RQYS MAINSHEET 2023

First leg of Atlantic crossing - Walvis Bay to remote St Helena Island, 1250 nm northwest, about seven days’ good passage. “St Helena was a fascinating place with a mostly elderly population: the immigration officer, checking my passport on landing, noticed my occupation as ‘Builder’ and asked if I could build him a garage while we were here - “I just can’t get anyone!” he complained! And our tour driver was a spritely 95-year-old with a jalopy literally held together with duct tape!”

Jamestown roadstead, St Helena Island

Devil’s Island view from the Insula Royale fortifications

“The trip from Salvador Da Bahia was uneventful apart from cross-seas making the motion a bit uncomfortable. We sailed into Recife about 400 nm up the Brazilian coast and spent four days there. After we left there and spent a week sailing to Isle de Diablo (Devil’s Island) – this was a unique experience, the story of Papillon and the jail there was worth the stopover. “From there it was up past the Amazon delta and, even though we were 180 nm out, the water was murky and not the usual Atlantic blue. We took three days in pleasant sailing conditions to reach Trinidad and the end of the journey for me, just over nine months and over 17,000 nm since leaving Coomera on the Gold Coast. “I have come to the finish of sailing travels and I am in Tampa Bay, Florida. Spend a week with Mark who started the voyage from Brisbane on SKY with me. Went to the Kennedy Space Center and that was a real bonus for the trip, to watch a Falcon 9 rocket launch as well.”

St Helena tour bus

“At St Helena, there’s no ‘harbour’ as such: you have to anchor in the roadstead and call the water taxi on Ch.16 with the number of pax to be collected ... no need to tell him the destination: there’s only one place to go! And it’s not a case of ‘stepping’ ashore as it’s‘grabbing the line and timing your jump’ onto and off the stone quayside! “We got to see Jonathan, the oldest living turtle (originally from the Seychelles!) in captivity.”

OVERLOAD I was told there would be around a million people in the area that night and there was – the noise was incredible, you could talk only to the person right next to you; the music was coming from big prime movers attached to 18m-long trailers that were two storeys high and double the width of normal trailers – these were spaced about 400m apart with tens of thousands of people following at a slow pace dancing to the beat. These trailers had a band or DJ on the top level with dancers and other party ani mals. They would come along the road in front of us and we couldn’t see where they started (and we could see for at least a mile up the road!). Picture a four-lane road from Broadbeach central to Cavill Avenue in Surfers just packed solid with people … it was a sight to see and remember, though my hearing will never be the same.

Jonathan

Preserved Space Shuttle, Kennedy Space Center

This was a bucket list trip to do: you certainly learn something about yourself, the incredible places I went to, the surprising places we saw, the challenging situations that you would find yourself in. I have thought back on the trip many times and recall yelling at myself for being in the situation, on a pitching foredeck in rough seas and 35 to 40 knot winds in the dark of night trying to wrestle a sail to the deck, I know I am now more confident about handling a boat – and having people rely on your skills as a Aussie sailor (we have a good reputation, it seems!). Managing all manner of equipment breakdowns, challenging sea conditions…a highlight for me was in the middle of the Atlantic on the midnight watch with a full moon above, steady breeze and calm seas and listening to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and I thought to myself: this is living! The highrise along the Brazilian coast makes the Gold Coast look small, and it was the smaller places which took my interest the most: Christmas Island, Mauritius, Richards Bay and Cape Town, Walvis Bay, St Helena Island, and Devil’s Island of the coast of French Guyana. I’m so glad I took the opportunity that most people wouldn’t get to sail halfway around the world. Now, is anybody planning on bringing a boat back across the Pacific from the Caribbean? I think I can help. Steve.

Napoleon’s deathbed

Longwood House – where Napoleon was exiled – is now a museum, preserving the actual bedroom and chaise-lounge on which he died ... his gravesite now unoccupied as the remains long ago disinterred and returned to France. Second leg from St Helena to Salvador da Bahia 1922 nm – “nine days unexpectedly pleasant sailing: so balmy, in fact, we were able to relax stringent Ship’s Standing Orders and enjoy one ‘cold libation’ each with dinner most days ...” After recovering from Carnival, SV SKY coasted north to Recife and the jaw-dropping sight of a seemingly endless panorama of coastal highrises – but not without water pump and alternator issues dogging her arrival at the great port.

Panoramic view from SV SKY of Recife coastal highrises

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