2010 March | Heretic Sailing

St Helena March 20

We arrived at St Helena on the morning of March 14, fifteen and a half days out from Cape Town. We sailed from Cape Town a few days later than we intended due to a problem with our propeller. When we first installed the new Yanmar 3HM35 in New Zealand we neglected to replace the propeller we had from our old engine and discovered on our way to Australia that it was too large. In Australia we replaced it, only to discover in the remote Indian Ocean islands that the dimensions the company in Australia gave us were in fact too small. We finally remedied all this in Cape Town, but not before the propeller company there sold us another propeller that was too small. We were skeptical that this propeller was 16 inches and when we measured it with inch-ruler, we found that no, it was 14 inches. The company was very apologetic and replaced it for us with the correct prop just two days later. Now we have the correct propeller, and both the engine and its owners are happy.

Because of this hold-up we departed from Cape Town on the 27th of February in a strong SE breeze. We had excellent views of the city and Table Mountain as we sailed past Robben Island and headed out to sea. Unfortunately the clear weather did not last and we had almost a full week of overcast weather with occasional rain. When we reached the trade winds the clouds dissipated and we had clear skies and a sparkling blue sea again. The wind was also somewhat unsettled, going up and down in strength, and often shifting direction, but we never encountered the dead calms that other boats did. Towards the end of the passage we caught a medium-sized mahi-mahi, which we ate, and two smaller ones which we let go. St Helena was a very dramatic landfall since it is a recent volcanic island and is very mountainous. The cliffs that drop down into the sea are dry and barren and make a strong contrast with the green mountains inland. We dropped anchor at 8am on Sunday 14 March. To sail 1750 nautical miles in fifteen days is not particularly fast, but better than the passages of some of our friends who experienced prolonged calms. We were also happy to have a longer, more comfortable passage than the fast but uncomfortable passages that we had had in the Indian Ocean. The swell in the South Atlantic is much less violent and more regular than that of the South Indian Ocean.

When we sail on Monday morning, we shall have been here a week, and in that time we have thoroughly explored the island. The town, Jamestown, is a lovely little English village, evocative of England about seventy years ago. Among other sites, it has a beautiful garden and Anglican church. This is the island where Napoleon was exiled and died, so we have visited the two houses in which he lived. The best part of our visit to St Helena has been the phenomenal hiking. There are far more trails than we could hike in our week here, and they range from easy walks through pastures to hikes through endemic Gumwood forests to hikes up and down some of the barren coastal hills. Our two favorite hikes have been Lot’s Wife’s Ponds, a coastal hike out to what are really enormous tide pools, deep enough to snorkel, and Diana’s Peak, the highest point on the island that commands views over the entire island and the sea beyond. After spending this weekend exploring St Helena underwater with our snorkels and dive kits, we shall sail for Ascension on Monday 22 March. The 700 miles should take a little less than a week. We plan to spend three days on Ascension and then depart for the long haul: 3000 miles to Barbados in the Caribbean, which should take about a month.

Cheers,
Ellen and Seth

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St Helena March 20