Date/time: December 10, 2005 Position @ noon: 15*54' S & 005*40' W noon to noon 3.8 nm Avg. speed: 6.2 knots Course bearing: 134 °T Sea state & wx: 8' seas, mainly cloudy, 20 kt wind from SE, apparent headwind 6* to starboard, water temp. 23 C Crew: Ben, Brad, & Kevin Days: 0 days out of St. Helena Goal: fetch Cape Town before Christmas To go: 1691 nm Remarks: I should also comment who is writing the daily as most times it is Brad but Ben wrote the report of December 7th obviously, the rest of the crew was not around in 1960. I think we learned a lot about the island considering the time we spent here. One thing is we pronounce it St. Helena as in Helena, Montana or hell-e-na, whereas they say it quicker and it sounds to us like Sintaleena. It may be the friendliest place we have ever been to as they are more outgoing than some peoples. We were not able to update the website pictures but will do that once we arrive in Africa. I do have a couple websites that I have not checked out yet http://www.sthelena.gov.sh http://www.chelt.ac.uk/ess/st-helena http://www.sthelenatourism.com that should have some good information. One industry they do have is making postage stamps. They have some hiking trails around the island with mailboxes at specific points, i.e. you can hike to the top of Diana's Peak and mail a letter that will be stamped as from that mailbox. Visiting each of the places in our travels has been a real catalyst for learning the history behind them. Each area's society has developed with many influences. St. Helena has perhaps been the best example of this. A very multicultural background controlled by different countries. This is also the place where Napoleon was detained in exile for 6 years until his death at age 51 in 1821. We were given a tour of the island including the Briar House where he stayed for 2 months and the Longwood house which he stayed at for the rest of the time. The tours exceeded my expectations and left me wanting to learn more. We took a lot of pictures in those few days. I looked for Napoleon brandy in the grocery store (sans arsenic) but couldn't find any<g>. There are some that believe he was poisoned from arsenic but the common theory is that he died of stomach cancer. This morning we saw the arrival of the mail ship RMS St. Helena, the only transport to St. Helena ( http://www.rms-st-helena.com ) other than private boats. The ship has 125 berths, the mail, and supplies for the island. It also visits Cape Town, Namibia, England and possibly a couple other little spots. They are talking about getting an airport and are receiving bids but the approval is not there yet as some are for and against the plan. Some of the people work on Ascension or on the Falkland Islands especially in construction. We lifted anchor at 11:40 Cape Town time (zulu + 2 hrs or mtn - 9 hrs), and are headed for Cape Town, South Africa. Regards, Brad and rest of Idlewild Crew -- Brad Gray Idlewild Custom Buehler 55 Home port: Dunvegan, Alberta http://www.idlewildexpedition.ca/ http://dieselducks.com/Idelwild.html http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/