Understandably, the Tristan da Cunha Cookbook is somewhat limited when it comes to ingredients in its recipes. There’s fish and cray or crawfish of course. Lamb, beef, onions and a hell of a lot of potatoes. In fact, I was hard-pressed to find a single recipe that didn’t include potatoes. They even use potatoes in pastry. There’s Inside Soup that is traditional on Christmas Eve. It features sheep’s offal. ‘Stuff Mutton’: roast lamb stuffed with potatoes is a Christmas Day dish.
There’s one police officer on Tristan da Cunha. We now have three on Flinders Island, so they are not always on call. Conrad Glass, who was born on TdC, was the policeman for decades and you can find a number of articles about him online. Earlier this year the position of Police Sergeant was advertised. Applicants are required to have ten years experience policing in the UK. And, presumably, are always on call.
This is a raft they use to unload ships. The green thing on top I recognise from my voyage to St Helena: it’s used to load and unload passengers who have mobility issues. A crane moves the cage from ship to raft and vice versa.
Tristan has its own dialect, a kind of creole language. ‘Fardi’ is grandfather. If you have a ‘green load of wood on ya’ you are drunk. An ‘egg trip’ is to go collecting penguin eggs, a treat. To be ‘pickish’, like in New Zealand, is to be hungry. The most common trait of Tristonian — if that’s what the language is called — is to add an ‘h’ at the beginning of words. ‘Hasthma’, ‘hangry’, etc.
The supermarket’s bottle-shop was looking a little light on. Good things there’s a supply this due in a few days.
Long boats are safer ashore when they are not out fishing.
Our loading and unloading is arguably more dignified than by crane. See the top photo (of us in our cool and complimentary Swan Hellenic jackets). But possibly not as comfortable. The Zodiacs, expertly piloted by the Expedition Team, were surging and receding rather alarmingly as we embarked. The coming storm was making itself felt but the SH Diana handled it well. I hardly noticed the swell when we were back aboard, even at its worst.
And, before the ship’s jaccuzi closed for however long the storm was going to last, I thought I had better hop in.
For my first post on Tristan da Cunha click here. For my second post on Tristan da Cunha click here. For the third, click here.