Day 1 to St Helena

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 28 Jan 2020 06:00
33:06.50 S  17:12.74 E
 
Day One to St Helena
 
 
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We were ready to leave the V+A Marina by 17:00 (checking out had taken since eight this morning) but then we had to wait for the bridge openings at a quarter past. Ten minutes was spent saying our ‘farewells’ to Allen and Patricia (Nauti Nauti) and Trevor and Kimi (Slow Flight with the joke that if they left next week they would beat us in to Jamestown.....). Loads of hugs to our dock leaving committee, Rob waving from FOB behind us.
 
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Trevor, Kimi, Bear, Patricia and Allen.
 
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The famous four (tiny now) stood at the end of the dock after throwing our lines and the waving was heartfelt and somewhat emotional. Yes, we could have stayed until the 11th of February but the call to get The Circle Closed in Antigua is gnawing at us to get on with it.
 
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Skipper doing his stuff as I wait for the first bridge to open.
 
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Seals and cormorant completely unimpressed by our passing by.
 
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Lots of waves as we pass through the second bridge, never noticed the clock tower before.....
 
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Basin to our left with the V+A Mall.
 
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Work yards to our right......
 
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.........Chums a little further on.
 
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A chum being unloaded and the Port Authority Tower (no answer between five and half past, so no permission to leave.....but I will always remember my conversations on the way in.
 
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We reached the end of the breakwater by 17:30 which brought back the memories of our horrendous entry flooding back. The fact that it had taken twenty-five minutes to pass the little distance at the wall end in thirty-eight knots of headwind....., pleased to say the water was like a duck pond and the wind small – a much nicer ‘Goodbye from South Africa’.
 
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Table Mountain, clear of her ‘table cloth’ cloud. Never did get up there as most days the cable car was not in service due to the high winds we have had. We did go up in 2003 but a promise to come back and ‘do’ all the tourist things we missed but next time via a big bird in the sky..
The wind picked up and by the time we had crossed the bay the wind was sufficient enough to switch the engine off at 18:05, we got a cracking start.
 
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A pod of pilot whales blew lots of plumes like a small firework display, we enjoyed the show and took it as a harbinger of good luck for a much needed ‘nice’ journey. Sunset was a pretty one.
Overnight the wind gentled to between seven to fifteen knots but the engine stayed off so for our first eighty miles we have averaged 4.7 knots.
At six this morning we have covered eighty nautical miles. 
 
 
ALL IN ALL A PLEASING BEGINNING
                      GREAT START