St Helena to Ascension Island

Ascension Island

Heart shaped waterfall  in St Helena

Napoleon's House

Jacob's Ladder with 699 steps (took under 15 minutes)

Transit Van go as fast as you can... a 1960s model?

On our previous passage from Walvis Bay to St Helena Island, we crossed the Greenwich Meridian and passed from the Eastern hemisphere into the Western hemisphere. I was on watch that night and celebrated with a glass of brandy and a shortbread biscuit, which I shared with Neptune. Two days later, on 3^rd February, we crossed the longitude meridian of Hesketh Bank, our starting point for our circumnavigation of the world. Sal Darago has crossed every line of longitude on the planet. WOW!! We can’t say we’ve completed our round the world trip until we cross our course line, which won’t happen until we reach Tobago in the Caribbean.

We have arrived safely at Ascension Island, another overseas British territory. The passage of just over 700 miles took 6 days. We had light winds at first and had to motor for a few hours the first night. The rest of the trip was under sail. We flew our ghoster (half spinnaker) goosewinged with the genoa for 3 days and nights. The wind was mainly SE 10-20 knots. The biggest problem was the toilet breaking the day before we arrived. Jeremy spent 4 hours working in the smallest space on board in quite a big ocean swell, clearing the pipes and tubes. All I’ll say is he needed a shower afterwards and had one sitting on the roof. By the way, it was St Valentine’s Day. How did you spend the day?

Today, 15^th Feb, we went ashore, experienced the art of tying up the dinghy so it doesn’t smash against the wharf in the swell, and cleared in and out with the Port/Customs and the Police/Immigration. We paid £15 to the Port and £30 to Immigration. The shop had potatoes, apples and oranges; the hotel has Wi-Fi at £10 per day and the Saints Club had 2 meals left of tuna and chips. The needs of a sailing crew are easily satisfied. Drinking water costs £1 for 44 litres at the wharf and showers are available at the swimming pool. There are no mobile phone networks. We are anchored off Georgetown in Clarence Bay next to a beach where green turtles come ashore to lay their eggs at night. We hope to watch the process tomorrow. Lots of cleaner fish, related to the piranha but hopefully vegetarian, eat the weed off the bottom of the boat.

On Monday we leave for Tobago. It’s a big trip and could take us a month. We won’t be able to blog, email or phone during that time. As always, we’ll let you know of our arrival as soon as we can.

Walvis Bay to St Helena

Entrance to Jamestown

Jeremy filling water bottles

Dinghy landing dock

Three sails on my wagon and I'm still rolling along

Another dead solar panel and its rust

The passage across the South Atlantic Ocean to St Helena took 9 days. There were no gales. It was good to be back in the Trade Winds with the wind blowing mainly from the SE and ranging in strength from 5-30 knots. We used all our sails at various times, except the storm jib. We even flew 3 sails for a while: the mainsail sheeted out to starboard, the genoa poled out to starboard and the no.2 jib poled out to port.

Jeremy removed a dead solar panel during the passage, cleaned up the rusty mess it had left and gave the roof a coat of paint.

Several times pods of dolphins came leaping and diving towards us, perhaps 50 or more, and swam in our bow wave for up to 40 minutes. Many mariners believe that the dolphins come to warn us of bad weather ahead. This has proved to be true on a number of occasions.

Our friends on Cat’s Paw IV left Walvis Bay six and a half hours after us. Their yacht is longer and faster, so they were surprised to see us ahead of them on the last morning. We beat them to the anchorage by about 20 minutes. As we started to take down our sails, a snap shackle opened on the uphaul halyard holding the spinnaker pole. Quick action by Jeremy saved the pole from diving into the sea and he soon retrieved the free swinging halyard. About 10 minutes later as we rounded the headland into Jamestown Bay, St Helena, the wind from the cliffs gybed the mainsail and the string holding the main sheet block snapped. The boom was way out of reach but the end of the mainsheet was still in its cleat so Jeremy was able to haul it in and secure it. We were very relieved to pick up a mooring buoy with no more dramas.

Three officials representing Immigration/Police, Customs and Port Authority came aboard Sal Darago. We filled in the forms and had our passports stamped. Before we depart we have to pay £35 and £14 per person for our landing permit.

Jamestown is a lovely fortified town. We chose to go ashore in our dinghy, which we had to haul out at the wharf when the swell lifted it high enough. The local yacht club provides toilet, showers and laundry sinks. A short walk along the quay brought us to a dry moat which we crossed on a bridge and entered the town through an arch in the wall. The castle was on our left and the British flag was flying. St Helena had been a British possession since 1659. The people are friendly. There are many small shops but only one bank. There are no ATMs and no mobile phone networks and no airport. There is wifi at a coat of £3.50 for 30 minutes.

We leave for Ascension Island, 720 miles away, on Saturday. If all goes well, the passage should take us a week.