Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean

Hi everyone ....Dave here and hoping this blog post finds you all well!!!!

As I write this we are at sea on the longest individual leg of our journey thus far...sailing 3,012 miles from Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean to Tobago Island in the Caribbean. We are on day 6 of this passage with 2,135 miles remaining! So far all has gone well, and we are currently motoring through the doldrums as we are now 2 degrees south of the equator with no wind. Based on the weather forecast we anticpate we will have to motor for about 3 to 4 days to get into the northern hemisphere and the NE trade winds.

We had a wonderful 5 days stay in Ascension island. It is even more remote and less visited than St Helena, but such an interesting place with so much history.

We arrived on a Monday night at around 9.30pm and found a safe place to anchor in Clarence Bay which is just off the small settlement of Georgetown. The island is owned by the British and has really remained a military outpost since early settlement. It was first discovered in the 15 hundreds, but only occupied in the 18 hundreds when the British established a garrison there to ward off any possible attempt to rescue Napoleon imprisoned on nearby St Helena.

Ascension island was surprisingly interesting. We didn't know what to expect. There's all sorts of interesting stuff going on there. There are 2 military bases (1 British and 1 US), a BBC relay station and some other equivalent British agency like the NSA, listening to "stuff" with tons of weird aerials, antennas and satellite dishes and golf ball like looking radar domes. Super secret spy stuff, we think!!!!! The place is practically deserted, it's quite eerie. No-one on the street of Georgetown, but there are about 800 people living here. All contract workers or military. No permanent residents. Because of the BBC relay station, we were able to get BBC World News and BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) loud and clear, which made for a nice change!

On Tuesday morning we launched the dingy to try and go ashore to check in, but the swell was huge and breaking waves were crashing over the one and only landing spot, a small pier that juts out into the sea. After calling the authorities on VHF they advised not to attempt a landing as it was too rough :( So back to the boat we went and had a chill day which was a good thing as we were still not feeling 100 percent.

On Wednesday we were able to land and check in and walk around the small settlement. The landscape is like mars. Just red and black earth, dry, barren, lava flows, razor sharp rocks everywhere, and then one mountain called Green Mountain that is like a rainforest in the clouds! It was all a biological experiment dating back to the days of Darwin, to see if plants were planted on the mountain, if it would increase rainfall. It worked, but to think it's all man made is just unbelievable!!!! And of course the very few native plants are now endangered, 3 species already extinct! All fascinating stuff out here in the middle of nowhere!

On Thursday we met up with Andy Hobson, whom Hazel from St Helena had asked us to take some plants to, for his wife, Janet. So we met Andy on the pier in the morning and he was kind enough to give us a tour all around the island! As it turns out Andy was a former competitive Laser sailor in the UK....such a small world!

Our tour started with Andy opening up the museum and fort for us which was a great bonus as we had attempted to see it the day prior, but it only officially opens on a Saturday....lucky for us Andy had the keys :) We looked around at some fascinating artifacts, old photos and descriptions of life on Ascension Island over the past few hundred years. A quick walk through the fort reveled more of life back in the 18 hundreds.

Next up we drove through the American base and then the British base, and then to the small settlement called "Two Boats" town. It's called this as there were two old boats stood up right next to each other, and back in the day before cars, the boats were used as a stopping point to get some shade in the blistering heat.... Remember there are no trees or any shade on the lower part of the island!

We had some lunch at "Two Boats" and admired the view as it's situated up on a hill fairly high above sea level. After this Andy drove us up Green Mountain and the highest point on the island. What a contrast!!!!!! From a Mars like landscape on most of the island to just lush rainforest!!!!! It was spectacular!!!! We parked the car and proceeded to walk around the forest and to a collection point for the island's first fresh water supply. There was an old fort up high and now also some gardens that locals use to preserve some of the endangered species of plants.

After this we drove to the remote east part of the island where NASA had a tracking station for the early space expeditions and also the moon landings. Sadly the remote buildings are now closed off and abandoned, but it was amazing to see and think of the history just in this one location! In this same area we saw the area that the Ascension Island Frigate bird nest.... The only place in the world. These birds are HUGE, and coinsidently we had one circling our mast late yesterday looking like he wanted to attempt a landing, which would have been the end of our instruments at the top of the mast!

One final stop on our way back was Comfortless Bay where the poor folks that contracted Yellow fever back in the early days where abandoned and left as outcasts to die. There were a number of old graves from that time. Again the landscape is simply stunning, as baron and stark as you can imagine, with volcanic rock everywhere as though it was formed yesterday. Against this aridness was a spectacularly beautifully crystal clear turquoise blue water in this little bay. With that Andy dropped us back at the pier at around 5pm after a wonderful adventures day.

Andy thank you for taking the time to tour is around this beautiful island and explain so much of the fascinating history to us.... It was certainly the highlight of our stop and very much appreciated!

For us the day was not yet over as we had booked to go on a turtle tour that evening at 9pm. A huge conservation effort is going on and scientists studying green turtles, seabirds, land crabs and working on saving endemic plant species exists on the island today. So at 8.30pm we launched the dingy again and made a night landing at this tough pier. We walked up to the conservation center to wait for our tour. We could not believe our eyes when in walks one of the guides for the night, no other than Simon, who was the official that checked us in on Chagos Island last year July! It turned out that Simon's wife works on Ascension Island and he was visiting and volunteering with the turtle conservation efforts!

So after a brief catch up with Simon, watching a video on the turtles, we headed down to the beach in the dark to see if we could spot some laying eggs. These particular green turtles are pretty big and actually live and feed off Brazil, but come just to Ascension Island to lay eggs.... Quite a distance just to nest! We could see at least 6 turtles at various stages of making their way up the beach to laying eggs and making their way back to the water. The whole cycle takes a few hours. We found a turtle in the midst of laying her eggs. With the guides direction we positioned ourselves behind the turtle and with a red light (they can't see) watched as ping-pong sized egg after egg fell from her into a carefully dug nest. Apparently in this stage of laying eggs they go into a trance and are not even aware we were watching. It was truly spectacular to witness this miracle of nature and one we will always remember. We watched as she finished laying her eggs and then c
overed
them up at a painfully slow speed, obviously exhausted from the nights efforts. She rested for a while and then began the long journey of about 100 meters back to the ocean.

After saying our goodbyes to Simon we headed back to the boat in awe of what a day we had just experienced.

The following day we decided to just chill, and the day after on Saturday marked the final voyage of the resupply ship RMS St Helena, that has brought supplies and passengers from Cape Town to St Helena and Ascension Island for many years. I believe it was built in the 1980's and has become obsolete now that an airport has opened on St. Helena and is also too costly to continue running. Ascension has a military airport and receives some items through that as its primarily a military island and population. With this being a historic day for the RMS St Helena a big celebration was planned on the island which included guided tours of the ship on Saturday before its departure on Sunday. We were lucky enough to secure a tour, and along with the two other sailboats moored with us, Tangled Up and Alma, we enjoyed a trip out to the ship and a guided tour around.... Very cool to see and quite a historic event we were able to be part of. After the tour we headed into the groce
ry
store for one last stock up on some limited fresh produce, before saying our goodbyes to Jonas from Alma and then heading back to our boat for one last goodnight sleep.

The following Sunday morning we upped anchor at around 9am, waved goodbye to the island and RMS St Helena, and headed off into the deep blue South Atlantic Ocean. Ahead of us lay a huge distance of over 3,000 miles, probably about 20 days at sea, and 4 time zones to cross before we would see land again.... quite a daunting task, and one we have learnt to take one day at a time so as not to be overwhelmed by the task ahead. We've done lots of sleeping and reading and the kids have been doing some school work in the mornings. Yesterday we had pancakes for breakfast, always a treat on passage!

And so ends this blog update. We will hopefully write in the days ahead of how the passage is going and what we are up to. Please fee free to drop us a note on our satellite email address hibberd@myiridium.net .....we love getting updates from everyone and hearing from friends and people that follow our blog.... It's always a highlight of our day :) just please remember we can only receive a simple email with no attachments or pictures.

Take care and wishing you all the very best.

Cheers Dave


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