Betwixt

 Charming, quaint, old world, friendly Saints, beautiful unreal landscape.  St Helena is a great pit stop in the Atlantic ocean. Jamestown is the centre of activities with benches strewn around for locals to sit and watch the world go by.  The town is two streets wide, uphill.  Jacob's Ladder with its 699 steps is the visible backdrop. There are 21 hikes on the  island.  Lucky to have done two of them.  One to Stone Top to watch the weekly plane land;  flight was cancelled due to fog, but great views nevertheless.  Second hike to Lot's Wife's Pond and a swim and lunch at the ponds. Ready to leave again.  Time to pull up the anchor, all 100m of it,  by hand.  We had to repair the mizzen mast which developed a crack.  Made a few blocks.  This is why John has a bandsaw on the boat.   1900 nm to Salvador.   Sailing in the trade winds which should be gentle and constant.  See you soon Brazil. Lot's...

 How to prepare to cross an ocean on a 35 ft home built yacht.  We have done the work to the best of our knowledge.  Completely off the grid, producing energy with the sun, and harnessing the wind to move us along.  Time to trust our own good judgement, and John's weather reading skills!  Coming up was a week of fairly strong southerly wind and a week of gentle south easterly trade winds;  this will take us to St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The first week turned out to be very strong wind, gusting often, and rough sea swells.  Gale force wind arrived on the second day with waves breaking over the cockpit pouring into the cabin.  One breaking wave carried my potted herb plants which were tucked safely in the dodger, into the cabin, slamming them against the side above the chart table.  Wet black organic potting soil everywhere, over everything.  We were moving at max speed of 6 knots with a reefed jib, rolling from side to...