Pit-stop Arrival

Day 19 of the Return trip.

I've had my Day numbers mixed up on the blog titles. I wonder if anyone noticed. They should be correct now.

 

Flight SA 1398 landed at Tristan da Cunha at around 16:30 yesterday afternoon. We had a glorious sail in.

 

After yesterday's update, we had to drop the Norwegian Blue and go the rest of the way under the #1. The sky stayed blue, and although there was still a chill on the breeze, at least the sun was out. It was exciting to watch the volcanic behemoth grow in size and detail as we got closer. The sheer cliffs and rugged rock-faces make for a beautiful back-drop to the quaint and very much isolated little town. The town is situated on the north-east corner of the island, which holds just about the only patch of inhabitable land. It's big enough to fit the town, and leaves some space for the cows to roam.

 

On the same corner is the only bit of submarine-ground which is suitable for anchoring, which is where we are now. On the downside, it gets deep very rapidly, and also happens to have a kelp JUNGLE on the sea-bed.

Weighing anchor was difficult enough when we had to move this morning, but all of the kelp that we got off the anchor line ended up on our propeller.

So Lula got the goggles and went in the p1ss to cut it all off. Let it be noted that this morning is drizzly, overcast, and cold.

 

In other (slightly more pertinent) news this morning, we have not been able to get onto the island yet. When we arrived yesterday, the ferry-boat crew had all knocked off, and we were told to wait until morning. A movie and an uncomfortable night of anchor-watches later, we radioed in again to find out if we could come ashore.

 

We got our permission, but the hold-up once again was the boat crew.

Because of the large swell and choppy sea, they weren't going to be able to get out of their little harbour, and the transfer of people to boat was going to be sketchy at best.

 

So now we are playing the waiting game. We are patiently biding our time and hoping that the sea-state calms down enough to get onto the island this afternoon. If the wind comes up and the conditions get worse, we will have no choice but to be happy with what we've seen and get on our way again.

There is also the more remote possibility of spending another night at anchor on the off-chance that tomorrow holds better conditions for us.

 

Keep your fingers crossed!