We ❤ St. Helena Island
Moored at St. Helena
We thoroughly enjoyed our 3-day stay at St. Helena
St. Helena is 47 square mile island that’s 1200 miles west of the African coast, 1800 miles east of Brazil, and nearly 4500 miles south of Paris—in other words, in the middle of nowhere in the South Atlantic Ocean! This remote British Overseas Territory hosts an incredibly friendly populace and spectacular scenery. It’s best known for being Napoleon’s home for his final 6 years of exile. He died here in 1820; his remains were exhumed and returned to Paris in 1840. Charles Darwin and Captain Cook were also noteworthy visitors.
The island’s biggest downside was its vvveeerrryyy slow, inconsistent, and expensive internet (which we learned will be upgraded to fiber optic cable next year). After 12 days on the water, we were eager to check in with friends and family, but wi-fi phone calls proved impossible. We could still text, however, and Tasha introduced me to WhatsApp voice messages so I could at least pretend to be conversing with my kids! We were able to check email, catch up on the news, and upload a few blogs to at least partially reconnect with civilization.
While it wasn’t hot, we were able to break out our shorts and I got an ocean swim in every morning. We had a local population of needle fish carousing around the boat, saw a mama humpback and her calf swimming just outside the bay, and admired the beautiful white fairy terns flittering about. We joined the townsfolk for an evening of tacos at the yacht club, and Pete and Dunbar took each other on for a game of snooker while I shopped for provisions. (I was able to restock a limited number of perishables, although not the diversity we’d hoped. It’s time to bring out the canned, jarred, and frozen fruits and veggies!) We’d planned to hike the renowned Jacob’s Ladder, a steep 699-step climb to the fortress towering above Jamestown, but sadly the stairs had been closed for repairs just days prior to our arrival.
We were eager to tour the island but found both rental car and tour guide availability hadn’t yet recovered after being decimated by the covid shutdown. Unlike most towns where you’d be told, “sorry, no luck,” both Matt, the Head of Tourism, and Hazel, proprietress of the Commodore Hotel, made it their goal to help us out. After each made several unsuccessful phone calls, we returned to Catalyst that evening with dubious prospects. The next morning, we were awakened by a call on our VHF radio relaying the message that Hazel had found us a car – now that’s small-town service!
Our drive around the island was incredibly scenic and interesting. We visited several centuries-old forts, met Jonathan the 190+ year old tortoise, hiked Diana’s Peak, the highest point on the island, and checked out Napoleon’s home (unfortunately no tours were offered that day). The landscape ranged from barren volcanic outcrops to arid, cactus-ridden hillsides to lush tropical forests, and the views were truly spectacular.
What a great first stop St. Helena turned out to be! Next stop: Fernando de Noronha!
