Egg Is.

Fran and I recently accompanied the marine team to Egg Island to count "Madeiran" storm petrels at dusk (actually there may be two species of storm petrel here, with different breeding seasons and calls - but they look very similar). We had a rare opportunity to land on the island and scramble up its bare slopes to a cannon battery and on to the summit.

Madeiran storm petrels circling over Egg Island at dusk

MV Gannet III

Fran

Mike

Sunset over Egg Island

New Zealand on Air

Fran and I were recently hosted on a friend's Radio St Helena show. She wanted some kiwi flavour: so we arrived bearing gin, Anzac biscuits and a memory stick full of music from obscure kiwi bands. Fran showed remarkable disc jockey abilities and managed to get the first international broadcast for the Dunedin band Haunted Love. Mike managed to say "What a load of bollocks" on radio and blinded Liz and Fran with his camera flash. We hope Liz managed to keep her spot on the radio after our appearance.

Fran eating Anzac biscuit while Liz looks on in amusement. P.S. don't be fooled by the coffee mug - its actually full of gin.

A toast to the end of the show. We have no idea what all the buttons do, and Liz wouldn't let us randomly push them so we couldn't find out

windy

Forecast: wind around 30 knots, gusting 40. So of course we went fishing. The amazing thing is we even caught fish. Even more amazing was that after being buffeted by winds for a couple of hours the fish-mad Saints STOPPED fishing and instead sat in a sheltered spot cooking what had been caught, yakking and drinking beer. Wise move. The day ended on a moment of high drama when Freezy got spiked by one of the poisonous spines of a stone fish (locally called gurnard, and good eating). He's a pretty hard guy and doesn't say much so when he stated "that hurts" we knew he was in pain. The stories then started about people screaming in agony after being stung and peeing on the wound to try and stop the pain. Freezy resisted the temptation but did take himself to the hospital when we got back to Jamestown

A sepia mood for photographs today. From left the diehard fishermen Freezy and Chrissy and then the beer drinking spectators, Sam, Simon, Eddy

wind-flattened sea

Simon trying to cast into the wind

End of the day fry up and beers in a sheltered nook

Whips, jacks, big eyes and big gropers

Now, we know what you're thinking, but this is about fishing - honestly. Saints have local names for lots of the fish that swim in these waters: whip sharks, jacks, cavalli, grouper, conger, bulls eye, soldier, bastard soldier, old wives, gurnard. Every year the fishing competition brings out the locals and professionals to try their luck for some prizes and cups - a handshake with the Governor is an additional bonus. Some of the prizes included largest catch for the season (79.05 tonnes by Peter Benjamin), largest fish on the day (144.5kg whip shark by Robert Bedwell), largest tuna (62kg by Wayne Yon), most diverse catch (20 species by Peter Benjamin's crew) and largest fish of the year (113kg big-eye tuna by Dorian Caswell).

Unloading the catch using the wharf crane (which is also capable of lifting the boat and its crew as well as the catch)

When it takes three people to lift it onto a hook you know its a big fish: the 62kg yellow fin tuna

Mind you they needed a crane to hoist the 144.5kg whip (thresher) shark

which caused a lot of interest among the locals

especially the kids

reading from left: conger (moray eel), bulls eye, jack/grouper, cavalli (trevally), yellow fin tuna, wahoo

weighing in

##### NEWS FLASH #######
Imminent potato famine looms! No potatoes on this voyage of the RMS St Helena! Next potato due 11th August. Mayhem in stores expected
#########################

actually this is for real, and it ain't the first time it has happened.

Time for a party .... finally

We'd been waiting until our shipment of household items arrived before we had our house warming party. Unfortunately due to the combined affects of shipping schedules, weather and the sheer distance of moving things half way around the globe we had to wait a while - like about 4 months! (have you ever tried to live on just what you are allowed to carry on an airplane for 4 months?? Not easy). We then had to try and find a date that didn't conflict with other events, like the cricket break-up (and even some work things). It finally came all together and lots of people from a wide spectrum of St Helena society had a great time. LOTS of food was eaten. LOTS of beer and other liquids were drunk. Luckily the home made barbecue held up until after the cooking was finished before collapsing. The camera didn't come out until late at night - after all but the hardcore partyers had left. Things eventually wound up in the small hours of the morning. Thanks to all who came and MAJOR thanks to Eddy, Damien and Caroline for helping with cooking such a huge amount of food.

Hold on, I'm sure I've seen this bloke with a bottle elsewhere in this blog??! Glen with his favourite tipple - a local speciality made from the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. Tastes a bit like raw alcohol (which is pretty much what it is)

Some very good musicians: Eddy on guitar, Donny on harmonica and Anty who knows the lyrics to most songs (a very valuable talent late at night)

Donny. This guys is just amazing on a harmonica. He had three harmonicas this night

Some friends: Freezy with Caroline in the background and Glen (in a rare reflective mood) in the foreground

Anty, Donny and Eddy. Dunno what Anty was playing - it came from Africa and had the tuneability and tonality of a deaf donkey

Saint Helena Day

20th May was St Helena day - a day when many Saint's get dressed up, head into town, and have a whole lot of fun (if that sounds like the plot to a B-grade Western comedy - it is not intentional, but there is an awful lot of Country & Western played around these parts and sometimes the lingo just sticks). I managed to skip the work float under an "I've gotta take photos" excuse. Here are a few photos from the day to prove that it wasn't just an excuse

The St Helena National Trust and Environmental Conservation Section's float (minus Mike)

A lot of people dress up, some quite scarily so

Some come for the party ...

Others just watch - usually with a drink or three ...

or more

The theme was St Helena in 2020. Some people were fairly obvious where they wanted to be at that date ...

and some were just fairly obvious (and to be fair we do have ONE ship!)

And at the end of the day everyone had fun (maybe apart from some fathers)