15:42:4S 012:52:3W

 

Christian the Noddy

We had another visitor last night a Lesser Noddy. This one landed above my head on the spray hood. Theo was on watch and named him Christian, after Christain Bale, as it appeared in the Dark (K)night and he is reading American Psycho.

 

 

St Helena

Having read and spoken to other yachts arriving at St Helena, I was expecting to drop all of our 70 metres of anchor chain and anchor off in 20m of water. How delightful it was to arrive at dusk and find twenty mooring buoys waiting for us to tie up. Much easier than Ed and Gen’s (past WD owners and circumnavigators) account of taking over an hour to raise the anchor by hand.

 

Getting ashore was also an adventure, the swell and poor landing facilities ensure you use a water taxi to get to and from WD. As you get to the quay, the swell can go up and down alarmingly. The technique was to grab the knotted rope hanging from the overhead frame and as the boat rises you swing, Tarzan like, ashore. When we arrived a cruise liner had come in during the night and the captain would not let the passengers ashore until the swell had subsided – the passengers were at least ten years older than me! The swell can be three metres and getting ashore virtually impossible.

 

James Town looks like a Victorian single road town. With some buildings going back to the 16th century. Very picturesque and a bit difficult to navigate the narrow streets with the large 4x4s needed for the rest of the island. In contrast, the soon to open new airport and flattened mountain tops looks likely to change the character of the island, as tourists will now have easy access.

 

Miles travelled in the last 24 hours: 145 miles

Miles to go: 1571 miles