Travelling to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic has always been a joy and a challenge. Until February 2018 the Royal Mail Ship Saint Helena (RMS) plied the South Atlantic ocean between South Africa (Cape Town), Saint Helena and Ascension Island. Once a year the schedule took in Tristan da Cunha as well. The schedule usually enabled the RMS to drop off passengers once or twice a month depending upon the route, with the voyage taking over 5 days. Including travel from the UK to South Africa, the journey would take up to 7 days.
The RMS has now been replaced by a weekly flight from Johannesburg to Saint Helena, cutting the journey time to 4.5h between the island and mainland. The journey from the UK to Saint Helena has been reduced to 48 hours if the connections work out. Its an amazing transformation and one which the islanders hope will help the islands economy grow as it has become more accessible to the outside world.
We have been privilaged to sail on the RMS during the our time working on the Darwin Plus project and in November 2017 made the return journey on one of the first flights from Saint Helena to Johannesburg. It’s been a unique opportunity to see the island develop in this way and experience how access to the island will open up more opportunities for visitors, residents and workers.
For more information on project DPLUS051, click here or contact Ben Sansom, bensansom@arctium.co.uk
