My South Atlantic Home

It is early Saturday morning and I've just finished my first working week and my second night on-call, I was also on-call on my first day. I have still to go into the hospital to hand over to Dr Wendy (I'm known as Dr Sherwood) who is on for the rest of the weekend. I was woken early this morning by a call from the hospital and am now sitting on the veranda of my flat looking down the valley to the sea. My flat is the red roofed building in the foreground, the hospital is the green roofed building.
The sun is on the mountain tops but its still shady here in the valley, we're expecting another hot day but it is pleasantly cool at the moment.

The flat that has been rented for me is delightful,it is part of an old farm building, probably 150 years old with thick stone walls and a corrugated iron roof. It is a bit shabby on the outside but clean and tidy inside.

There is a kitchen with whitewashed stone walls and old range
with some rather wobbly furniture but there is a modern stove, microwave, fridge freezer and washing machine. There are a few cockroaches around but they are kept in check by the resident population of geckos. Out the back there is a dusty yard with a washing line where clothes dry in an hour or two.

The bedroom also has white painted rough stone walls with a tiled floor. All the windows have mossie nets and when left open these allow a reasonably cool breeze coming down from the mountain to blow through the room so that by the early hours of the morning the room is pleasantly cool even if in the evening I could do with air conditioning or at least a fan to get some sleep. The bed is a rickety iron four poster that is probably a hundred years old with a mattress to match. There is a bathroom with an old cast iron bath and a shower which is ancient but works adequately.

The dining room is spacious and elegant
with period furnishings and prints and would not look out of place in "Country Life", it is far too grand for me to use on my own, I usually eat in the kitchen or out on the deck.








The living room is my favourite, it too looks like something from another age spoilt only by the large TV (which isn't connected). The furnishings are all antiques and the walls are decorated with Napoleonic prints.

The arm chairs and chaise longe look great but are not terribly comfortable and the desk where I keep the laptop is large if rather wobbly but you can't have everything.
The living room opens through French windows onto the deck which forms the main entrance.

There is nothing stylish about the deck except the view.
Although there is a full time gardener the place is pretty unkempt but the view down the valley with steep rocky slopes on either side then over the roof of the hospital to the sea is wonderful and the air is full of birdsong in the morning and evening. The deck is a great place to work in the evening until the mossies and moths come out. The garden of course belongs to the main part of the house where members of the owners family live but I can enjoy the sense of peace and space that it affords and the fruit that drops from the mango tree.
The flat is only a 5 min walk from the hospital which is just as well as I have been kept very busy especially when on-call. The hospital is a little dated but the staff are very friendly and helpful. The work itself is full of challenges some I expected others perhaps unwelcome at this early stage but I'll write about that later.

A difficult landing

After a a very comfortable voyage we first sighted St Helena at about midday on Friday and were hopeful of disembarking a day early but Neptune had other ideas. The swell that had been impressive on Ascension but barely apparent on the open ocean had built up huge waves that were pounding the waterfront at Jamestown.

There is no harbour here and small boats are used to ferry passengers ashore. The steps where we would normally land were being repeated engulfed by huge waves and there was no question of getting ashore. 

Instead the ship arranged free drinks at sunset and a game of deck cricket and for once the passengers beat the crew. The following morning the seas was still quite rough but we were able to land with the launch rushing alongside to unload a few passengers then standing off for the next big wave before rushing in to unload a few more.





I met Sarel, the senior doctor here, and we went for coffee at the waterfront coffee bar where half of the island had gathered to watch the spectacle. The previous day apparently was the first time in 25 years that the RMS had not been able to land passengers.

Even today the view from the shoreline was awesome with the massive waves throwing boulders across the road where dozens of cars are usually lined up awaiting friends and family returning on the ship. Even more impressive were the efforts of the waterfront men in unloading containers in these conditions.

However without those containers the island would rapidly run short of essential supplies.

After a short briefing from Sarel I collected my baggage, found the car, and heading off to the flat that has been rented for me. Not knowing my preference for small cars and I presume thinking that a doctor needs a car of some distinction I now have a large black if rather old and shabby, BMW! The island speed limit is 40mph and I don’t suppose I will ever get it out of 3rd gear.

The flat they have found for me is delightful, a few hundred yards from the hospital and tucked away in the walled garden of a large house it is an ancient stone cottage with a lovely deck and a superb view. The interior is furnished with antiques, I have a Chaise longue and a four poster bad.
Today I plan to explore the island a little with James the UN volunteer and discover where the peripheral clinics I will have to attend are located. Work begins at 8:30 tomorrow with the doctors meeting then the Jamestown Clinic. On Tuesday I will have my first theatre list.

Getting There

I left the UK last Sunday evening flying from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island. Steph and I drove to Brize and it was strange to be going though the Entry Control again but this time as a civilian although my RAF name number and rank are still on the computer system and I was greeted as Squadron Leader by the security officer. We had arrived early for the 23:00 flight and BZN departure lounge was almost deserted but long before departure time it was clear that there would be no spare seats. Because of the commitment to Afghanistan the RAF shiny fleet which used to provide this service is now fully committed to purely military flights and the Falklands run is now contracted to Air Seychelle.

We left a cold damp and dark UK on a fully loaded holiday jet with a few seats replaced by a stretcher fit for a casualty to be returned from the Falklands, another reminder of my RAF time. The majority of the passengers were military personnel or military support workers bound for the Falklands with a small number of us heading for St Helena. The flight lasted 9hrs with minimal in flight service and no choice of entertainment but at least the seats had plenty of leg room.

As dawn broke we were approximately over the equator and even at 30,000ft had to fly around a very dramatic thunderstorm,

by 8:00 we were on the tarmac at Ascension from where we were collected and taken to the Obsidian Hotel.

The Obsidian is more like a slightly shabby military mess and indeed was probably built as one originally. The new part might have been rather better but I was in one of the cheaper rooms which was comfortable enough but rather basic and without air conditioning.

We had 48hrs on Ascension, last time when Steph and I were here we had a 4 hour whistlestop tour organised from the ship. I had met up with an English couple on their post-retirement trip and a German journalist on a working holiday and we agreed to have a brief rest then hire a car to explore the island. The only car available was a tired old diesel Citroen with a gear stick which came adrift when I tried to get it into reverse.

Most of Ascension is barren volcanic rock, hot and dry despite the humidity. The car had no air conditioning and the English couple were soon wilting in the heat so we left them in their air conditioned part of the hotel and Tomas and I headed up Green Mountain where the air was much cooler and we enjoyed a walk in the clouds around the mountain and up to the summit.

Only a few metres short of the summit there is a permanent pond, now complete with goldfish and water lilies, dug by Royal Navy Marines in the 19^th century to provide an emergency water supply to the small garrison that was established here to prevent the French from taking the Island and using it as a base to mount an operation to free Napoleon from his captivity on St Helena. 

This time of the year sees the event for which Ascension is probably best known aside from being a military air base. It is the breeding ground for perhaps 70% of the Green Turtles in Atlantic waters and every night they come ashore in significant numbers to lay their eggs.

Before dawn the next morning I walked down to the beach and was able to watch a couple of very tired turtles leave their nest sites and haul themselves back across the sand to the ocean.

The blow holes on the north coast were particularly
impressive as there was a big Atlantic swell running
from a storm somewhere further north.

Fortunately there were also a couple of sheltered beaches where we were able to swim and snorkel when the heat became too much. That evening we arranged a tour with the Ascension Island Conservation Group to watch the turtles actually laying their eggs. The moon was not up and with no artificial light except the glow of the red lamp held by our guide the tropical night sky was truly spectacular.

Wednesday morning we were up early to get our baggage to the quay and board the ship which had arrived at about 7:00 am. It is lovely to be back on board the RMS, I was greeted on board by Claude the purser and the doctor as if I was an old friend and have easily slipped back into the shipboard regime, including going to the gym twice a day in compensation for enjoying the excellent food. The company and conversation is as good and varied as on the last voyage.

I am sharing a cabin with Jim who is a UN Volunteer coming to the Island to do some work with the long term unemployed and who will be there for 9 months, I have also met 3 people who have previously sailed with the JST so there is plenty to talk about.

I am writing this on board and hope to be able to post it soon after we arrive on St Helena on Friday.

At the moment I have no idea quite what I will be doing when I arrive but I guess I’ll have the weekend to get organised then start work on Monday morning. I’ll keep you posted.

Love to all

Sherwood