challenge. The record is 5 minutes set by a Scottish man. We went slowly, enjoying the view and resting every 25 steps. The view from the top is amazing. We could see all the boats in the mooring field and Baluchon in the distance, heading for Brazil. There are canons and walls left from the war. We even found a tennis court near the edge of the cliff. Many people live up there. Rosie’s bar had just closed, so we refilled our water bottles and headed down again. Glad to be back at sea level, we went to Anne’s Place for a beer and an ice cream for Laura for making it all the way up without complaint. We discovered after visiting the museum, which is a must see, that originally there were no steps but a pulley system with two carts pulled by donkeys at the bottom of the hill. They used the carts to bring stone up the hill to build the forts and walls.  

Let's do this!

Fast Scot!

Slow and steady

Half way

View of the town from halfway up

At the top!

Laura, nearly there

What a great feeling!

Well done!

699 steps!

We made it! Top step

Jamestown and the bay

The houses of Jamestown nestled in the valley

We made it! What a view

Calypso in the bay

Now to get down.
What makes you think I don't like heights??

We watched 6 Nations rugby at The Mule Yard and shared pizzas with the group we were with. We met a family from Germany. They have a beautiful 42 foot Leopard Cat. Brand new, just launched in Cape Town. They are lovely people, interesting to talk to. We caught a late ferry back to the boat. 

Looking down main street into the square

Main street

On the right is the court house

We tried to get hold of a tour operator to take us around the island but they were all booked. Jane, from Ann’s Place phoned around and found a willing taxi driver. He took us to all the tourist spots on the island. He wasn’t as talkative as a tour operator would have been but at least we saw the island. It is so barren on the shoreline but lush and green inland. Saints talk about going to the country even through it is about an hour’s drive. The rolling hills, cows, sheep, and narrow roads reminded me of Ireland. A few houses are dotted around. There were a few small shops, but we didn’t stop and go in. In retrospect, although we saw most of the island, I think I would have preferred a proper tour with a proper tour guide. Others who went on a proper tour went for the whole day, were treated to lunch and even saw the birding trails.

Jamestown valley

Petrol storage. Not much of a beach

The airport at the bottom of the hill

Napoleon’s House was only open on a Tuesday between 11am and 2pm. We stopped to take a few photographs from the road.

Napoleon's House

The Governors House is huge with massive lawns and a tennis court. The oldest tortoise lives in his garden. He has a wonderful vegetable garden with the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen.    

The Governor's House

Jonathan is the oldest tortoise on the island and until recently was the only one. More tortoises were brought in to keep him company.

Jonathan and his little friend

The Governor had the biggest vegetable patch with massive pumpkins. Clearly the veggies were for his house only and they didn't make it to the town markets.

The Governor's vegetable garden

Half Knoll fort was interesting with good views of the valley and sea, but quite decrepit. We could see boys playing cricket at St Andrew’s school. It was much cooler in the country with an icy wind blowing.

Lush and green

The fort ruins

Beautiful countryside

Roadtripping

St Andrews and boys playing cricket

The sunsets are spectacular. If the horizon is clear you can see the green flash. The colours in the sky stay orange and yellow for ages after the sun has set. We finally have a moon which is slowly waxing. Hopefully it will be full on our way to Ascension.  

The best sunsets

Boats in the bay

The museum was open and free, so we spent about an hour learning about the history of St Helena. It is very interesting. Many prisoners of war were brought to St Helena so that they wouldn’t join the war again. Most of the Saints here can’t trace their lineage because they are descendents of those prisoners or slaves that were brought here. The prisoners were allowed to work and be part of the community. 

There were slim pickings when it came to provisioning. The little shops sold very similar things at similar prices but fresh goods were hard to find. Although we still had a lot of dried goods and tinned food on board, we needed to fill up on fruit and vegetables and eggs! We only found one place selling eggs. All the rest of the shops said they had sold out. We waited for the fresh food truck to arrive at Ann's Place and bought a few things. Hopefully we will be able to provision again in Ascension Island.

Our next stop was Ascension Island. But before we got there we had to have visas and insurance. It proved to be quite a mission to do as not only was the intermittent wi-fi expensive but we also had to search to find a company that would sell us insurance. Initially, Andrew only bought one Visa for the skipper but we found out that we all needed visas, which makes a lot more sense. We finally got that sorted and were ready to set off on our next leg.

On our last day at St Helena the swell picked up making docking and getting off the ferry very challenging. Laura and I decided to stay on the boat, while Andrew went ashore to finish last minute shopping and visa needs. We didn't meet the skipper and crew on Viento del Mar until they arrived in Grenada.

Viento del Mar

Survey vessel

We initially thought the survey vessel was the supply ship, but soon realised it was too small. The Helena arrived a day or so later. It brings supplies from South Africa. It hadn’t been to St Helena for a number of weeks as the weather had been bad and couldn’t leave SA. After St Helena, it makes its way to Ascension Island.

St Helena

Calypso, Reve de Lune and The Kraken were finally ready to go. Elric, on The Kraken had managed to find someone to make a part for his steering and he installed it without too many issues. Stocked up on provisions as much as possible, we are ready to depart.

Goodbye St Helena

What became a familiar sight over the next few days

In the next installment, read about our trials at sea and our wonderful experiences on Ascension.