Happy New Year I hope it is a great one for all my family and friends.

A tasty dinner was cooked by the folks from the museum and the sunset with the lenticular clouds was beautiful especially with all the king penguins on the beach. Tomorrow Alastair and I will start the new year with some science on the beaches of Maiviken. Have a safe New Years Eve.

Just before christmas we took Pat and Sarah off for their pre christmas holidays for a week on the Barff peninsula which is just across Cumberland Bay. We take the jet boat and a RIB – the RIB is for landing on the beach this picture was taken by Pat Lurcock.

Todays meal was all freshies due to the kindness of the FRAM the cruise ship which gave us lots of fresh goods on christmas eve. With the number of eggs I was able to make quiche and a salad bar! Even the boys ate it.

I spent many hours with Rob, Alastair and Jon over at Myviken tramping through the tussock to get a gps tag back from a female who has been collecting data since the beginning of december.

picture by Dr Sam

Today was still a holiday on base as it was bank holiday2! Much more relaxing here than Rothera that is for sure. So we all got up to different things…

Alastair still had to go see the seals at Myviken as there is no such thing as a bank holiday for seal science. But he was rewarded by seeing a south georgia pipit which for a keen birder such as Alastair this was a momentous occasion. He did an all stations radio call about the sighting of the said bird which caused quite a stir over the VHF radio waves. This is a picture I poached off the internet…

What is so special you ask? Why do people spend 10’s of thousands of dollars to come south to see one? Below is from Wikipedia

The South Georgia Pipit (Anthus antarcticus) is a sparrow sized bird, only found on the South Georgia archipelago. It is the Antarctic’s only song bird, and South Georgia’s only passerine, and one of the few non-seabirds of the region. It builds nests from dried grass, and lays four eggs a year. It lives off insects and spiders, and beach debris. It has been threatened by the human introduction to the islands of rats, and also by environmental damage caused by humans themselves.

The rat eradication project that South Georgia Heritage Trust is embarking on will hopefully mean that they are seen around KEP more frequently. Check out http://www.sght.org/projects.htm for more info on this project.

Meanwhile five of us went over to Glacier Col as none of the group with the exception of myself had been to the dying glacier. It was a stunning day for it and we had a leisurely time stopping for a quick swim in the meltwater lake at the bottom of the glacier.

picture by Dr Sam

While we were walking up there two aircrafts flew over KEP which is a very rare thing indeed. The military were basically practising by sending out their planes from the Falklands. Although they can’t land they can air drop items which is an important thing to be able to do in the case of a major incident involving a cruise ship or fishing boat.

These are a few of the presents people made for Secret Santa. There are a talented bunch of people here. The one on the top left was drawn by Sam the Dr and the bottom one was my present from Tommy of one of the workboats which is now up on the shore near the hydro power station. I mentioned a few weeks ago when I was on a walk with him that I liked it.

Today I didn’t get up to anything adventurous of amazing instead I used the day to do some chores like my laundry, clean my room, make a picture frame for a birthday someone has in January. I also read a few chapters in the book OF DOGS AND MEN which is about the BAS sledge dogs that left in 1994. I also sewed up the bottoms of my walking trousers from the 3320 climb!

Being the only fully trained assitant on base for Alastair we went over to Maiviken today to put GPS tags on two female seals. The seals have pups so they go off to sea for 4 days foraging and then return to the beaches.

Alastair uses a VHF aerial to identify what area of the beach the tagged seal is and then retrieves the tags and downloads the data. This data is very helpful as it tells how far they swim and in what direction and also how deep they dive to feed. This means he is then able to tell the fisheries managers (government officers) if there is a particular area they are fishing in and how much krill there is in that area. The government can then make a decision based on this information about where to close for fishing. In all seriousness the old predator scientist was asked by a tourist what sky TV channels he could get using the aerial!

It has to be dry to put a tag on a seal so we were lucky as just after we had done the second one the skies opened with a mix of hail and rain. Alastair had some photos to take at the beaches but he was done with me so the Dr. Sam and I hurried on home stopping at the museum for a cup of tea and biscuits before the next cruise ship rush.

Pictures by Sam

On Christmas morning we very unusually opened up the base to take 25-30 kids (age 5 to 16) and a few parents for a tour of base. The group was in on Le Boreal which is a brand new ship that was built in Italy. Tommy and I volunteered to help Rob (the base commander) take them around and answer questions. We took an hour to show them what life is like here.

I then got onto Skype to talk to my family in Bermuda for an hour. With the bandwidth being so small we were each allowed to sign up for an hour long slot and everyone else was not to use the internet for the day except during their allotted time. It actually worked pretty well although at one point my calls were lasting for 30 seconds at a time! At least it didn’t rain or snow as any precipitation means our internet connection pretty much stops completely.

Alastair and I took some soup I had made over to the folks in the musuem who were working hard as there were three ships in on christmas eve and two on christmas day. Then we started in making Christmas dinner for 20 as the base commander who was going to make dinner went to bed sick for 36 hours. Alistair helped me a lot doing the dishes and making enormous amounts of yorkshire pudding.

Sam and Katie decorated the table beautifully with Sam also making a beautiful menu. Matt mech made up plates of pate and strawberry sorbet for starters.

At 1pm we were all to go for the annual swim in the bay however, only matt mech and myself were brave enough to go in. We went in seperately as he was waiting for me in the sauna and thought I had lost my bottle and I was waiting for him in the kitchen to come and get me.

Later in the afternoon we opened up presents with Tommy (being the youngest) passing them out to everyone. There is a lot of talented people on base with some beautiful pictures and drawings being given out.

As is tradition in my family we broke the gingerbread house and spent the afternoon eating all the sweets.

We had roast lamb, beef, turkey, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts etc. With the beef I cut off the fat and silvery bits, tied it up with string and covered it in a breadcrumb herb crust. I made some stock for gravy with the parts I had cut off. The turkey is not on the bone as the BAS policy is not to send meat with bones down. I was a bit worried it would go dry so Alastair beat it flat for me then I filled one breast with olives and the other with blue cheese rolled them up and tied them with string. Then fried them in olive oil, butter and herbs until they were golden brown all over, poured some white wine in the pan and let the alchol evaporate. Then covered in tin foil and let it slow cook for an hour and half – much to my relief it came out not to dry. The carrots were cooked in white wine, olive oil, thyme and lemon juice in the oven.

For dessert we had traditional christmas pudding, christmas cake (made by the cook at government house in the Falklands and sent down to us), Pavlova (made by Ruth the government officers wife) and I made buche de noel (or death by chocolate log). The log was chocolate cake rolled up with a filling of baileys mousse and topped with royal icing and chocolate icing. We played the After Eight game where you have to get the chocolate from your forehead into your mouth without using your hands – resulting in lots of great facial expressions!

We all rolled into our beds in the wee hours of the morning over fed after another beautiful day in south georgia.

BTW almost all the photos in my christmas eve and day postings were taken by Alastair Wilson.

Yesterday truffles and christmas cookies were made ready for christmas eve and christmas day.

This morning the Fram came in and tried to tie up at the Jetty however it was gusting 45 knots so instead they anchored in the cove and I took the post office workers and Pat the government officer out in the jet boat. It was a little stressful in that just as I went to come alongside they announced on the intercom that if the guests wanted to look out the starboard windows they would see the South Georgia Government Harbour Launch coming alongside!

They left mid morning just as the next ship the Bremen came around Hope Point.

Katie who is in charge of the cheese board wanted only a 1/4 of a round of Brie out of the freezer so Tommy, her and I used a hacksaw to cut off what we wanted!

The forest sprouted secret santa presents.

The church lit up with candles for the service.

Hanseatic in the cove at anchor.

We joined in on the Hanseatic (cruise ship) christmas eve service and as a base sang the twelve days of christmas KEP style written by the Lelec Family of the yacht TevaKenui. Pat had changed the night before christmas to KEP style which I shall put up at some point along with pictures of us singing.

On the first day of Christmas my true sent to me…a penguin calling for me.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me…two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me…three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me ….four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me…five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me… seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… eight FIDS a-wintering , seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… nine boaties jetting, eight FIDS a-wintering , seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… ten flippers flapping, nine boaties jetting, eight FIDS a-wintering , seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me… eleven Sheathbills strutting, ten flippers flapping, nine boaties jetting, eight FIDS a-wintering , seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me… twelve weaners scratching, eleven Sheathbills strutting, ten flippers flapping, nine boaties jetting, eight FIDS a-wintering , seven saunas steaming, six bodgers bodging… five Carse House gins…. four friendly furries, three yacht exploring, two Antarctic terns and a penguin calling for me.

Translation
Carse House – one of the government officers house currently occupied by Pat and Sarah who have lived here for 18 years. Their gin and tonics have a large percentage of gin and a splash of tonic!

Weaners – baby elephant seals

FIDS – Falkland Island Dependency Survey (what BAS use to be) so a FID is one of us.

Bodger – a broom stick handle to keep the furries at a distance when required (not for hitting them)

After the service the ship included us in mulled wine and german stollen on the wharf so Jon and Rob picked up their instruments for an in promptu music session.

Matt is the other boating officer he came from HM Coastguard where he was a senior watch officer (search and rescue co-ordinator). He lives in Southampton, UK. After relief we had a lot of parts come in so were able to fix many things on the boats. Matt is fixing the exhaust seal on the mariner outboard.

This is the time lapse that I promised which was put together by Alastair Wilson. Enjoy.