Coronation Celebrations on Ascension

As an overseas British territory, the Kings Coronation was very much a celebration here on Ascension. 

Saturday 

Celebrations on the Saturday began at 3pm with an RAF parade into Georgetown Square and three cheers to the King followed by the Administrators speech. There were also small island businesses with stalls selling things as well as fayre games stalls for kids as well as some food stalls and a small bouncy castle for the kids. 

Anna and I actually missed the official coronation at 11am on the TV, as we were on sea rescue training, so we were out on the sea practicing deploying a drogue anchor. But I’ll definitely always remember where I was when King Charles III was coronated! 

We made it back in time to watch the balcony moment and then headed into Georgetown for the RAF parade in the square. After the speech and national anthem there was the judging of the kids endangered animal fancy dress competition, which was one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. 

There were two turtle costumes, a butterfly, two crocodiles, a parrot, elephant, monkey and a vaquita! The Dew pond certificates were then presented to participants and Anna and I received our certificates and a trophy to share. 

Then at 4pm it was time for the Kings cup Tug of War, which I think was won by Wolf Creek (the American Base) with Encompass coming in second, followed by a novelty Egg and spoon race for kids and parents. There was then a break in entertainment until 6:30pm in which we took the opportunity to run home and have some food and watch some of the coronation highlights on TV before the evening Talent show. 

For the talent show there was around 18 acts I think, with lots of singing and dancing performances. Special mentions went to Emily and Matt who sung a duet and Matt played guitar and ‘it’s a girls thing’ dance group, third place went to Kenzie who sung Let it go dressed as Elsa and second place went to Liana who played Violin. First place then went to a father daughter duo with the dad playing guitar and his teenage daughter singing alongside. Then at 9pm Caleb’s band Seven degrees South performed live music and we had a street disco which I thoroughly enjoyed dancing to. 

After all the singing and dancing Anna and I headed down to the pier to see if we could spot any turtles or sharks. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot anything but we reminisced about arriving 6 months ago and then headed back to the bungalow where we made hot chocolate and drank it under the moon and stars on the waterfront. 

Sunday 

On Sunday I had a chilled morning, didn’t really get up to much. Anna and I made some DIY decorations for ourselves for the coronation floats which were happening in the afternoon and practiced putting up our new hammocks which arrived in our April shipping. As we were on call Herby had agreed to let Anna and I on the floats as long as we didn’t drink and he was on standby to come and get us if there was a call out. 

The floats met in Church Square at 15:30 for judging and left Georgetown at 4pm, and I dressed in red white and blue with my DIY coronation glasses I made in the morning stuck to my sunglasses as frames. The floats took the same route as the Christmas ones, leaving Georgetown and heading towards Two Boats. Stopping at Two Boats club for a while before heading to Travellers Hill and then onwards to the VC, with lots of music and dancing on the way. By the time we returned to Georgetown it was around 8pm and the sun had set. 

Anna and I had planned to hammock at long beach overnight for the bank holiday and had prepped our bags before the floats to ensure a quick change over. Once we arrived in Georgetown we headed back to the bungalow, ate some food, changed into our PJs, grabbed our bags and headed down to the Long Beach beach hut where we set up our hammocks between the beach hut posts. 

We then decided to roast marshmallows over tealights in the BBQ to keep the wind off them and successfully roasted one each when we decided to put out the tealights as beach huts shouldn’t have light after 21:00 for the turtle season. 

We then headed across the beach to find some turtles nesting, and we watched one dig an egg chamber and lay her eggs. On our way back to the beach hut we also saw lots of hatchlings making their way to the sea across the beach, which looked huge compared to the tiny dark splodges of the hatchlings scuttling along. Afterwards we headed back to our hammocks and got in for the night setting our alarms for 6:30am as Anna had stranding checks the next morning.

Monday 

We woke up in our hammocks early Monday morning and enjoyed our Nutella Sandwiches we had brought with us whilst overlooking the beach and watching turtles returning to the sea after a night of laying. It was an amazing experience to wake up to the sound of waves and the first thing to see in the morning was two turtles crawling across the beach back to the water. The rest of the day was pretty chilled, we packed up our things and headed back to the bungalow, Anna had strandings checks and I called home from the office internet. Then in the afternoon Anna and I completed a very small but challenging Puzzle of the Alps her mum sent her in her shipping, and we did some crafting later in the afternoon. I then made stuffed peppers for dinner we had an early night in preparation for the rest of the work week.