NAMIBIA TO ST HELENA (DAY2)
5 December 2006- Tuesday
Day 2 of 2 Full days at sea.
AM routine pretty well in place- I don't need the alarm clock anymore. Check the schedule for today and find 3 lectures scheduled- first is Sir Jon's lecture on "Napoleon-England's prisoner" heard it before and read the book. The Yacht guy Paul Cavell, was supposed to be "the clipper sailing ships and St Helena" but most about other items. Fianlly heard from Jean-Pierre again- "Napolean- the abyss" no slides, shich could have been helpful, but great lecture of Napoleon's time in St Helena. Now I'm really fired up, and was bouyed by the Captain's noon report. (He gets on the PA system at noon everyday when the sound the ship's horn and lets us know about the weather etc. and gives us a thought for the day). He said the weather report was good for a landing with a high pressure zone moving in.
It's 30 years since I last saw St Helena. That was from a EC 135N, a modified 707 loaded with electronics to track satelittes, missiles etc. We were on our way back from Mauritius Island by way of Capetown and Suriname. After we left Capetown I invited the rest of the electronics crew into the cockpit as we passed through 30,000 feet altitude to sing Happy Birthday to our pilot who was having his 30th birthday (nice touch -ay). I had bought a cake the night before and had him blow out the candles- except I forgot it was covered in confectioner's sugar not icing. When he blew out the candles he blew the powdered sugar all over the co-pilot who wound up looking like a snowman. Therefore, I was suprised when I suggested that we take a look at St Helena since it was on our way, and the pilot said ok. We dropped down to 5000 feet and flew around the island counterclockwise. We were coming up from the SE so we had to fly around the north end of the island to see Jamestown. as we came around the island we saw a ship at anchor that had a lot of antennae on it and discovered as we almost flew directly over it that it was a Russian trawler (the antennae gave it away as a spy ship). Anyway we hightailed it out of there and hoped we hadn't created an international incident. About 6 months later I was on another mission with the same outfit and we were overnighting on a small island (Ascension) 700 miles north of St Helena where the Americans had built an airbase in WWII. The workers on the base were mostly from St Helena and the bartender overheard our tale about overflying a Russian trawler. He chimed in that he was in Jamestown that day and that the Russian ship sounded all it's alarms when they saw us coming around the island and the Russians on the shore came running back to their boats. He said it was a panic to behold.
Skipped "Richocet" tonight as they are repeating a lot of their magic- still don't know how he does it. Found out they are on their honeymoon tour. I thought they were already married when I first saw them in Antarctica.
Day 2 of 2 Full days at sea.
AM routine pretty well in place- I don't need the alarm clock anymore. Check the schedule for today and find 3 lectures scheduled- first is Sir Jon's lecture on "Napoleon-England's prisoner" heard it before and read the book. The Yacht guy Paul Cavell, was supposed to be "the clipper sailing ships and St Helena" but most about other items. Fianlly heard from Jean-Pierre again- "Napolean- the abyss" no slides, shich could have been helpful, but great lecture of Napoleon's time in St Helena. Now I'm really fired up, and was bouyed by the Captain's noon report. (He gets on the PA system at noon everyday when the sound the ship's horn and lets us know about the weather etc. and gives us a thought for the day). He said the weather report was good for a landing with a high pressure zone moving in.
It's 30 years since I last saw St Helena. That was from a EC 135N, a modified 707 loaded with electronics to track satelittes, missiles etc. We were on our way back from Mauritius Island by way of Capetown and Suriname. After we left Capetown I invited the rest of the electronics crew into the cockpit as we passed through 30,000 feet altitude to sing Happy Birthday to our pilot who was having his 30th birthday (nice touch -ay). I had bought a cake the night before and had him blow out the candles- except I forgot it was covered in confectioner's sugar not icing. When he blew out the candles he blew the powdered sugar all over the co-pilot who wound up looking like a snowman. Therefore, I was suprised when I suggested that we take a look at St Helena since it was on our way, and the pilot said ok. We dropped down to 5000 feet and flew around the island counterclockwise. We were coming up from the SE so we had to fly around the north end of the island to see Jamestown. as we came around the island we saw a ship at anchor that had a lot of antennae on it and discovered as we almost flew directly over it that it was a Russian trawler (the antennae gave it away as a spy ship). Anyway we hightailed it out of there and hoped we hadn't created an international incident. About 6 months later I was on another mission with the same outfit and we were overnighting on a small island (Ascension) 700 miles north of St Helena where the Americans had built an airbase in WWII. The workers on the base were mostly from St Helena and the bartender overheard our tale about overflying a Russian trawler. He chimed in that he was in Jamestown that day and that the Russian ship sounded all it's alarms when they saw us coming around the island and the Russians on the shore came running back to their boats. He said it was a panic to behold.
Skipped "Richocet" tonight as they are repeating a lot of their magic- still don't know how he does it. Found out they are on their honeymoon tour. I thought they were already married when I first saw them in Antarctica.
Labels: Nairobi to Rio 2006
posted by DT at 12:09 PM
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