So we left our lovely Zoonie swaying about on her mooring in the immense swell yesterday and made our way to shore where I did a Tarzan’s Jane style leap for the shore clutching one of the knotted hanging ropes as the gap between the boat and concrete was swirling with water and I wasn’t going there!!

 

You can see how the house is on top of the island, constantly soaked with cool mist amidst the clouds and how this made it a very hostile place for ‘Boney’, as he was called and his entourage. We were not allowed to take photos inside for some very naive and baseless reasons no doubt, so I can tell you that it would have been like living in a corridor, each room passing into the next with no corridor giving privacy. Also the rooms were mostly rectangular and so there was no confortable orientation for the occupant. Feng Shui did not exist.

 

More details about Boney when we get underway; I just wanted to get the photos to you.

 

The house in the valley with the green roof is The Briars where Boney spent the first few happiest months of his stay on St Helena while Longwood was being prepared; he loved it there.

 

We visited the museum for a short while and the plover you can see in the photo is an exquisite carving with all the feathers shown in great details by someone who clearly loved the birds.

 

The Carpe Diem Yacht is moored behind us and her stern mooring line is now wrapped around her rudder with the risk of serious damage. But the owners know, so nothing more can be done.

 

The pussy cat belongs to Jane at Ann’s where we had a welcome lunch and he snoozed the while away.

 

We are leaving here tomorrow, Saturday 10th on our long journey to The Azores. It looks like light winds after a few days and our best bet is to go west away from the west African coast where there will be no wind. So next we have the ITCZ to cross which contains the Equator and out the other side to where we cross our outward track in 2016. Plenty of reasons for modest celebrations on route!!