South Atlantic: Ascension Island

Jan 2, 2008 5 pm Ascension Island, South Atlantic

After getting 400 liters of diesel fuel at the military base on Ascension Island, I left after 4 hours for Antigua. Ascension was not really worth the stop! There is nothing here worth seeing, the facilities are terrible and the people are not even nice. And no working internet!

There are less than 1000 people here and over 90% are with the US or English military or their families. I do not recommend a stop for anything but fuel, and that is almost torture. You have to anchor way out and get down your own dingy, there are no ferry boats. The 'pier' is not protected from the swell and it was running 10 feet.

You have to time your landing with the up swell, grab a hanging rope and jump out of your dingy with the painter onto the piece of concrete slap. There are no taxis and the fuel station is 2 miles up in the hills. I have eight 20 liter jerry cans! I finally walked up into the 'Town' but it only has about a dozen buildings.

I was able to talk a young military guy with his pickup truck into taking me up to the fuel station. He was very nice and helpful, from Virginia! You can only imagine how difficult it was to get the 8 full jerry cans back into the dingy, with a 10 foot swell running, and that 3 different times!

Antigua is my next stop, about 3300 miles NNE. I am predicting about 3 weeks. I have to sail and motor cautiously because of the 3 temporary repairs I have done myself. The Yanmar engine has a leak in the salt water impeller pump I fixed with a screw and some 5200 sealant, the Balmar alternator had to be re-wired to by-pass the regulator, and the Fischer-Panda generator does not turn on power because I got some salt water on the mother board from the water leak.

When I cross the equator into the North Atlantic in 1000 miles, I expect to get into the "Doldrums", a band of weather 500 miles wide with NO WIND! I expect to motor sail. That is the reason I stopped inn Ascension, to fill up all my reserves of diesel fuel. It would be the only reason I would recommend stopping there to anyone else.

Mike Harker
s/v Wanderlust3