1400 GMT

07 52S 014 30W

We left Ascension island at 1230 today and are now heading for the equator and the NE trades. We have just over 3000 miles to go to Grenada. Ascension was a weird but interesting island. Nice volcanic scenery with lush cloud forest above 2400 feet where a good view is a rarity. The strangest thing was seeing so few people about – we visited the ‘airhead’ ( airport) to see if we could get some weather info. and there was this huge sophisticated passenger terminal – and no people until we finally spotted a lone figure wandering out towards the runway and he gave us directions, which was appropriate since he was the director of operations. Then there are the antenna – sitting there listening – and the BBC World service relay station which transmits to Africa – but they couldn’t tell us how we could pick up a news broadcast, they just monitored the water temperature of the transmitters and changed capacitors! The internet provided by Sure sure was unsecured – never had so many spam emails, the bank charges were still extortionate and getting a decent cup of coffee was impossible – except on board Threeships. But we loved it and the steaks at the American airbase were good and cheap. So all well on board and we’ll be posting position reports every 2 days to save iridium time.