Tristan da Cunha

We are greeted with close to perfect weather at Tristan da Cunha; the day dawns bright and sunny over this small settlement in the middle of the southern Atlantic.

The harbour at Tristan is best described as needing complete redesign – it is impossible to get a ship in through the breakwater, and the surge at the breakwater makes it challenging even for zodiacs to navigate the entrance. Needless to say, it’s a wild ride in and out of the harbour. The difficult part of landing at Tristan is not getting up the steps at the harbour…it is getting off the ship into the zodiacs. The ‘up and down elevator’ is in full force, as the zodiac rides up and down on the waves breaking against the ship.

Not surprisingly, it turns out to be a challenging day for injuries – 3 passengers have minor injuries from falls in zodiacs or on land, and a naturalist driving a zodiac has a couple of suspected broken ribs from a rogue wave near the harbour entrance.   Whilst Tristan has a small hospital with a doctor, it is still a four to seven day voyage by sea to the nearest major hospital.  One of the passengers spends the night in hospital after a fall and the ship doctor has a busy day trying to (a) get the naturalist onto a backboard in a zodiac in open waters, and (b) trying to get her onto the ship. In the end, the entire zodiac is lifted on the hoist onto the top deck of the Explorer, as the ‘up and down elevator’ created by the waves makes it impossible to transfer her to the ship via the mudroom.

Tristan da Cunha itself is a cosy hamlet, sheltering under a volcano, and alongside a more recent caldera from the 1961 eruption.  The main industry at Tristan is fishing for rock lobsters, with a substantial export market. Otherwise, the options for agriculture are limited to a few sheep, some cows, and some underworked border collies, who entertain themselves chasing the motorbikes.

We collect 7 Tristanians who are travelling to Cape Town, including the Government Administrator for Tristan da Cunha.

Tomorrow we hope to land at Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands, with more challenging landings than today