St Helena
There aren’t many reasons why you’d be arriving to this isolated island in the middle of the South Atlantic unless you purposefully flew there on vacation or Sailed there on your way further across with the trades more than likely going to Brazil.
Our journey took us there on our way to the Caribbean, Granada to be more specific. It was a 14 day sail from Cape Town which was not the best sailing I’ve ever had and included us running out of water half way there (Another story for another time).
On arrival it was a magical little island, popping out of the vast blue ocean in the middle no-where. The sanctuary we’d been looking so forward to after 14 days at sea. The conditions on the day of arrival were light winds with moderate to calm seas which we had come to expect from the past 3 days as we started finally settling into the trade winds which were far lighter and more consistent in direction than what we had experienced the week or so before.
You cannot anchor at St Helena as its pretty deep and leads to a rock ledge which has been bored into and moorings setup for visiting yachts in the little harbor of Jamestown on the North West side of the island.
As our first island after 14 days of passage the feeling was elation. We had achieved something big, We had sailed half way across a big blue expanse of water we call the South Atlantic Ocean and we did it as a family, a group, a team, a tribe!
What were my first thoughts? Well after so long at sea I wasn’t sure what to expect. We had to wait to check in as Covid restrictions were in full force being December 2020. Once secured to the mooring ball we watched the lights on the shore light up at night, We saw cars, bars, heard people laughing and found a little slice of heaven in the middle of the Atlantic.
We had to wait aboard Caribbean Soul for a few days while the c-19 test results came back so to pass the time we fished off the back of the boat. It was one of the best fishing spots I’ve been to, to date and if I’d known I would have fished even more…
You can either drop your dinghy or pay the local Ferry to pick you up and take you to shore.
My suggestion is to support the locals and pay them for the service. They’re in radio contact and super friendly. Some of the friendliest islanders we met! So friendly in fact that when we arrived it was Xmas week and New Years which on a small island like this means festivities for days and unfortunately the only bank on the island (There are no ATMs) is closed for most of this time, our ferry drivers loaned us each money, a few hundred each!
Its an island almost frozen in time, everyone knows everyone and a fantastic place to hang out for a while.
I couldn’t possibly write about St Helena without talking about that staircase…
So Jacobs ladder (Staircase) is the most famous (Or infamous) to do item. Its not hard to find and one of the first things you see when arriving. Great views from the top and very very steep. You do get used to it and the kids on the island use it frequently many times per day to get around.
The next major item of great historical influence is Napoleons history on the island, his life in “exile”, the manor house he occupied, the place he was buried (for a while) etc..
Honestly is an incredible place to explore and after sailing through the Caribbean its certainly a place I’d like to re-visit. Its not easy to evaluate a place when its your first island. Not knowing about island life and what to expect from it. Our mindsets were also very different. Very much programmed into the regular global matrix way of life.
After some time of sailing around you get to understand the potential challenges of existing away from a mainland, the advantages of being detached and the values these challenges offer.
There’s a host of tours you can do and you should. You need to see Jonathan the tortoise, the Governors house and coffee plantations. You need to taste the local coffee liquor and see all corners of the island to see just how diverse a landscape exists on this tiny piece of paradise in the middle of the Atlantic.
Its hard to believe but due to the very mountainous landscape there is a fair bit of climate change as you explore the island.
All in all after looking back it was an incredible experience and I would suggest planning 6-10 weeks stopover to really take it all in and experience it all!
