In the Ascendancy

Serendipity
David Caukill
Wed 29 Jan 2014 16:44

Wednesday  January 29th,  2014

Ascension Island,  South Atlantic Ocean, 7 55.2S 14 24.7W 

Today's Blog by David (Time zone: UTC)

 

Ascension Island is somewhere that you would probably never have heard of but that  it was the RAF base on which they based the refuelling fleet  resupplying their Vulcan bombers on the way to the Falkland Islands in 1982.   Well,  I would never have predicted it then, but at lunchtime today, we rounded the north of another volcanic outcrop and entered Clarence Bay, Georgetown,  Ascension Island. We are at anchor off a golden sand beach (unusual  for a volcanic island) where we are told that, last night, Green Turtles were waddling ashore to bury their eggs (unusual for any island!).  An island tour tomorrow and who know what else….?

 

Our passage here was uneventful. The wind was consistently F5 (14-22kts)  from behind.  In those conditions Serendipity goes very well:   

 

 

 

Serendipity downwind in the Agulhas Current (Courtesy: Jan and Eli Isaksen from ‘Jenny’)

 

So much so, that we needed to manage our speed down in order to make sure we arrived here in daylight. We achieved that through careful sail husbandry ……  aided not a little by the fact that the wind died off to a zephyr yesterday evening!

 

Fishing Report

 

As by now you have come to expect, we have had more trials and tribulations with the fishing tackle. Our man in Cape Town insisted that we don’t need wire traces – nylon line is fine but we need to protect it with reinforced sleeves. This we have dutifully done but we have had a further three lured bitten off the trace. So back to the drawing board there.  This morning, we found a lure still attached – or more accurately the hook still attached, the body of the lure stripped off and the hook bent open – almost straightened!  So it is clear now we that have the 45 kg line is man  enough and we know how to knot it. So if we can just prevent the line being bitten through we now just need to find a hook that is man enough for whatever it is that is ‘out there’ …………………………..

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that we DID actually manage to hook, land (or boat) kill and fillet a fish yesterday.   I would have mentioned it earlier but for the fact that none of us could tell you what kind of fish this muddy green tuna like fish, with smooth non-scaly skin is…. Nor, more importantly whether it is edible! 

 

 

Now, you can see from its proximity to the chopping board that we weren’t going to let ignorance stand between us and a good meal and Richard has subsequently used his Billingsgate skills to good effect and it is now in the freezer pending health reports.  However, I can now happily report that it has been positively identified………………………..   Yes, of course, it’s a “White - lipped Jack”, aint it?   …..…. I hope you’re all right Jack!  Boom! Boom! (errr to eat that is, Ed.)

 

Well, I am glad that’s all cleared up then!