The expedition yacht SV Urchin arrived from Cape Town on 6th December 2021 to drop off conservation personnel.

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Yacht SV Urchin brings the Inaccessible conservation team

Report and photos from Trevor Glass

The expedition yacht SV Urchin arrived at the northern Tristan islands on 6th December 2021 at about 15:00 to drop off Siobhan Vye, as well as Christmas presents from the yacht's Cape Town shore crew for the island children. Siobhan will be doing work relating to the marine protected areas around Tristan. The Urchin also transported a familiar climbing team - Carmen Ferreira, Jan Bradley and Brandon Cloete - who are to continue work on invasive flax eradication on both Nightingale and Inaccessible for the Tristan Government. (As an interesting aside, Captain A.Josias Cloete - perhaps an ancestor of Brandon's(?) - commanded the garrison on Tristan in 1816, which included founding settler Willam Glass and his family.)

SV Urchin sailing off the coast of Tristan da Cunha

SV Urchin sailing off the coast of Tristan da Cunha.

The Conservation RIBs pick up passengers from the yacht off Inaccessible The Conservation RIBs pick up passengers from the yacht off Inaccessible
The Conservation RIBs pick up passengers from the yacht anchored off Inaccessible

In the interest of time, and seeing as two Tristan RIBs were then already at Inaccessible Island, and that Urchin intended to drop off the climbing team there, it was decided to go directly to Inaccessible. She sailed slightly south of Tristan island arriving at Inaccessible that afternoon. The climbing team disembarked Urchin onto the island, and were joined by Christiaan Gerber, brought over from Tristan on one one of the RIBs. Siobhan then transferred safely onto one of the Tristan boats for the trip back to the settlement.

That evening, Urchin anchored in gentle weather at a beautiful spot off Inaccessible, where the crew could catch up on a full night's sleep without having to do the 4 on 4 off watches.

Urchin proceeded to to Gough, to disembark an electrician for the Meteorological station. She will be returning straight to Cape Town with some of the members of the Gough Restoration Programme team.

This is the Urchin's third expedition to Tristan da Cunha, and Gough Island. She left Cape Town on the 19th November 2021.

Updates to the voyage can be followed on the Urchin Sailing Expeditions Facebook page.