We arrived at Ascension five and a half days after St Helena having had a reasonable passage which was not as quick as we would have liked but the seas were fair and we managed to sleep pretty well. We saw nothing except the occasional bird and two flying fish until nearing the island when a couple of dolphin swam by and a turtle's head appeared briefly.

We anchored 400 metres from the beach in 8 metres of water and all changed. We have been completely surrounded by Blackfish (Melichthis Niger) an unexplained phenomena of Ascension as they are unusually abundant throughout waters here. They rush toward you when getting in to swim and follow a little curious.

The greatest pleasure in being here right off the beach is that it is laying and mating season for the big green turtle population and we are in the middle of it. They have migrated to this breeding sight all the way from their feeding grounds in Brazil, a journey that they make only every 3-4 years. The boat is surrounded by turtles surfacing, mating, splashing and sighing particularly at around 06:00 to 08:00 when the females plough their way through the sand back from their newly made nests and into the water with what one feels is a sigh of relief. The males congregate waiting for their return and the next mating. The females are able to store the sperm from different matings separately and will lay at least 8 times whilst they are here – quite an arduous process.

Last night we went ashore and at 22:00 were on the beach with 3 females, about a metre long, that were nesting and laying. First they dig a large hole about 3 feet deep with their front flippers then they dig a smaller basin with their back flippers about another foot to eighteen inches down. A rest before going into a trance like state and laying about 120 eggs a little larger than a golf ball, shiny, white and slippery.

Our photographs had to be taken in the dark of course so are not great, the warden held a flipper aside in order to see the laying but the turtles are so unaware of anything around them at this stage that it does not disturb them.

This whole procedure of climbing the beach beyond the tide line, digging, nesting and laying then plodding back takes hours, the poor things seem exhausted until back in the water when they start to have what seems like high-jinx with the waiting males. Often there is a pair mating with another male in the offing, not sure what that is all about.

Anyway, we are here and so far so good, we have been able to get ashore on the slippery ladder because there has been little swell. We have been so lucky with our weather for here and St Helena we can hardly believe our good fortune.