What were you doing in St. Helena?

If I remember correctly, according to Guiness, it is the most remote island in the world. That is to say more distant from another piece of dry land than any other island in the world.

This sounds like the potential to be a very interesting adventure.

I thought Hawaii was the most remote.

Look for the tale later…

To start with remote…I don’t know the facts about distance from land compared to other islands…
The only way to reach St. Helena is by the RMS St. Helena or by yatch. I took the RMS from Bristol, UK to St. Helena on a two week voyage. At that time the RMS route was from Bristol to Tenerife to Ascension Island to St. Helena to Cape Town, South Africa. The voyage from Bristol was two weeks long. We received mail every 6 weeks from the southbound voyage.

Twenty years ago there was no television. And, of course, no internet. So was I on a remote island? Yeh, I’d say so!

I never thought of it that way, R8. I stand corrected.

As you guys know, I’m really not much of a story teller, but I’ll give you bits and pieces.

St. Helena is a British Overseas Territory. When we were there we used the term British Crown Colony. The “native” population is a light brown people, a mixture of African, Chinese, and Caucasian, numbering about 4,000. The main industry is fishing. At the time, 20 years ago, there was a British expat population of maybe 250 people. The expats were government officials, doctors, nurses, agricultural experts, teachers, meteorologists. There were some expats that had become permanent residents, usually married to a native, and usually associated with one of the island’s general stores. When we lived on St. Helena there were eight Americans living there. Then there was the assortment of world sailing yatchies. Maybe that’s another story.

It must be really cool for your daughter to be able to say she was born there.

However, I can’t imagine living in such an isolated place. It must have felt a bit claustrophobic.