Logbook Entry 20 - St. Helena I. - Ascension I. - Brazil
- Jessica Johnson
- Feb 4, 2019
- 9 min read
TOTAL MILES TRAVELED ON SAIL to SEE EXPEDITION: 27,351 NM
THE LAST PASSAGE
Total Miles traveled on last passage – 2,127 NM
Miles traveled using SAILS – WIND POWER ONLY: 1,806 NM
Miles traveled using both SAILS & ENGINES together: 318 NM
Miles traveled using ENGINES – FOSSIL FUELS ONLY: 3 NM
Ship Sightings: Fishing Boats, Container Ships, Tankers
Animal Sightings in Atlantic Ocean: Sooty Terns, Frigate Birds, Fairy Terns, Long-Tailed Tropicbirds, Common Dolphins, Sea Turtles (Ascension Island), Sperm Whales, Black Durgon Fish (Ascension Island)
VOS Reports Filed: 19 VOS weather reports were filed with NOAA on this passage through our satellite communications.
Average Air Temperature: 83.4 f/ 28.5 c
Average Sea Temperature: 81 f/ 27.2 c
Strongest Wind:18 Knots (knots are a wind measurement of Nautical Miles per hour)
Plastics Collection: We towed for plastics between Ascension Island and Fernando de Noronha when the weather was calm enough to deploy our plastics trawl. Here is what we found: 2 microplastic fragments and 2 pieces of plastic film. We were pleased to find so little.
PASSAGE NOTES:
On Christmas Day, we arrived at St. Helena Island. We picked up a mooring in the shadow of steep rock cliffs. We could see the wharf of Jamestown in the distance. After we put the boat away – sail covers, lines coiled, etc., we tidied up inside in case we were to be inspected the following day. We were not allowed to go ashore until the next day when the offices were open that could do our official paperwork to allow us into the country. It seems like a nuisance but we have to do this at every new country we visit.
The next morning, I was amazed by the scene out our windows. Towering cliffs rose straight out of the sea, long-tailed tropicbirds swooped gracefully then landed on the cliff face and about one hundred small, local boats bobbed off the town. The “ferry boat”, really just a tiny workboat, picked us up and then picked up a crew from another boat.
We were let off at the town landing, a concrete platform with several heavy lines dangling from a pipe structure above its edge. We quickly discovered what this set up was all about. The surge at the landing made getting in and out of the small boat rather exciting. While the small boat rises and falls with the swells, at just the right moment, you grab a line and haul yourself onto the landing. A massive chain link reinforced mat covered about an acre of the cliff above to keep rocks from rolling down onto the people and buildings below.
We did our clearance and then we could walk around. We wanted to use the wifi which was the first time we had internet in about 10 days. Then we decided to climb up The Ladder, a set of 699 steps rising right up the side of the hill next to town. Ten days at sea doesn’t provide much exercise so it was good to get a workout – however slow it was. From the top, we could look down on Elcie from the Ladder Hill Fort. There are fortifications all along the coastline. We walked a bit further up hill and then we were offered a ride back to town in a pick -up truck. I sat in front and talked to the driver while he wound down the narrow, curvy ribbon of road stopping several times to allow the upbound car to get by.
There were many historical buildings to be visited around the island, some the accommodation of St. Helena’s most famous prisoner, Napoleon Bonaparte. On Thursday, we found a taxi to take us up to Plantation House. This is the Governor’s house. To our surprise, the current governor herself was giving tours. The house had much of the original furniture from when it was built in 1792. Napoleon’s nightstand was on display in one of the bedrooms. We also saw some carpet from where Napoleon stayed in another home.
Napolean did not actually stay at Plantation House but often dined with whoever was the governor at the time. We definitely had the impression that Napoleon’s imprisonment was pretty relaxed. He was allowed to wander and go visiting where he pleased. We did learn, however, that no ship was allowed to leave the port unless Napoleon was confined so that he could not escape the island.
HISTORICAL SIDENOTE: Why was Napoleon exiled to St. Helena?
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), also known as Napoleon I, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799). After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicated the throne two years later and was given the Mediterranean island of Elba to rule with an army of 1,000 men. In 1815, he escaped and briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign before a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. This time, his enemies wanted to incarcerate him in a place from which he could definitely not escape. They chose St Helena. This island of 47 square miles lies in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,200 miles from the nearest land off the west coast of Africa. It is one of the most remote places on Earth. In 1815, the British Royal Navy controlled the Atlantic, making escape from St Helena virtually impossible.
In a paddock at Plantation House, there is a Giant Tortoise named Jonathan who is said to be 186 years old, making him the oldest living creature on earth. He was still moving around pretty well for an old fellow. He has a good life next to the Governor’s mansion with amazing views.
To our surprise, the interior of the island was very green and lush – with grazing land and pine forests and fields of flax. You would never guess this looking up at the rocky cliffs from the anchorage. It is also dotted with stately old homes of French and Dutch designs as well as English estates. Not everyone on the island lives like this; most are living in small and quite modest homes.
The local population of St. Helena is a mix of Portugese, Dutch, African and French settlers. They speak English but with a very peculiar accent. They call themselves Saints. Everyone we met was exceptionally friendly and polite. The airport only recently opened on St Helena in 2013. Prior to that, everyone came and went by boat or ship. The runway is perched atop a flattened plain with cliffs dropping off at both ends and sits perpendicular to the prevailing winds. Apparently, it is one of the most dangerous runways anywhere. I’m rather glad we sailed in.
On Friday, we went to see the tomb where Napoleon was buried when he died after 5 years in exile on St. Helena. Last, we went to see Longwoods, a rambling country home where Napoleon spent most of his time. Apparently, the climate at Longwoods was cool and damp and didn’t agree with Napoleon though his cause of death was said to be from stomach cancer. However, there was also some suspicion that he was poisoned with arsenic. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn at Longwoods until it started raining - a light mist that covered us in fine droplets. We could see what they meant about the weather on this side of the island. It was sunny when we got back to Jamestown.
On our last day at St. Helena, Emma and I caught a ride up to the track to Diana’s Peak. At 2,800 feet, it is the highest point on the island. We hiked up in the still late afternoon, sweating quite a bit before we reached the highest point. The 360-degree view was stunning – layers of green rolling hills, jagged rock, homes and church steeples and the roads that snaked among them.
We departed from St. Helena and sailed another 700 miles to Ascension Island. Again, we had very pleasant sailing in the south Atlantic. On the way, we caught a large mahi-mahi fish that we cleaned and had for dinner... and several more meals.
Ascension Island was an interesting place and really good stop. On our mid-morning approach, it looked like a rugged moonscape dotted with sophisticated satellite dishes, domes and a web of radio antennas. A huge airport runway ran along the north coast. Later, we learned it was large enough for the space shuttle to make an emergency landing.
We called Ascension Radio and let them know of our arrival and the ship’s details. They suggested where we should anchor and asked us to come ashore with our dinghy. Security on the island is tight because it is a joint British/US Air Force Base, Communications Station and GPS Tracking Station. There are only about 1500 people on Ascension and no one owns property. Everyone is an employee of the US or British Air Force, BBC, GPS Station or Conservation Agency. There is also a school as many families live there if the parents are working there. Many people who work on Ascension are from St. Helena Island.
Richard rigged up a pulley system for our dinghy so that once we got out at the landing, he could pull it out away to a buoy. In 2017, there had been two serious shark attacks on the island so no one was too eager to have to swim for the dinghy! We didn’t see any sharks while we were there but they are known to show up in large numbers around this time of year.
There were little black fish everywhere in the harbor and around Elcie. They are black durgon. They did a pretty good job of eating a lot of the green fuzz off or our hulls. Moonlight was quite curious about them.
We met someone who worked at the GPS Tracking station. It is one of four land-based stations set up to monitor the 24 GPS satellites that provide data to the military but also to all of our civilian navigation electronics, surveying equipment, drones and cell phones. We also visited the Conservation office and were told where we could go to see nesting turtles later in the evening.
We went to see a Sooty Tern colony on the coast. They also call the terns Wide Awake terns and they were very aggressive and started swooping down low towards us. I imagine they were trying to protect their nests and chicks. We didn’t stay very long. The noise was amazing with all the terns squawking. I think this is how they get the name Wide Awake terns.
After dinner, we took the dinghy to the landing and tied up. A short 15-minute walk brought us to Long Beach. We found our way down the beach with red filtered headlamps because we were told that white lights would disturb the turtles. It was a new moon so it was very dark on the beach. The turtles only showed as large, black blobs emerging from the water ahead of us. They clumsily pulled themselves up the beach with front flippers doing most of the work. We carefully snuck around behind them. It was only once they started digging their nests that you could approach and even then, we had to be very still and quiet. They dug with their back fins until they had a hole and a nest chamber almost 3 feet deep. Then, in a near trance, they deposited up to 100 eggs into the nest. We saw 7 turtles come up onto the beach but, by morning, there were tracks of about 25 turtles. We were told the females come up around 6 times each season. We were lucky to get to see them nesting.
The next day we went hiking in the Green Mountain Park. The drive to the park was a series of tight curves - up, up, up on the narrowest road. At the top were some very cool, historic buildings including a British Army Garrison, a farm cottage and an old tavern. We hiked on a loop that went right around the mountain. The trail had many small tunnels that went through the hillside. They were dug by British soldiers. Unlike the rest of the island which was dry and bare, Green Mountain was very lush and tropical.
A last full night of sleep and we were off in the morning towards Brazil. So far, we’ve again had very pleasant sailing and clear skies. The moon is coming back. Yesterday, we saw a pod of sperm whales swimming lazily along so we slowed down to watch them. We saw one dive with its tail being the last thing we could see.
We arrived in Fernando de Noronha after another week of sailing. The island has a large volcanic cone on one end of the anchorage. It looks amazing. We’ll write more about Fernando de Noronha, Brazil in our next logbook entry.
WHERE WE VISITED: St. Helena Island
Population: 4846
Area: 76,6 Sq Miles / 123,28 Sq Km
Main Town: Jamestown
Type of Government: Non-partisan democracy under constitutional monarchy.
St. Helena is one of 14 British Overseas Territory owned by the United Kingdom. St. Helena is therefore run by the British Government, however carries its own Prime Minister, Lisa Honan.
Currency: British Pounds
Language: English
Highest Point: Diana`s Peak (Mount Acteon) 2683,73 Feet / 818 Meters
Climate: tropical, marine and mild
Economy: public sector, accounting for gross domestic products
Major Exports: Coffee (said to be the most expensive coffee in the world), Spirits, postage stamps
Natural Hazards: none known
Country Flag:
Interesting Facts:
St. Helena is one of the most remote places on earth, laying in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. As we see in our Atlas and look in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the Islands St. Helena and Ascension, for example, never seem to show up.
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