Blue Water Sailing - June 2018

(^20) BLUE WATER SAILING • June/July 2018
{ BLUEWATERADVENTURE }
early morning mist, and dawn
brought us into James Bay. A rela-
tively new town suburb, Half Tree
Hollow, appears on the heights
while Jamestown remains hidden
in its valley, heralded by rolling and
pitching local vessels moored off
the ‘Landing’ and cruising yachts
farther away in the roadstead an-
chorage.
JAMES BAY
Visiting yachts reside in a
mooring field to the southwest of
James Bay, a dinghy ride of some
distance from the harbor (and
often precarious). The mixed fleet
of international cruising yachts to
which Kiwi Roa now belonged is
very seasonal and always in a state
of flux.
Stories abound of yachts lost
through being poorly anchored
or unattended. We were confident
our Rocna anchors would provide
reliable anchoring but the areas
with good holding are very deep
and swinging room was going to
be a problem. A large yacht was
lost only a year prior to Kiwi Roa’s
visit, resulting in new and more
reliable moorings being installed
farther out in deeper water on the
west side of the bay, which allayed
our concerns.
In this less congested area,
Kiwi Roa picked up one of the red
buoys, designated for heavier ves-
sels over 25 tons, and shackled on
a chain strop for added security;
the rope tether provided on the
mooring was showing chafe from
the previous user. A lighter yel-
low mooring lying downwind was
close enough to run a long line to,
which kept the bow to swell, if not
wind, most of the time.
Saint Helena is definitely iso-
lated. The passenger and cargo
ship, the St. Helena, has been serv-
ing the island since regular passen-
ger liner shipping between South
Africa and Britain dried up in the
mid-20th century. Technically a
“Royal Mail Ship”, and amongst
the last of her kind, the RMS St.
Helena typically does a round trip
from Cape Town on a three-week
schedule; at the time of our visit
Above; Kiwi Roa securely moored at St.
Helena, below; the St. Helena brings goods
to the island on a three-week schedule