Sailing around the World

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 19 Jan 2011 23:56
WEDNESDAY  19th  JANUARY  2011
 
Skipper and Aileen went to see " Plantation House " yesterday on our travels, a very attractive georgian house where the Governor
resided along with his tortoises,
Meanwhile back in Jamestown, the remedial works on the quay walls is impressive, and the size of the cranes would impress
the owners of Libherr..   Of course we had to walk past all this stuff every time we went ashore.
 
Our first visit today was a call to the " Briars Pavilion "   This was Napoleon's first residence for 3 months when he arrived in ST, Helena.
he had to stay here while the "Longwood"  premises was being repaired and extended.  He became very friendly with the 12 year old daughter
of the family who owned the Pavilion, the Balcome Family.  Betsy , even at 12 was a fluent french speaker and therefore hit it off with the great Napoleon..
 
From there, we went to " Longwood " where he resided for 6 years untill his death, the house was damp and cold and his conditions
there were not good, In fact, his generals and staff had much better conditions to live in......
The storey of his life is facinating, and we all agreed that we would have to read the storey of his life at some stage.
Another interesting fact is that the population of the Island doubled from 3000 to 6000 after his arrival, creating a hugh buisness bonus.
and has remained ever since,
We spent a long time wandering around the house,and examining everything we could.the colours of the walls were all primary colours,
Reds, Greens, etc, 
 
 
After Longwood, we went just around the corner and played 9 holes of golf,
This golf course is supposed to be the most remote golf course in the world, no wonder, but then the fairways were more like
paddocks than fairways, and the greensa were like badly cut lawns........  but it was golf, and we enjoyed muddling around the course.
 
when finished there , we travelled back to Jamestown and Skipper returneed to the boat to do the blog and catch up with all the emails.
the others went to Annies for coffee. and eventually made their way back to the boat.
 
Later, thats after the washing was complete, and the blog was finished, we relaxed for a while before going for a swim off the back of the boat.
the water was cool , so the swims were brief, brrrrrrrrrrr.
18.30 hrs, we all went ashore in the ferry , met up with all the other boats , had a few pints of canned guinness before going to the
Asian restaurant for the dinner.  another good night was had by all.
 
After some singing and general laughs, we wandered back to the ferry and got a lift out to " A Lady " . the washing got hung out to dry,
and other items got attended to before hitting the scratchers.
It was great to meet the " Bubbly Bev " again tonight, they arrived on Tucanon earlier today, and were happy to be ashore.
 
Thats enough for today.
 
Signed :-   Stephen Hyde   ( Skipper )