Hi all, this morning we left StHelena to sail to Ascension Island, 700 nm to the NWStHelena was a very remote and therefore special place to visitThe people are very friendly, relaxed and talkative; it must be one of the last places on earrth without mobil telephones.

The more than 500 year long history as a stopover place in the South Atlantic and Napoleon's imprisonment is very interesting but nowadays the 3.500 inhabitants are mainly busy adminstrating themselfs - almost all people are working directly or inddirectly for the (British) Government in a museum village atmosphere.

They just started to build an airport which is scheduled to open in 2015 - that will bring big changes to the islandWe have again crew on board: Annemarie, a retired swiss biology teacher, is joining us until Brazil.

She came to StHelena last monday with the "Pachamama" / ToptoTop expedition but as they are staying for longer and she wants to be back in Switzerland beginning of March, we could offer her a rideAnnemarie is an experienced sailor who we met first 4 1/2 years ago in Fiji when she was also crewing on the "Pachamama".

It was a hard farewell this morning, when we all had to say good-bye to Sabine, Dario and their 4 children, again we wonderful time together We are planning to stay only a few days at Ascension and from there will sail onn to Cabadelo in NE Brazil (between Recife and Natal)..