Friday February 4, we hired Aaron for the morning to take us to a few places we didn’t stop at on our previous tour. Longwood House, property owned by the French Government, was Napoleon’s residence and where he died. Taking photos inside is prohibited.
Napoleons tomb, this area he chose to be buried in as he enjoyed the peaceful landscape and plants there. His remains were moved to Paris.
St. Paul’s Cathedral built in 1851, known as the “Country Church” as it is located outside of Jamestown. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of St Helena.
The boats in quarantine were released today. We had arranged for all of to have dinner together at Anne’s Place later in the day. Johnny the ferry driver agreed to do a 9pm run for us back to our boats.
Dan and I spent the night in at the Blue Lantern hotel. The day before we met Donny who owns a local pub here, he invited us to his establishment as they were having a local band “On the Rocks” play. The music was great, lots of dancing! Donny sold us a bottle of Tungi, a local spirits distilled on the island from prickly pears. It hasn’t been brewed for many years due to the lack of the fruit.
Saturday February 5, together with our friends on 6 other boats, we swam with Whale Sharks! January and February are the hottest months on St Helena. This is also the time when fish are spawning. Whale sharks are docile creatures that feed on plankton and small fish. They can grow up to 40 feet or more. Our GoPro decided it wasn’t going to work any more, there were none to be found in town.
Sunday February 6, together with 6 other boats we arranged a trip to the local distillery. Paul and Sally operate the business out of garage attached to their house. They distill Rum, dark and light, Gin, a lemon liqueur as well as a coffee liqueur. He also makes wine and Brandy.
Dan conquered Jacobs Ladder 14 minutes up, 8 minutes down!
Monday February 7, preparations to check out of St Helena Island today. Immigration, Customs, Port Captain, passports stamped! We will depart early Tuesday morning for Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.
Random Facts, St. Helena
- There are three gas stations
- No traffic light
- Maximum island speed limit is 30mph
- Locals here are referred to as “Saints”
- 97+% of eligible people here are COVID vaccinated
- Darwin slept here
- Halley (Halley’s comet fame) was here to map the stars in southern sky
- Face masks are not worn here
- St Helena coffee is amongst the rarest and highly prized in the world. Green tipped Bourbon Arabica beans, introduced here in 1732 from Yemen
- Postage stamps from St Helena are world famous
- Population a little over 4000
- The airport opened in 2018
- Longwood Golf Course (only golf course) is 9 holes with 18 tee boxes
- 21 Post Box Walks, at each trails end there is a post box an ink stamp and visitors book.
- Largest employer is the government
Sailing Trance 
This part of your journey seemed like a lot of fun! (although it’s all pretty crazy!) I just can’t imaging swimming with those sharks! How cool is that??!! What an amazing amount of good friends you are making with these memories! Hey! If you are still in St. Helena, any chance you can purchase one of the stamps for me. (of course, I’ll pay for it 😉 ) Paul’s Dad collects stamps and I would love to give one to him.
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This little island was a lot fun!
The cruising community is small, especially the South Pacific all the way to where we are now. Everybody knows who you are or of you from other cruisers. We’ve all been to most of the same places either at the same time or within weeks, and share our notes on WhatsApp groups. Most are also sailing around the world.
By the time I saw this we had already departed St Helena, arrived in Brazil so I was unable to get a stamp for you.
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No problem. Just thought I’d take my chances on the stamp.
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Wow. Great Island to stop at. You went Down Jacob’s Ladder one day, then later you went Up and Down?
And swimming with Whales? Glad you got to eat with all the others. Were the kids from the Catamaran?
Now off to Brazil. Enjoy.
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It was a very interesting place to stop. Only Dan went up and down the stairs on the same day. Photo from the top was taken on our tour.
The kids on the catamaran are all in the photo at dinner.
The kids also fearlessly jumped in the water to snorkel with the whale sharks!
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