L'Eau Commotion Westabout

6:00pm Wednesday 25th October 2017 ( UTC-1 ) I could see that the fitting on the prodder was starting to work loose, hence the cautionary strops, but this morning, sooner than expected, it had let go.. Not only that but the finer of the two strops was threatening to slice through the prodder in double quick time ( Photo 1). I furled and lowered the asymmetrical and considered the options. Ascension was still not visible but we were due to pass by at lunch time and only losing about 1 1/2 knots decided to pull in behind the island to work on the prodder. What a contrast to St. Helena Ascension is. Positively bristling with antennae, radomes, huge store rooms, a tank farm and barracks it was completely different to the tiny town appearance of St Helena. The supply ship was there busily feeding two lighters with containers. Lots of little vessels on moorings - even a Hatteras style game fishing boat. It was quite comfortable working on the prodder with a very much furled jib, but the tendency was always to make to windward towards the uninviting jagged volcanic rocks of the shore. You can see the two 10mm eye bolts I installed and again I put on the strops just in case. You may be able see where the fine strop was cutting through the teak. I was interested to see a frigate bird attacking something in the water as they can't swim and only feed by attacking other birds in the air to make them discorge the days takings. What I saw was that a gannet, reluctant to pay homage to these racketeers, had dived into the sea and attempted to swim away under water with the frigate bird hovering overhead at sea level. Very interesting and scientific. Not nearly so interesting or welcome was when one of these marauding monsters tried to get the impeller on the masthead sender to give up its contents. Much banging yelling and bad language seemed to work. I did a calculation and I would say the days adventures cost just three hours in progress- small price to pay to carry out the job all within swimming dista nce of the shore. --------------050704020103060201030103--