Saint Helena is a small island of about 4000 people, until 2018 it could only be reached by 5 day voyage by boat from South Africa. The island has a long history with the British east India company dating back to the 17th century.
Our first view of Saint Helena
Jamestown is a small town nestled in a narrow valley with towering red rock cliffs reaching for the sky on either side.
Jamestown from the harbour
Cianan above Jamestown. Note the switch back roads on the far rock face and the Jacobs Ladder running straight to the top
The cliffs around the island are scattered with stone fortifications, some as old as the early 17th century when the dutch east India company took over the island and held it for a short time.
Cianan on one of many old canons lying around
Callum examining another cannon overlooking Ruperts Bay
Normally Saint Helena has mooring balls for visiting yachts but these were all decommissioned at the start of the year, leaving a rough and very deep roadstead anchorage that is exposed to the open Atlantic on three sides. Apparently a number of people have stumbled from the bar only to find their boats disappearing over the horizon after dragging anchor.
Luckily with 200 feet of chain out we were able to find solid holding just a couple hundred yards from the sharp rocks of Chubbs point.
Saint Helena is riddled with hiking trails that vary from volcanic rock ridges to tropical cloud forest with 100 foot waterfalls. All of which are a good workout due to the island’s vertical nature. After so long on a boat we returned every day with sore feet and aching legs.
It is a fascinating place to explore and we spent a good amount of time hiking to the ruined forts, many of which had tunnels leading to underground chambers or the shore below, and almost all of which are littered with massive old muzzle loader cannons in various states of decay.
A secret tunnel running down to the water
View of Saumure from bottom of tunnel
The people of Saint Helena, known as “the saints” are extremely friendly and a melting pot of cultures with many of the original inhabitants being freed slaves, prisoners of war, whalers and British military.
Probably saint Helena’s two most famous inhabitants are Napoleon Bonaparte who was exiled here and lived on the island until his death, and Johnathan the Seychelles tortoise, who at 190 is believed to be the world’s oldest living land animal.
On the road to Napoleon’s grave
We had the honour of meeting him on the lawns of plantation house where he lives with 5 other tortoises. Although slow, and from a distance rather resembling a large rock he is doing well for his age.
Cianan and Jonathan
Another unique feature of st Helena is the green tipped bourbon coffee. It was brought over from Yemen in the 18th century and has remained pure ever since as there are no other coffee plants to cross pollinate with.
It is said to be the only thing Napoleon liked about the island and we were told a cup of the stuff goes for $80 in Paris. Unfortunately neither of us much care for coffee so it was somewhat lost on us.
Our second day ashore we hiked up to the heart shaped waterfall behind Jamestown. It was a steady climb all the way up, fallowing a narrow twisting road most of the way.
Callum at the heart shaped waterfall
The roads here are so narrow and with such tight switchbacks to get up the steep grades that many of the longer vehicles have to do a two point turn to get around. Soon we left the road behind and entered into a dense forest. Here we saw the bastard gumwood which is a large shrub that is endemic to St. Helena and was believed to be the world’s rarest tree at the start of the century.
Callum with a basterd gumwood in the cloud forest
The waterfall was dry at the time off our visit, but the herbaceous vegetation grew thickly all around its base giving it a tropical rainforest feel.
In our time there we also hiked into the middle of the island and did the arduous climb from James bay to Rupert’s bay, up to flaggstaff summit via the sugar loaf.
Cianan with sugar loaf in background
Flagstaff top left
Callum with Sugar loaf in background on left
Callum at the top of sugar loaf looking out over the anchorage
At the top of Jacobs Ladder looking down at Jamestown
Callum at the top of Jacobs Ladder
On our final day we walked up Jacobs ladder which is 699 steps climbing 180 meters.
This was brutal after almost 8 months at sea and a local took pity on us at the top and drove us back down.
Apparently the local kids were used to climb the steps every day to get to school and they used to lie in the hand rails and slide the 180 meters back to the bottom.
One day the water taxi skipper showed up at our boat with a 20 pound tuna for us.
Cianan with the tuna
Cut into steaks and lightly cooked it is some of the best fish we have had. On the recommendation of a Namibian sailor we cut what we couldn’t eat into strips, seasoned with lemon juice and pepper, and hung up to dry from our backstay.
We’re hoping to catch some more on our next leg.
Planning out the next leg to Nova Scotia
We are planning on sailing straight to Nova Scotia from St Helena. It should take us under 60 days to make the trip. We should have favourable trade winds almost all the way. The doldrums are also much more narrow in the Atlantic which will help It will hopefully be a lot easier than crossing the Indian Ocean