Day 1 to St Helena
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 28 Jan 2020 06:00
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33:06.50
S 17:12.74 E Day One to St
Helena
    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.
 Trevor, Kimi,
Bear, Patricia and Allen.
 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.
 Skipper
doing his stuff as I wait for the first bridge to open.
 Seals and
cormorant completely unimpressed by our passing by.
 Lots of waves as we pass through the
second bridge, never noticed the clock tower
before.....
 Basin to our left with the V+A Mall.
 Work yards to our
right......
 .........Chums a
little further on.
 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.
 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’.
 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.
 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 |