Visiting an island remotely from everything else, certainly opens your eyes for things you take for granted when you are used to live in cities.
St. Helena is a British territory, together with Tristan de Cunha to the South, and Ascension Island to the North. There are a total of 4,000 St. Helenians, living mainly in the capital of Jamestown and in a few villages located on top of the island. An appointed Governor with a 3-4 year term normally comes from the UK, and only one Governor through history has been a local St. Helenanian.
The island is volcanic, with eruptions from two separate volcanos with eruptions 5 and 10 million years ago.
The nature is really quite unique here. When we approached from the south, all we could see was a dark wall with no vegetation at all. As soon as we rounded the Eastern part of the island, we could get a view of the interior of the island, which is where most of the inhabitants live. The climate is humid and the nature is lush in the valleys, and above about 300 height meters in the center of the island, whereas the rest is dry with lots of beautiful stone formations. It truly is an island of great contrast.
Favorite past time activities on the island is hiking and diving. We have had some really great and fairly airy hikes, but few dives, as it is not really season, and the visibility has not been great.
It is currently spring here, and high season is January – March, where there are a lot of whale sharks visiting the island to mate. Word is that you can easily swim with these docile giants directly from your boat at the mooring. So, when we have completed our circumnavigation, we are definitely planning to be back here that time of year.
We have met a lot of nice people on the island – fellow sailors coming and going, as well as islanders, locals and expats. Everyone greets each other when passing in the street on foot or by car. After a couple of weeks here, it still feels a little odd to pass through town and say hi left and right for us Northerners used to minding our own business.
We have also enjoyed several nights at the local yacht club, which has taco night every Wednesday, and has organized a great braai (BBQ) night.
And, one cannot miss Ann’s Place as a yachtie. The place is a well known spot for the sailing community, which is very visible in the interior design. It is also supposed to be the best spot on the island for wifi. Turns out it is quite expensive, 13.20 Pounds for two hours of internet access, and the quality is not very good. However, Ann’s Place is still a great spot for hanging out, and the place we go to each time we are in town.
Getting to town from our boat is quite the ordeal, some days. There is no dinghy dock, but a ferry service which runs every hour from 04:00 – 19:00. With some of the big swells the port gets some days, it can be quite the challenge to get on shore, though.
It turns out that internet access is a key challenge on the island. The locals get free internet from midnight until 06:00am, so this is the best bet if you need to get stuff done online.
Our guide, who gave us a great 4×4 tour of the island also shared with us that ordering things online is not an easy task. He ordered a 3 dollar sensor, which when it finally arrived six weeks later, ended up costing him 26 dollars, due to shipping and import taxes.
Getting supplies to the island is also a challenge, as there is a boat that comes in once per month, and carries all kinds of supplies, including food. We were there when it arrived for the first time in six weeks, delayed two weeks due to a strike among the Port workers in Cape Town.
As a result, fresh produce, like fruit and vegetables, have certainly been a challenge to find. We are certainly learning how to stock up on long lasting fresh products (onions, squash, potatoes, etc), leverage tinned and frozen veggies and conserve what we have to last as long as possible.
We have also enjoyed the company of a couple of yachties who have been here now for almost three years. They have showed us around on the island, with great tips of where to go for the best food items, what time of the week, etc. We also made a weekend excursion with them to Egg Island, just West of Jamestown, which was truly a pristine spot.
We have spent already more than two weeks on St. Helena island, and we are slowly, but surely starting to plan our next passage, which will be a six day sail to Ascension Island. We have truly enjoyed our time here, and feel fortunate that we have been able to get a taste of such a special place so far from the rest of the world!
Thank you, St Helena, for having us, and showing such a great hospitality!
