St. Helena Island

A few days out from St. Helena Island and we're rewarded with this strangely beautiful sunset.


St. Helena Island as seen from the south east. We sailed from Walvis Bay, Namibia on the 7th of April and arrived to the Island on the 16th. It was a very pleasant nine day sail with following winds and beautiful weather.


James Bay as seen from the top of Jacob's Ladder on Ladder Hill. Kehaulani is the small white boat just below the big blue freighter in the top left of this photo. There is no breakwater here so being at anchor can get a little rolly. Taking our dinghy to shore (I think I'm naming the dinghy Kehaulanita) is challenging because there's no place to tie it up, instead we call a ferry every morning. We must get to shore before 7:00am when the warf closes for rock-fall prevention work, which can be seen here along the hillside in the middle of this photo. Also notice the horizon at the top of this photo; is this the curvature of the earth or my camera lens?


This photo is looking down onto Jamestown from the top of Jacobs ladder, which consists of 699 steps built into the side of the hill. John and I climbed it, but no, we didn't slide down like some of the local kids do by hooking each ankle over both railings and using their hands as brakes.


Jamestown is a very old city dating back 500 years. It was a crucial stop for sailing ships to take on fresh provisions and water for an Atlantic crossing. Today, many yachts visit the island for this purpose, but sailing ships gave way to modern steamers and diesel powered freighters, which can make the trip in a much shorter amount of time.


We spent a couple days touring the interior of the island. It's very lush and green with rolling hills; sometimes reminding me of the Willamette Valley in Oregon.


John and I hiked through thick fog and heavy rain to Diana's Peak, the tallest point on the Island.


After our wet and sometimes muddy Diana's Peak hike we stomped our damp and soiled selves into Longwood House, the "prison" where Napoleon was exiled to in 1815 and later died in 1821.


Sunset over the local fishing boats moored in James Bay.

Namibia

A view of Luderitz from the Goerke Haus. Kehaulani is resting at anchor at the far left center of this picture. Notice outside the city nothing but rocky, sandy dessert is found.


Just a few kilometers outside Luderitz is the abandonded ghost diamond mining town of Kolmanskop. The desert has slowly re-claimed it's disturbed land and is filling the buildings with sand.


Kolmanskop was a very active and modern town in the early 20th century but was abandoned in 1954 due to lack of new deposits. They had the first x-ray machine in Namibia, made their own ice (in the middle of a desert!), a gymnasium, a swimming pool, and even a bowling alley. Sorry Hugh, I think it's closed.


Sailing to Walvis Bay from Luderitz was extremely cold and foggy. Much of the time there was no wind so we resorted to motoring. I really hate motoring; it's loud, smelly, and wasteful. Although it provides us with hot water and heat to warm the cabin (hot engine coolant is circulated to the water heater and the cabin heater, warming the water and air, respectively).


John and I decided we'd tour Walvis Bay Lagoon by sea kayak since it's much too shallow to sail the yacht around.


We spotted a few flamingos on our tour (it looks like a large number, but normally the lagoon is home to 60,000 of these birds). These are rarely seen in Walvis Bay this time of year as they're supposed to be in Etosha breeding in the shallow fresh water pan (Etosha is the famous Namibian game park about 800KM from Walvis Bay).


These are cape fur seals. Notice their funny little ears hanging off the sides of their heads like worms.


An oasis in the desert. With flooding in the north and almost nightly thunder showers here in the desert, Namibia has seen unusually large amounts of rain this year.