St. Helena
04 May 2017
We arrived at St Helena on Sunday, May 1st and after 4 days we will set sail for French Guyana on Friday morning. Initially we will northwest and then almost due west to the vicinity of Fernando du Norunho, a Brazilian island. It took us 20 days to get here and it was the roughest (three days of gale force winds and crossing seas) and then the slowest passage (light airs for over a week) that we have encountered in eight years. The Saints of St Helena are very welcoming and relaxed people. It seems that the Napoleon ghost is dominant on the island although many other notable people such as Darwin and Halley, the last King of the Zulus have lived here either by choice or not. We visited Longwood (photograph maybe) and Briar Houses where Napoleon stayed and died on the island. Although the terrain is very rugged and the coast dominated by cliffs, the interior is lush and green. Our tour guide was Robert Peters who remembers a German submarine attacking the harbour during World War 2 and had a intimate knowledge of the history of the island. Shopping here is extremely expensive and people wait patiently for bread to arrive every morning. Don't look for any during the afternoon as we first attempted to do. Fresh produce is limited but the local tomatoes and cukes are great. Then there is the tuna which is abundant aroud the island. We had the luck of mentioning to the ferry driver, Jonathan, that we were looking for some fresh tuna and he said he would get us some. The next day we were given about 5 kilos of fresh tuna - delicious.