Are we nearly there yet?: 18 May Ascension island anchorage

During our two week stay we moved anchor three times. First time we came in in the dark and dropped in 16m sand and this seemed fine until the wind shifted and the floating pipeline seemed to be moving toward us. Didn't want to get caught in the middle of the night with a mega boom around the bow so moved out to deeper water.

pipeline from ship to shore

anchorage seems bigger from afar

This was fine until a fuel tanker arrived to deliver aviation fuel. For the first day the swell was too big for the tanker to off load, but then he radioed us to ask us to move closer to the beach because he had to anchor close to our present position.

We moved in to 14m and heard the chain grumbling on rocks. Using the solar fish finder (bucket with clear plastic bottom) we checked our anchor from the dinghy and found rocks, thin sand over rocks and wreckage. Where we intended to move to there was an old ship's anchor which we estimated to be 6m long and an old fuel pipeline. With this information we finally found a spot where the anchor would be set in sand and was unlikely to be fouled.
Then we watched barges collecting the floating pipeline and manouvering one end to the tanker and the other pulled to the pier head where it was linked to the land pipeline. It was delivering 8,000,000 litres of aviation fuel through this pipe. It should have taken a day, but there were complications and the operation took three. During this time it was a free ferry ride for us to the pier once more.

The water around Ascension is incredibly clear and full of fish. We could see our chain on the bottom in 16m. Here we are surrounded by Durgeon, or black trigger fish which David caught in a net and filleted for Polly food.