We had a short but sweet stay in St. Helena. We arrived at about 7am on Sunday and to our surprise, we were able to check in with customs and the port captain that morning with no overtime. We anchored in the small bay with about five other sailboats, a few fishing boats and the HMS St. Helena which is a cargo ship that also carries passengers from Cape Town to Namibia, St. Helena, Ascension, the UK and back again. There is a lot of swell in the anchorage and landing looked very precarious, but fortunately there is a launch service with some very experienced drivers who were very good at navigating the waves. After checking in we wandered around town which is basically one street. As you can see in the photo, the street runs along the gorge between two mountains and very dramatic looking. It's a quaint little English town, with a couple small hotels, a post office, bank and a few other shops. Of course, it being Sunday, none of them was open.

After ten days of sailing we wanted to stretch our legs, so we climbed up a steep set of 700 stair steps called Jacob's Ladder. It takes you up to a peak above the town where there are the remains of an old fort and a spectacular view of the town and anchorage. On our way down we ran into a couple other yachties and we found a little local pub, the only place open in town. They were blaring American music and we felt right at home. That evening we had Freefall and Gypsy Soul over for dinner. Ben had caught a large tuna that we grilled and was excellent.

In the morning we went on a tour of the island. Along with ten others, we hired a taxi which turned out to be an old convertible Chevy from the 1920s. We went to the house where Napoleon lived (and died) when he was in exile on the island, saw his original tomb, and some other historic buildings. We also saw a giant turtle named Jonahtan that is 165 years old. Driving around the interior of the island was beautiful - very green with lots of high peaks and great views. The plant life is amazing as well - tons of beautiful flowers growing in the wild.

After our tour we quickly ran around town checking out with the officials and provisioning before everything closed. We returned to the boat and after doing a quick check of the halyards, we were off. We really would like to have stayed longer, but we are hoping to make it to Brazil in time for Carnival which starts on the 18th. We had been planning to go to Recife, but the wind angle is looking more favorable to go to Salvador, so we are not sure. In any case, we hope to be somewhere on mainland Brazil in about 12 days.