Ingrid Marie's Website

Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean

I went to Ascension Island for 3 months (November 2005 - January 2006) to work, play, swin and fish. I found Ascension Island a very fascinating place with incredible marine wildlife and a population of warm-hearthed friendly Saint Helenians. The coolest place I've ever been!

Where is Ascension Island? It's a very small remote island in the south Atlantic. Nearest land is Africa 1600 kms away. The island is located at 7.56° S, 14.25° W and covers 91 square km.

Landing in Ascension on the 4th of November flying the oldest operating jumbo in the World. Departure was 8 hours earlier from RAF base Brize Norton in the UK.

First we had to put SHY III in the water with the crane. A thrilling operation...

SHY ready to enter the water at the pier head.

A couple of fishing photos from marlin fishing on the good old 38' Bertram SHY III which has come here all the way from Ghana.

650 lb blue marlin caught on a skipjack tuna that had been in the freezer for a year.

Martin and Capt. Ian with a large sailfish.

Yellowfin tuna.

This is a shipjack tuna used for live bait!

An evening's catch of yellowfins from the buoy.

Dinner.

Breaking waves at the pier head.

Breaking waves at the pier head.

Breaking waves at the pier head.

Breaking waves at Long Beach. A green turtle can be seen in the middle of the picture.

Breaking waves at Long Beach.

Galapagos shark.

Martin and a grouper. They taste good on the barbeque.

A strange fish caught in deep water the Grattan Seamount. We did the long, risky trip from Ascension Island to the seamount which is located about 145 nautical miles from Ascension at at 9º 44' S 12º 49' W close to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Very large blue marlin that we (Christian) caught at the seamount very far from home on December the 30th 2005. It was estimated well over 1000 lbs. Unfortunately the fish went under the boat and broke the leader on the hull...
It doesn't look so big on the photo, but it was!

Photo from the fight of Christian's big fish. Everybody onboard was asleep when the fish bit except from Christian and me and the autopilot.

Martin on the leader seconds before it broke.

The hooks are sharp and we are ready to go fishing!

Ascension is proud to have one of the worst golf courses in the world! Not a single leaf of grass grows here. This is a look down the fairway. The "greens" are brown and made from sand mixed with oil.

Martin Joshua showing off his left hand swing from the tee. The locals play impressively well.

Martin showing his stylish stance.

The wild donkeys are moving targets on the "greens". Their footprints don't make putting any easier.

Me with a yellowfin tuna caught on SHY III.

We lost a propeller.

The engine room of SHY III.

Replacing the generator on SHY. The night before we were drifting for swordfish when one bilge pump failed, so the boat filled up with water and the generator got flooded. But thanks to the 2nd bilge pump and our luck we survived. But the generator didn't.

The rubbish dump where we went on several occations to find various parts.

This "lake" at the rubbish dump is where all old engine oil goes.

In Ascension I got the chance to spend a lot of time under water. There is lots of crayfish to be found in the numerous cracks and holes in the rocks under water. The cray hide in their holes, but if you know where they are (and the locals do!) you can find them in snorkelling distance from the surface and get them with the spear. But watch out for the evil moray eels.

Got one!

Crayfish dinner in Clarence House.

My first Ascension dive was great! It is like diving in a big aquarium with 1000s of fish.

Ian poking a jack.

The water around Ascension is very clear and the marine life very rich. Apart from all the fish you can see the large sea turtles while diving and sometimes a shark or two. Here we are diving at the Boatswain Bird Island. However, diving without a wetsuit does get cold after a while...

The frigate birds try to eat the outrigger tips all the time.

The Ascension Frigatebird (Fregata aquila) is endemic to Ascension and only breeds on the Boatswain Bird Island. The population is about 10000 birds. Even though it's a special species it looks like a normal frigate, and they are just as annoying. Here is a young one eating our tuna chum.

The sooty tern (Sterna fuscata) colony with 1000s of birds. In Ascension the bird is known as "Wideawake".

Tern close up.

One of many turtles that come to Ascension Island every year to lay their eggs on the beaches at night.

Ascension Island is the home for billions of black triggerfish. They hang out at the pier head.

The red crabs are everywhere and some of them are pretty big.

On Ascension we spent considerable amounts of time drinking at the beach. This is in English Bay featuring Big Wave Dave from the US military ship MV TSgt. John A. Chapman, Martin and Christian Stooss.

Barbeque in Comfortless Cove.

Bonfire in November.

Terror alarm in Ascension... Hmm.

X-mas day at Noddy's house. First time I had goat curry for X-mas.

Noddy himself all dressed up for X-mas.

New Year's Eve in the Saints' Club with Dave and Zeus.

There are wild donkeys on Ascension. This is one of the Gerogetown donkey families in the "shipyard".

Sometimes they come into Clarence House at night and eat whatever they can find. They love books and Kelloggs Frosties...

The living room in Clarence House after a donkey visit the night before.

The view from Green Mountain. It's 859 m high and very green in contrast to the rest of the island. Nice and cool too.

The view from Cross Hill where the Americans rule.

A crashed rental car.

A remote piece of Ascension.

Breaking waves at Long Beach.

We went snorkelling at the beach in English Bay and saw a huge school of goggleeyes with tuna and amberjacks cruising around them. Amazing to see a nice big (about 80 lbs) free swimming yellowfin so close. Not exactly what you expect to see when you go swimming at the beach...

Amberjack around the same school of googleeyes.

Hawksbill turtle in English Bay.

Large green turtle at North East Bay.

Martin catching a rainbow runner at Long Beach.

Comfortless Cove which is actually the most comfortable beach on Ascension. In the old days it was used as a place to keep people with yellow fever (and to bury them when they died).