March 20, 2013 – March 29, 2013
The sail from St. Helena to the Island – an even smaller
speck on the map! – was short, and my watch moved on from the 2-4 watch. Last
2-4 watch ever! To celebrate, we had sat and talked and ate instant noodles and
drank hot chocolate after watch. At 4 in the morning!
The day we arrived in Ascension felt sort of like the
last day of school before holidays; everyone was so excited to go ashore the
next day, March 27th. The day started off right with a swim call,
despite the fact that there are lots of sharks in the area. There was a lot of
swell though so we couldn’t take the tenders (our little boats) ashore so we
had to take the MOB boat (Man Overboard boat, a little motorboat) which could
only seat 6 people. I was lucky and ended up in one of the first trips, but it
ended up taking 3 hours to get everyone to the island from where we were
anchored!
Once my group got on land we stopped for snacks of course
at the only little grocery store in the tiny town. We took a bus to Comfortless
Cove, and despite there being many beaches, it is one of only two on the island
that is safe for swimming. The cove was small but beautiful, and we could see
the Sørlandet in the distance. We had
fun at the beach, building a sandcastle and swimming with all the fish in the
cove, and one guy got a fish down the back of his swim shorts! We found out
later that they’re actually carnivorous fish of relation to the piranha…yikes!
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We left the beach and began walking back to Georgetown
where the ship was docked. It’s a long walk from the cove back to town, about
40 minutes, and only a 5 minute section is actually on a road. There rest of
the way is on a little path so there’s no chance of hitching a ride from a
vehicle. We were so lucky though, because as we were walking along the 5 minute
stretch of road a van came by to take some other Class Afloat students to the
cove, then drove us back to town! We all had to meet up that afternoon for a
port program to the local school, Two Boats School. We got a tour of the small
school – the only one on the island – and got to talk with some of the students
before having a buffet supper with them. I couldn’t imagine going to the same
school from elementary school all the way through to high school; I didn’t even
finish high school at the same school!
The following day was another shore leave day, which is
nice because the days are really short here because we have to take the MOB
boat to and from the ship. We started off the morning with another swim call,
which will probably be the last for a while. When the boat runs started to go
to shore, I once again ended up on one of the first trips because I signed up
for an optional port program. A group of us went on a hike on Green Mountain.
Ascension Island is volcanic, so the terrain is naturally all lava rock, but
when Darwin came to the island he wanted to introduce some greenery so a plan
was made to ship trees from South Africa, South America, and Europe. Now, the
mountain is lush with plants that aren’t found together anywhere else in the
world; bamboo, banana trees, and pines all next to each other! A travel show
describes it as the UN of forests! As the bus took us higher and higher up the
mountain to where we would begin our hike, it began raining harder and harder.
By the time we reached the top it was pouring, so all we could really see on
the hike was fog everywhere, and an occasional view of the coast of the island.
We left the island
the following day for a long sail. A change in itinerary meant that rather than
heading to Brazil again, we were bound for Barbados! Another three and a half
weeks at sea!
