Sailing Vessel Beruta Ship's Log
St Helena - Ascension
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
After two unsuccessful attempts to reach the highest peaks of St. Helena island (Diana's Peak and High Peak) caused by the environmental protection due to phytophthora water mould and others plant diseases, I decided to clear out for Ascension. At least, I climbed almost as high as the peaks (800 m) and visited Napoleon's tomb, the lovely peaceful place in Sane Valley near a spring, where the Emperor "had slept the Sleep of Death" for 25 years before returning to Les Invalids in Paris.
I was still waiting for my eVisa to the island, and because of the holidays my emails were left unanswered. At the end I crossed over Ascension and wrote Martinique as my next port of call. When I returned to the boat and was getting ready to depart, I finally received a reply saying that the visa was granted and emailed me. Well, I was told that I could come to Ascension despite not having the eVisa in my email.
I was supposed to leave St. Helena next morning but I thought that it would be a waste of time sleeping at the mooring when I could sleep at the sea.
When the Earth hid the Sun below its horizon, I undid the mooring lines, waved "Bon Voyage" to a South African couple Pieter and Magdalena on Northern Light sailing to Ascension in a day, and motored away.
The distance to Ascension is 700 nm. It could take a week to get there in light winds.
Thursday, January 4, 2024
The night was windless, and the forecast was the same for the whole week. Making a stop on Ascension would give a chance to refuel.
I had to open the battery compartment again for a better ventilation because the temperature rose to over 40° C.
Friday, January 5, 2024
In the morning I had to provide a forced ventilation to one of four batteries. I put a 12v fan there - one of those that were used in computer power suppliers. The battery temperature had been 42° C but dropped to 39° C.
Afternoon 4-6 kt wind shifted forward, and I hoisted full main and genoa reaching with a help of the engine and the current at 5.5 kts.
My friend from Germany gave me an idea to disconnect the excitation circuit of the rotor of the alternator to turn off the battery charging. This is supposed to be done automatically by an alternator's voltage regulator. Once the battery voltage is above 14.2 volts, the voltage regulator should stop the current in the rotor's circuit. Unfortunately, I don't have the clamping ammeter to verify that.
It is also possible that the battery temperature is rising not because of overcharging but because the ambient temperature is rising when the engine is running.
In the evening I pumped the diesel from four jerry cans to the tank. The consumption is two jerry cans or 40 liters per day at low RPM, or roughly 1.5 liter an hour. In theory, I should be able to motor for all 6 days to Ascension if the wind remains light.
Saturday, January 6, 2024
At night the wind shifted back, and Beruta was running, so I had to drop the genoa.
At 2PM (UTC) I stopped the engine. The wind was 8-11 kts, STW 4 kts, SOG 4.5 kts. An extra knot with a help of an engine proved to be expensive. 40 liters of diesel cost 88 pounds on St. Helena. This would be for a day motoring at low RPM. It is cheaper to add another day of sailing at lower pace.
I had been looking for a source of a terrible smell for a couple of days, and now I finally found it! It was a rotten egg, which I put in an empty tea cup about a month ago when I realized that it had a crack hoping to cook it later that day or the next day. And I forgot of it, of course! Initially, I found some worms here and there. I knew that those types of worms were made by flies, which put eggs into a rotten thing like fish, for example. What a relief it was to find it at last!
Sunday, January 7, 2024
I spent the entire morning cleaning all the shelves in the galley to get rid of the rotten egg smell. It got everywhere! I had to remove the paper wrap from all the cans and washed everything with soap and Clorox.
At 10AM (UTC) I started the engine partially to charge the batteries because I had not turned off the Starlink for the night and partially to sail faster for a couple of hours.
At 1PM I stopped the engine. The apparent wind was 8-12 kts. Beruta was running at 4 kts.
Monday, January 8, 2024
At 2AM the apparent wind died to 5-7 kts. I started the engine.
ETA was 7PM tomorrow sailing at 4.9 kts, which could only be possible if motoring all the way. Anchoring at night at a foul ground was not a good idea. The forecast was still the same, 8-13 kts true wind directly to the stern. I might just sail overnight at 2-3 kts to get to Ascension Wednesday morning.
At 9AM I stopped the engine. The apparent wind increased to 8-12 kts. SOG was about 4 kts under the full main.
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
The wind lasted till 2AM as usual. From there it was very light 6-8 kts apparent. STW was 2.5 kts. SOG was around 3 kts.
At 11:30AM it was 60 nm to the island or 20 hours at 3 kts, meaning the arrival time tomorrow at sunrise.
If not the loud mainsail flapping, when rolling, all would be just fine. I suppose the only thing to do with this kind of wind besides motoring is to take three reefs on the main and hoist a spinnaker. I became too cautious to do that alone. It is doable but not convenient handling the spinnaker single-handed.
At 3PM, 43 nm to the island, I spotted it on the horizon.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
At 4AM I woke up to check the course. Good timing! Beruta was sailing straight to the island instead of rounding it on the west side! The wind changed but I did not setup any alarms for course change or XTD.
From that time I did not sleep. The wind was light and hence variable, especially in the vicinity of the hilly island.
At sunrise, I was entering Clarence Bay, which was north of the Georgetown's pier head. My first anchoring attempt in a sandy bottom was unsuccessful - the anchor dragged when I pull it with the engine. I had to take it out. At the second attempt it seemed to have worked. I found another sandy ground close to the beach at 7 m depth. I only pull it very light to give it more time to set on its own with a help of a wind. Later I checked it by looking at it from a dinghy through a dive mask. It was completely buried in the sand. Neither swimming nor diving was permitted due to a shark or current danger. There were lots of giant sea turtles in the bay.
I called Assistant Harbour Master on channel 8 a couple of times but there was no answer. In about an hour a pair of men approached me in their power boat and asked me to call the Port Control on channel 8. I said that I did it already few times. They insisted, I called - no answer. They said that they would try to find a person for me, and he or she would call me. I inflated and launched the dinghy, installed the outboard - still no call. I decided to try calling Ascension Radio on channel 16 but got an immediate response from the Port Control, who asked me to change to channel 8. I supposed they had been listening on channel 16 only.
A lady instructed me to come ashore and see her in the office. I did. The clearance was easy - I needed to complete three single-page papers with similar info in each - same forms were used in St. Helena. The Port Control charged 15 pounds in cash for lights - go figure.
The immigration is located in the police building. The officer was not there. I went to the Chandlery hoping to get cash back using St. Helena Tourist Card app but they did not have a correct reader. I was still able to use the app to pay for my groceries. To get cash, I had to go to the bank, which charged 3% commission. When I returned from the bank, the police officer arrived. He said that they were short-staffed, and I was lucky to catch him. He checked my email correspondence about eVisa with other officers and stamped my passport. He said when leaving, if nobody were in the office, it was ok to leave without a stamp in the passport.
Kitty, the lady from the Port Control, helped me to hire a car from Sue who worked at the Saints Club near the Post Office. They charged 25 pounds for a truck per day. Also, Kitty helped to fill my 6 diesel jerry cans. The price here was 1.5 pounds, very similar to the prices that I saw on local invoices in St. Helena (1.53) but where foreigners where charged 2.20 per liter. Interesting, wasn't it?
There is a washing machine that uses 2 one-pound coins and a shower that uses 1 pound. There is also a coin-operated portable water tap in a shed close to the pier steps. One pound makes it work for 60 seconds, which is just enough to fill a 25 liter canister.
All pictures from Ascension are on Google Photos.