Today I have to wave goodbye to Tin Tin from the dock in Ascension Island, as Mark and Justin set sail for French Guyana 2500 miles away.
Unfortunately I have to be flown out because of a possible detached retina, which has sufficiently serious potential to warrant the insurers flying me home. However this is the most difficult place to do it from. I may be allowed onto the RAF flight to Cape Verde and then shipped back by commercial flight to the UK.
On route to Ascension Island on 26th March I started to see white flashing lights in my right eye. Once we arrived on the 30th I tried to see a doctor at the hospital but, being the Easter weekend it wasn't until Monday 2nd April that I was seen. Luckily Dr Bill Hardy had a retinal camera, and we were soon emailing images off to be looked at by specialists in the UK. No obvious damage could be seen, but the symptoms suggested a real, but low, risk that retinal damage could ensue. I contacted Pantaenius insurance, and they said that they would find a way to get me to see an ophthalmologist somewhere. Might be Brazil, South Africa, the Canaries, or UK. The problem is that there are only monthly civilian flights off Ascension because of the damaged runway, and the military flights won't usually accept civilian passengers.
After much discussion I decided that Tin Tin should set off without me, so that Justin had a chance of getting to a wedding that he was committed to, and I organised to stay in the island's only Bed and Breakfast until a flight could be arranged. The doctor had tried to get me onto an RAF flight, but the Base Commander had refused. A previous civilian casualty had apparently cost £40,000 to fly out via the RAF! In fact I didn't have to wait long after Tin Tin left before my amazing insurers had managed to get me onto the fortnightly RAF flight to the UK. I loved the cool command of the person who told me that she used to be stationed on Ascension in the RAF and if the Base Commander wasn't going to let me fly out, that she would "escalate it up the chain of command". Otherwise I would have had to wait until the fortnightly flight St Helena, or await a charter plane from Germany, South Africa or Brazil.
Once Tin Tin had sailed over the horizon, my feelings of despair and loss were soon subsumed by the enjoyable company of Juergen and Claudia from "La Belle Époque", who had just sailed in from the Falklands via St Helena. Luckily I was able to hire a car from my hostess, Syrena, at her JAMS Bed and Breakfast. A nice new room, all freshly kitted out, greeted me and I was shown the kitchen supplied with all the supplies needed for a good breakfast.
We drove to English Beach, empty of people because of the swimming ban caused by two recent shark attacks, and then up Green Mountain. We found a delightful walk along a path cut into the volcanic cliff overhung with all sorts of exotic tropical plants, with glimpses to the blue sea far below, and the occasional golden beach white fringed with surf.
I had another day there waiting for my delayed RAF flight, and we took advantage of the cool green of the heights again, and walked Elliot's Pass round the mountain for a couple of hours.
Later I was collected by The Administrator, Justine, in her black Land Rover Discovery with its British flag discreetly sheathed, but proudly displaying the number plate AA1. I was taken to Wide-Awake Airfield to board a huge grey RAF A400 transport plane. It landed with a great puff of blue smoke from the array of tyres just showing beneath the hull, disappearing from sight amongst the red volcanic cones along the runway. I was told that this airfield was designed to be able to receive the Space Shuttle when America still had one. I met the attractive blonde Base Commander and it turned out that we had both been watching for the re-entry of the Chinese Space Station that could easily have splashed down near Ascension.
The sun set on the rusty coloured scoria (volcanic vents) and it was a dark star-lit evening when we walked out to the massive hull of the plane with its four 8-bladed turbo props. I climbed the fold-down ladder and found myself in a cavernous interior that must have been about 25 feet high, and long enough to have carried 50 foot long Tin Tin and her 60 foot mast. There were two small pallets of luggage on the load bed, but otherwise there was a creditable badminton court sized space, lined with 25 black hammock-like jump seats each side. The seat itself turned out to be a hard board, with nothing much in the way of padding, as my bottom soon began to appreciate. My neighbour then informed me that on reaching Cape Verde we would not be transferring to a passenger flight but could look forward to taking the same plane for the 8 hours to Brize Norton. What a privilege!
We were all issued with earplugs, and the load deck commander in his green jumpsuit ran us through emergency exits, which include ladders dropping from the ceiling so that we can climb out of this tunnel if we ditch at sea. He also pointed out a pile of cardboard boxes containing our in-flight sandwiches and, surprisingly stale, packet of crisps. Without windows, the take-off was a novel experience and sitting sideways accentuated the amazingly short take-off at a steep angle. The air conditioning vent above me delivered a torrent of icy water that would have passed as a luxury shower in drought-stricken Cape Town!
Later I picked up one of the only two snack boxes marked V for Veggie, but it wasn't until I had eaten one of the plain cheese sandwiches that I noticed the outgoing Ascension Island Government Administrator, Nick, and his wife Polly looking disconsolately at the contents of a single Veggie box. Through the noise of the plane I managed to convey by hand signals that I had inadvertently nicked their pre-booked supper box, and made my way across the empty hold to hand it back, albeit minus one cheese sandwich!
We arrived in Cape Verde late at night, and whilst the military went one way I was whisked off in a taxi to the town of Santa Maria on the island of Sal. It was nice that it was only a few yards along the beach from the apartment that Anne, Becky and family stayed in when they visited Tin Tin here in December 2016.
I had a troubled night for some reason, but woke to enjoy a relaxed sunny day and a delicious hotel buffet breakfast.
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| Cape Verde |
My beach holiday passed all too quickly and that evening we were off again for the longer haul to the UK. Luckily I managed to buy an inflatable neck cushion from duty free, and with that in my soft laptop case I had a much less painful bottom! I was also lucky to be allowed into the cockpit which had an awe-inspiring array of green lit knobs and instruments, apparently bring the same as the Airbus A380.
My journey ended with a comfortable taxi ride which delivered me home at 4 a.m. and a very welcome bed.
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