The Edinburgh was nine days late in leaving for Tristan. This delay would have serious ramifications for me and my decision whether or not I should even visit the island. Mark and I have a trip planned to Australia and New Zealand very soon after my arrival back home in Canada--provided the ship kept to its original schedule. I am a daily visitor ( Read more... )

Back on February I wrote a blog post as well as a personal E-mail to ask you all to write to me on Tristan da Cunha. I did not know how successful this plea would be, as my 2013 attempt yielded only two replies (and one of them arrived only after I had already departed the island). Iris Green, the island's postmistress, was staying with me at ( Read more... )

The Internet has been down since I arrived at Tristan on September 29. It has been restricted to government offices only, and only to the computer used by the head of the department. Thus I have not been able to access or send E-mails. I am lucky today, as yesterday was a holiday and the government offices are closed on the weekend. However, I ( Read more... )

I have Internet! But for how long? Here is a mail I prepared on the ship while travelling here ( Read more... )

In a few hours I will finally be travelling to Tristan da Cunha. The ship has suffered one delay after another but Cape Town is a big and beautiful city, and I cannot say I haven't been enjoying myself during the wait. I am sailing on the fishing vessel MV Edinburgh. I took S. A. Agulhas II, a research vessel, four years ago, and there was Internet ( Read more... )

I received word early this evening from Martin Green, husband of Iris (both are staying at Tristan House with me) that the Edinburgh has been delayed, yet again, till Thursday. Will I ever get to Tristan da Cunha? Am I Panglossian or should I get just a little bit annoyed that the trip has been delayed yet again? I am not getting worked up about it ( Read more... )

It was a beautiful day for an open-roof bus tour, so while the city was shut down for the Cape Town marathon, I ventured to the outskirts to see some new sights. After arriving back in Cape Town from Tristan da Cunha four years ago, two of my cabinmates and I took a downtown city bus tour. I chose the same company, with the Hop-on, Hop-off red ( Read more... )

While en route from Cape Town to Tristan da Cunha four years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Martin and Marilyn Crawford and their son Murray and daughter-in-law Candace. Friends of Tristan know the name Allan Crawford, an island researcher, historian, documentarian, photographer and author. Martin is Allan's son. I had a made-for-TV face-palm ( Read more... )

I just found out that the departure date for the Edinburgh, already delayed three days as it is, has been pushed back till next Wednesday, September 20. This is not good news. While I can understand--genuinely--that the ship can be and often is delayed, I realize that I cannot go to the island if the delay is a week longer than expected. I had the ( Read more... )

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Cape Town. I will be there for possibly two days longer than expected, as I heard this morning from the shipping company that the Edinburgh will now likely leave for Tristan on Friday, September 15 instead of Wednesday. It is a fuel supply issue, but I cannot say that I am surprised to hear this. I check the official ( Read more... )