The Waiting Game

Day 20 of the Return trip

 

Based on the weather forecasts, Dad's recommendation and the suggestion of Tristan Radio, we opted to wait out the rough seas at anchor. This was going to be a torturous wait, but we held onto the hopes that our visit to the island would be worth it.

 

After the Day 19 blog, the bad news is that the conditions didn't improve that afternoon. On such an afternoon, I could easily understand why the Brits would have wanted to settle here. It's cold, rainy and remarkably green. Until this point our spirits had been as up and down as the boat. We had to raise the anchor, cut the kelp off, and reposition the boat THREE times because our anchor had been dragging in the rough seas. Then as soon as we had committed to waiting another night, the westerly wind came through at about 25 knots. This made things harder to bear. We were in the face of the perfect conditions to continue our journey home. The frustration of the bobbing was nothing by compared to the zephyr that had mockingly arrived.

 

Now I feel that I have to follow up the last paragraph with some good news. The good news turns out to be very good - we paid our price of another night of bobbing and rolling at anchor; but on the morning that followed...

 

At 0800 UTC a call came in from Tristan Radio asking if we still wanted to come ashore. Was that a rhetorical question? The breeze had died of in the wee hours of the morning, and so had the sea state. The sun had risen on a perfect day in the South Atlantic. We radioed in to the affirmative, and requested that they send out the ferry-boat post-haste.