Day 1 - Passage to the Caribbean
Misterx
Tue 1 Apr 2025 23:05
01/04/25
8:30 pm
Day 1
South Atlantic Ocean
DTD : 3,679 NM
Back in the saddle, riding the waves!!!
With the trade winds at our back, we are making good progress so far... trade winds is such an ugly moniker, we call it les Alizees in French, much more poetic in French, isn't it? There you have it, what differentiate French and English, we find nice words to describe nice wind! And very nice it is to us, we have the wings up, one sail, looks like a genoa on each side... no main up. The wind and the waves being behind us, the motion of the waves is not so pronounced and it feels more like gliding on the water. And that is far more comfortable.
Leaving St Helena was a bit of a rush job, time just run away from us... we were supposed go ashore early to do the officialdom, pick up the bread we had ordered and just go by 10am. As it turned out, the officialdom took a bit more time than predicted, Ian wanted 2 more water jerrycan, the bread wasn't even in the oven and everyone in the street wanted to say goodbye and wish us a good passage!! Then there was lunch, we never leave on an empty stomach, never know when the next meal might turn up, so we finally set off around 2pm. Since then, we have eaten the miles, a little under 150 miles, which is really good for us, over 6.5 knots constantly with peaks of 7 this afternoon. As per usual, we do slow down for the night, we are now just a shade above 5.5 knots. All this seemingly effortlessly, think we also have a current with us, which will help. It is very warm though, making sleep difficult. Will have to get the fan out!
One thing we will not miss, it is the rolly anchorage of St Helena... it was just awful, day in and out, it was so bad we were woken up by it! Taking the little ferry ashore was fun but again in the rolling sea, it was a bit dicey getting in from the boat and then getting out on the quay... water spraying everywhere, slippery steps, having to grab and hold a couple of ropey knotted ropes and more often then not laden with bags and shopping. Not sure which was worse, getting from the quay to the ferry or the ferry to the quay! But getting ashore was worth taking your life into your own hand... The island is beautiful and so are its people... very warm welcoming, everyone wants to chat, and you would think they see enough yatchties every year. But still very interested and curious. Didn't realised that there was such a tourist scene here and developing fast. Until recently, you had to take a boat from South Africa to get here, not many people bothered. Now they have 2 planes per week in the summer and one in the winter and they are packed. So is the Mantis, the top notch hotel with food to match! needless to say we made a few appearances there ! The Consulate, the other hotel is across the road and is more interesting, with its heteroclite collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, they even have a plaster replica of the man himself, all of it 5 foot 3, looking out from the first floor balcony. They have lovely cakes there but rubbish opening hours... Actually everyone is keeping funny opening hours on the island, places shut quite early from 2pm, by 4pm Jamestown is officially closed. You really have to plan your visits, as many are only open once a week...The Yacht club stays open for drinks only on some days, and there is the pop up bar & BBQ on Friday and Sunday on the sea front, but not much else. And anyway we had to be on the ferry by 7.30pm at the latest. Guessing all this will be changing rapidly with the influx of tourists, the 1950's feeling will probably disappear. Although many of them are there to dive so early morning and early nights. Even the arrival of a cruise ship, with its 600 people on board did not shake up the Sunday torpor. The shops stayed firmly shut.
The lack of fresh produces on the island, was stark, which is quite ironic since St Helena was populated just for that purpose, grow and produce food to supply all the ships travelling in the Southern Atlantic, up to 1,500 a year i read somewhere in the museum. I kid you not, the shelves of the shops were bare when we arrived. Fortunately the supply ship was in port at the end of the week. The mood definitely lifted when the beer arrived. On this topic of beer, we met an English lady who was in the process of setting up a brewery, the launch is in a couple of months, and it apparently took over a year to get all the authorisations and get the brewery set up. Shame we were in a rush, it would have been fascinating to hear this story.
We were lucky to have the supply ship arrive within days of our arrival... the shop gradually filled up and we were able to get fresh produces for our passage. Although, we could get eggs, which were as rare as hen teeth, we could not get our hand on any tomatoes!! So we doubled up the amount of carrots we got to compensate. Pears, apples, grapes and grapefruits, no bananas, cucumber, avocados, onions, potatoes were readily available... we should be okay for a few weeks, before we have to start on the cans!
Highlight for us, swimming with the whale sharks, we did it twice in the end, at 35 GBP each trip lasting the whole morning, it would have been a shame not to, especially as we also saw a huge pod of dolphins jumping around. Unfortunately, the gopro expired so we only could retrieve one video. I was the last one in, so by the time i jumped the whale had moved closer to the boat and i ended up having a very close view of its mouth... though it was going to swallow me whole! We managed to stay with it for more than 40mn on the first trip, a very relaxing experience. The second outing was not as relaxing, the sea was a bit choppy but we got in and this whale was bigger than the first one... actually it was enormous! Didn't stay with us so long. Really loved it.
The Napoleon in exile story was also very interesting, both properties where he lived are under French administration so is the tomb. Beautifully restored all of it and the audio guides were very informative... i learnt some stuff... and the gardens were beautiful.
We had a few walks around the island, which we really enjoyed.
It was also nice to reconnect with a few cruisers we liked, Tom from Skyfall in particular, of the fallen mast fame... we could hear the full story from the horse's mouth, and it all ended well.... he was able to make the necessary repairs, sent for a rigger in SA who came to the island to sort it out... he made it sound all very easy and stress free, but very costly!! We also met with Marisol German friends, it was lovely to have a bit of time with them. And we also met newbies which was fun.
Frankly 11 days was not quite enough time!
M