Blue Water Sailing - June 2018

Saint

Helena

Beckons by Craig & Peter Smith

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(^18) BLUE WATER SAILING • June/July 2018
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I

n distant memory are Su-

san and Eric Hiscock and

company, those pioneering

sailors who, during Peter’s

childhood, planted the seed

of a life on the sea – not only

in him, but others germinating

through the years into today’s

cruising fraternity. Saint Helena

always seemed to receive a whole

chapter in the Hiscock’s epistles,

as it was an important stop in

the long haul from South Africa

to the Caribbean, Bermuda, or

the Azores, on the final leg home

to England in their tiny vessels.

Their stories were read by genera-

tions, they became legendary and

Peter has long had Saint Helena

on his list of destinations for his

own vessel.

Many years and ocean miles

into his own sailing life, a num-

ber of ex-pat “Saints” are to be

found working and settled on the

Falkland Islands, characters who

rekindled old dreams and firmed

the island on Kiwi Roa’s itinerary

for the passage after South Africa

and Namibia.

On moving up the Skeleton

Coast, Peter went as far north as

Walvis Bay, partly because it cre-