We have arrived to Saint Helena! The harbour master immediately solved our mystery, by confirming Jonathan is still alive and well. He ensured us the whole world would know if he would pass away and Saint Helenians would be in mourning for at least a week. Regarding his relationship with Frederika and Emily; although we did know there were doubts about the gender of Frederika, his partner for the last 26 years, we did not think about it much. Until my mother wrote me yesterday that Frederika was, after recent examination, indeed found to be a male. This explains why in all these years of mating they never managed to produce offspring. The funny part in this all is that my mother mostly seemed surprised by the fact they were still mating at all, at their age. For the continuation of this endangered species, lets hope he stays fit and solves his relationship problems with Emily.
Most of us visited Jonathan and a photo of Jonathan together with deckhand Jonathan (from now onwards called Johnny) was taken. Some lucky people saw him walk and move; others just saw him sleep. Duarte, our mate, expressed he was not at all impressed by Jonathan. He was more impressed by the similarly shaped bell-stone (when struck will ring). You probably have no idea what a bell-stone is, so let me start at the beginning:
On Friday afternoon a man interested in seeing the Europa was shown around by Duarte. As the Saint Helenians are possibly the kindest people of the world, the man then offered to take him around on the island the next day. According to Duarte, the highlight was visiting the so-called Bell Stone. And as advertised, when you struck it with a stone or something, it will make the sound of a bell. Since people always like to ruin the thought of magic possibly existing, I was planning to do the same and now explain you the physics behind it. However, I did not find out why it rings like a bell and will leave the phenomena as being simply magical, at least until any reader with knowledge on the subject can let us know what is going on here. Apparently, Saint Helena is a very interesting island in the field of geography, but we unfortunately miss a geologist on board at the moment. What I did find out, is that the bell stone is made of Trachyandesite, an extrusive igneous rock, composed as the name already gives away, of trachyte and andesite. It is formed by the cooling of lava enriched with alkali metals and silica. This information means nothing to us on board, but maybe you find it interesting anyhow.
