South Atlantic continuation

On Saturday the  21st we left with winds up a little more than we would like and had 25-30k winds from astern which makes for fast sailing but lots of motion onboard making sleeping and everything else difficult. We had just two days of that and then the   winds dropped and we even had to run the engine for the last four hours into Ascension where we dropped the anchor on the 25th and celebrated our arrival before we cleared in the next morning. This island is mountainous but greener than St Helena and the sea has a big swell from the north pounding in on the white sand beaches and the black iron shore. This island is military, owned by the British but has a big American presence with so many antennas that are used for the tracking of the satellites launched out of Cape Kennedy in Florida. They have a two mile runway that was a contingency landing site for the space shuttle when it was flying. Here it is difficult to go ashore with the landing being some cement steps that you have to judge the swell just right to get off or you go swimming. Today, our second full day, we tried to go ashore this morning but the swell are just too big and it would be folly trying to go unless we really had to. We will bob around for the day at anchor and so some swimming with lots of small fish that are all around the boat and watch the turtles swim by. The big white sand beach in front of us is covered with turtle tracks above the surf line where every night they are laying eggs. There are thousands of them here mostly green turtles so maybe some hope for their survival.

We drove around the island yesterday seeing all the sites and ended up at the American air base with a typical US bar and restaurant. Not great food but a nice change. The swell is down so much easier to get ashore and today we are doing the intenetting and tomorrow we will check out and head over to South America at Brazil. Another 1200 miles so hope to  put a blog out in a couple of  weeks.

Ascension Island ...South Atlantic

 The South Atlantic..

We sailed from Ludiwitz leaving on March 5th bound for St Helena about 1400 miles away. We had a very fast start with winds in the 25k range for the first two days and then slowly came down to the 15-20k range for the rest of the trip. The whole sail was very comfortable and with four of us onboard we managed lots of sleep and reading of books. On the 10th we celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary by sharing a bottle of champagne at dinner. On the 12th we received the sad news that my brother Eric had passed away. This is when being away living this sailing life is no fun at all. We had been expecting this as he had fought for the last three years against the multiple myeloma cancer that he had. Still being only 61 years old is far too young to die. We will all miss him..

We arrived in St Helena on Friday the thirteenth around 1600 hrs and tied to one of their mooring bouys. We stayed onboard for the night and cleared in the next morning at Jamestown. This is the island Napoleon was sent to the second time he was defeated and here he died. He was buried here but 25 years later his remains were sent back to Paris where is today. We saw the house he lived in and the old grave site. This island is the top of a volcanic mountain with vertical cliffs jutting out of the sea with little or no vegetation on them but in the middle of the island it is green with clouds swirling around you on the higher areas. The top of the island is around 2800 feet. The only way in or out of St Helena is by boat which comes from Cape Town once every three weeks so rather remote. They are building an airport which is due to open next year and will completely change the island for better and worse. No cell phone coverage and the cost of internet is crazy. The shopping is ok but you have to go to all the stores as they all have slightly different produce and food stuffs. It is like going back in time. The people are great with so many different backgrounds and they all refer to themselves as Saints. We stayed for just over a week and left the following Saturday for Ascension Island 700 miles NNW.

update

We finally left Cape Town on Wednesday the 25th and sailed for three days up to Luderwitz in Namibia. It was a different feeling on Kilkea II with the addition of our two friends who are crewing for us up to where ever we end up. The sail here was very pleasant with fifteen to twenty knots of wind from behind with calm seas so very pleasant for all concerned. This place is very different with the old German town have many of it old buildings still standing and in pretty good condition. It is very small with just about ten blocks of size but with a yacht club and supermarkets close by and very friendly people. We rented a car for a day and did some touring. We went through a abandoned diamond mine that is now a tourist attraction and learnt much about the history of the business and how it all came about.

This is just a short note to let everyone know that we will depart tomorrow the 5th of March for St Helena island about 1400 miles away. It will be good to get back into warmer water as the sea temperature here is around 14 degrees C. It will be good to be back at sea again so we can relax. We plan to stay there for 5 days or so depending on the weather. Then it will be off to Ascension island which is a further seven hundred miles up the Atlantic. Lots of fun. At that point we will make the decision to either head to the Carrib or the Med? It will be a lot different having crew and lot of sleep.