ST HELENA

ST. HELENA

FEBRUARY 9-19, 2017

St. Helena is one of the most isolated islands in the world.  Everything is brought in by the “RMS St. Helena”.  The islands of St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha are part of the British Indian Overseas Territory Administration (BIOT).  The vessel loads goods and produce and passengers in Cape Town, SA, then transports them to the islands.  It takes about two weeks for a round trip delivery.  The stores in Jamestown reflect this time delay by having a wealth of merchandise when the ship first arrives to very little at the end of the two week period.  The “RMS ST Helena” is the lifeblood and true saint in these islands.  Recently, an airport was built on St Helena but, due to wind shear problems and design flaws, only small planes have been able to land.  At the time of this post, no airline company has been willing to take on a contract to land larger planes.  So there it sits, out on a built up flat area, with no traffic.  This has had a significant impact on the local businesses because they had invested money predicated on the planes bringing in tourists.  The island remains isolated with the exception that medical emergencies can be evacuated to Ascension Island and then flown to other countries.

St Helena has other problems for getting visiting yachts and passengers ashore.  There is a continuous ocean swell that is running.  This makes getting from the small ferry boat onto the dock challenging.  The ferry boat comes alongside the stone pier and the passengers have to grab onto one of the several ropes that dangle from an overhead steel bar, then time the rise and fall of the swell and jump off the boat onto a slippery stone landing.  The ferry boat operators are skillful and coordinate everything safely.  The nominal charge for picking up yachties from the mooring field and bringing them back is about US$1.24 at the time of this post:  A most reasonable amount given the expertise and challenges involved.

The mooring field in St Helena consists of 23 yellow and red mooring buoys.  They are professionally laid out with strong chains and a large flat buoy.  There is a large iron ring that the yacht slips a mooring line through and then makes it fast to the boat:  some chaffing gear is required.  The small ferry boat will assist with this operation if they are in the area or requested to do so.  There is a continuous swell running along with currents that turn the vessel in different directions.  Once moored, they are as safe as the mooring lines from the buoy to the boat.  The local port authorities have invested a lot of money in this system and keep it up to specifications by frequent diving inspections.  There is a strange phenomenon that happens occasionally:  large rollers approach the island from the NW-N.  They might produce a swell the is 10-15’ high.  Under these predicted conditions, many moored yachts choose to leave rather than weather it out.  The port authorities issue a “Sevier Wave Warning” and monitor the approaching system.

  Ascension Island is 700 nm  to the NW of St Helena.  This gives St Helena a 24 hours advanced notice of when these abnormal waves will strike the area.  We left the mooring field in one of these warnings and set sail for Fernando de Noronha.  Our first plan was to go to Ascension Is. but the anchorage has been reported to be foul and rolly.  Yachts have had their anchors fouled or lost.  The only interesting thing on the island are the nesting Green and Hawkesbill turtles alongwith a significant “Wideawake” bird population.  We decided that it wasn’t worthwhile.

The rugged barren coastline of St Helena belies a very lush green interior with tropical rainforest and farming.  BIOT and the local inhabitants are trying to protect the native endemic habitat but years of non-regulation have made this difficult.  Termites were brought in from salvaging a shipwreck and cause extensive damage.  The farmers produce enough local meat products for the island and fish are so plentiful that they are exported.  The terrain is mountainous and straight up from the sea.  Jamestown has some interesting architecture from the 18^th century.  It is basically a two street town with shops and residences interspersed.  The locals are welcoming and friendly to visitors.  The genetic makeup of the islanders is a mixture of Portuguese, African, Indian and English plus all the sailors that have called there.  Some of the outsiders indicated that there was a lot of inbreeding.

Ann’s Restaurant and Bar is the place that most yachties go for the internet, food and drink or just socialize.  The internet is adequate for emails and research but quite slow for downloading videos.  Also, it’s expensive: $US 6.00 per hour.  I was able to send our US Income Tax without any problems.  Tours and Hikes are available.  There are many trails on all parts of the island ranging from easy to difficult.  The island is a logical stop from South Africa or Namibia going North to the Caribbean or Cape Verde Islands.  It would be a great pity to bypass it.

We departed St Helena at 1130 hrs (UTC-2) on February 9, 2017 enroute to Fernando de Noronha (03-49.9’ N; 032-24.5’ W): 1736nm.