St. Helena, a isolated island marooned in the middle of the South Atlantic, is on the milk run for many cruisers sailing from Cape Town, South Africa to the Caribbean. Recently, singlehander Webb Chiles briefly stopped at St. Helena aboard his Moore-24 GANNET. https://my.yb.tl/gannet
The only way to reach St. Helena, other than by yacht, is the bi-monthly aging mail ferry St. HELENA from Cape Town. That was about to change, and St. HELENA's visits canceled, with the opening of the much heralded and anticipated St. Helena International Airport.
Before the anticipated revelry, heavy equipment had to be landed on the nearly inaccessible coast. Then 530,000 truckloads of earth removed from a nearby mountain top to fill in the Dry Gut Gorge and raise its elevation 300 feet. This construction unfortunately had major impact on the nesting sites and habitat of the critically endangered Wire Bird (St. Helena plover), the national bird of St. Helena.
Britain funded $490 million for the expertise and completion of long delayed construction, and the initial commercial flight was set for last April.
A royal reception was planned, the crowd assembled, the band played, and the plane circled but couldn't land. Everyone went home, reportedly disappointed. It seemed no one in the design stage for the new airport had anticipated the extreme windshear that could make commercial landings unfeasible. No one but Charles Darwin, who had observed and written about the windshear phenomena in 1836 on the visit of the BEAGLE.
Whether the St. Helena airport and incoming flights carrying the Golden Egg of tourism can be salvaged is uncertain.
Apparently there may be a certain type of 4 engine STOL jet with hardy brakes and flown by experienced high wind pilots from the rugged Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic who have the experience to land downwind at St. Helena that may save the day. The welcoming band may play yet.
Meanwhile, I suspect Napoleon, exiled to St. Helena after his crushing defeat at Waterloo and who died on-island, is likely rolling in his grave wishing for another chance at the incompetent Brits.