Well not really but for South Georgia it was busy!

This morning was a busy start to the week. Ali, Katie and Matt headed off to Sorling on holiday after base meeting. We filled the RIB with the gear and I took the jet boat. The visibility was not great for most of the trip I used the radar and there were large sections of brash ice to work our way through as we got closer to the Nordenskol.

After dropping the happy campers off we headed to the ice cliffs of the Nordenskol to map the face using the radar. We were lucky and for a little while the fog lifted so we could actually see the glacier. We slowly moved along 1/4 mile off parrallel to the ice cliff and created a track with waypoints I will put this into the computer and before I leave in December will do the track again and we will see how much the glacier has receded.

After leaving the glacier we headed back to base as quickly as the conditions allowed as there was a krill boat transshipping to the factory ship in the bay and Robert needed to go aboard and give them a licence. When the brash cleared a bit the guys in the RIB had some fun catch some air off the jet boat wake!

Due to the fog which had now decreased visiblity to about 1/8 mile the fishing vessels were slowed down so there was time for lunch, weekly checks and a few more small jobs. Updated the waypoints on the RIBs and next weeks trailer checks including removing the wheel and cleaning the hubs etc. As we are on winter holiday next week with the main day being midwinter day – 21st we are getting all the jobs done so we come back to a clean slate.

Sunrise today was at 8:45am and sunset at 4:07pm so I am looking forward to the days getting longer after midwinter day.

In between the maintenance tasks we took Robert out to the ship off Hope Point luckily the visiblity cleared to about 1/2 mile so I didn’t have to creep to the ship at 4 knots so it was a quick trip out and back an hour and half later.

After a week and half out of action with my virus I decided to get back to exercising today and did an hour on the bike in front of a World at War. It was an interesting episode on the Death of Hitler and the controversy over whether he shot himself or killed himself with sionide (spelling?).

Sunday it rained all day here the snow fell off the roof and the ground snow turned to sludge. I decided to make another midwinter present and read a book a relaxing day all in all.This is my pitroom floor covered in materials for the second MWP. All around base people were busy working away like elves in their office or workshops busy making presents to be opened on our equivalent of christmas day – 21st June.

At 9:00am there was a knock on my door – Rob was outside dressed for skiing and wanted to know if I was coming. We had some great snow fall last week but it had warmed on Friday and it seemed to be melting quickly. I dragged myself out of bed however, and 5 of us took off towards the repeater on the Duse ridge with all the requisite avalanche gear.

I really shouldn’t have been out as I was still sick but how could I not! As the snow was Sierra cement in nature and it was threatening to rain I decided to stay with Ali and Sam on the first part of the plateau and try to teach Sam how to ski. She did a good job considering the snow conditions but in the end decided it was easier to walk down the hill. Ali also did a good job only coming to a halt when he hit a hidden rock – the contrast was poor. I am trying to relearn how to ski on my new skis which are very wide and also longer than I am use to.

When I told mum we went skinning she thought I had mispelt skiing but no skinning is when you put skins on the bottom of your skis so you can go uphill – as of course here we don’t have ski lifts.

Dinner was Saturday night at Carse house cooked by Ruth and Maureen. A splendid feast with delicious profitta rolls for dessert.

Ali and Sam are off on holidays to the Greene and it is a beautiful day for it. This picture was taken out of the bar windows. The icicles are getting longer and the snow deeper – lets hope it stays around.

Yesterday Tommy and I skinned up to Deadmans and then skied back down. I am now regretting it as I wasn’t fully better from being sick and it has put me back a day. We got back in time for Doc School on Altitude Medecine and then I worked till dinner as I had played for 3 hours over lunch in the snow!

Snowy sheathbill ‘footprint’ in the snow they are found all around the rocky shorelines as you can see from the print unlike true seabirds they don’t have webbed feet.

I took this at St Andrews hence all the penguins behind – they strut around waiting opportunistically for food! They are scavengers if we don’t remember to put the VHF mic away they will peck away the buttons and I have seen them attempt to peck the grease off the cable for hoisting the jet boats out.

”Sheathbills nest in rocky crevices in summer, usually near penguin colonies, where the scavenging is best and where they seem to have no fear. On occasion, they have been observed to disturb adult penguins to the point of successfully stealing food right from the mouths of feeding chicks. This is typically accomplished by the focal bird when it strategically displaces the chick before the parent finishes complete regurgitation. Food is dropped onto the ground and the result is a happy sheathbill and a hungry penguin chick.”

After working on Saturday Sam and I went for a walk to penguin river – a leisurly stroll along the beach as I should have been in bed but it was such a stunning day and we knew Sunday was going to be miserable (which it was).

Sam took the pictures of me walking across the frozen Penguin River and through the tussock.

There were 5 king penguin chicks with 5 adults I hadn’t been over there for many months so it was great to see some chicks. The picture above (by Sam) is a adult feeding his/her chick – this one kept on chirping asking for food and the adult would just tap it on the head with its beak. Finally it gave in! The Elli seals had mostly gone however, there were a few furries on or two males but not really large ones. The king penguin has the longest breeding cycle of any penguins taking 14-16 months from breeding to fledging.

One furry was most perturbed by the ice on the river not liking how the surface caved in. The ice was amazing the way it had formed.

As we came back from Grytviken the light was stunning with beauitful pastels.

This morning at sunrise we were on the water having dropped off Kieron, Robert, Jude, Ali and Katie onto the Saga Sea a boat that has come to catch some krill in South Georgia. Above is a picture taken from my GoPro camera given to me by the Chance and potluck group in SF.

Krill above is fished for in the Southern Ocean for animal feed and some human consumption.

Katie and Ali have been doing Overseas Territories Environment Programme transects (above picture) to investigate the potential interactions between higher predators and the krill fishery at South Georgia, as well as the possible interactions this fishery may have with other fish stock through the by-catch of larval fish. A total of four trips are planned. On these set transects they are conducting seabird and mammal counts and trawling for larval fish. These four areas have been set in the main target areas of the krill fleet, set using historic krill catch data, and in adjacent areas that are not normally fished.

During daylight hours Ali monitors a 300 meters wide strip of sea on one side of the ship as it moves along the transect. He records every higher predator seen, which may include penguins and other birds, seals and whales. He also records the animals’ behaviour, noting if they are feeding, their direction of travel, approximate age and moult states for some of the birds. Analysis of the data should show what species are competing with the fishing industry to use the krill resource during winter. The results will build on earlier work surveying seabirds at sea carried out in 2002 to 2004.

Katie uses a plankton trawl net at night fishing for half an hour at three stations along each transect. She then analyses the collected samples to identify any larval fish.

This is a backer board for another lifering for the other side of the wharf. Matt H welded on a bracket to the forward section of the jet boat fence. I have painted that section this week and Matt will cut the fenders next week then it will be installed and that project will be complete. It will mean I can rest easy at night in a storm when it is high tide and not find the jet boats possibly on the wharf in the morning.

The bitter end of the anchor rode on the RIBs was not attached so installing a U bolt to tie it to was necessary. First drilled an oversize hole in the bulkhead then filled with epoxy to seal the plywood and redrilled and sealed with sicaflex.

The lifering stand needed a wiring brushing and painting and I made a bag for the polyprop line to live in reducing the UV damage.

On tuesday we took out the jet boat Pipit. It reminded me of taking your car out on a good winter day in the UK. Matt is here scrapping the frost off the windscreen of the jet boat – no credit card or scraper so he used a plastic thermometer!

The boat needed lots of little jobs done. Due to the ice on the cove recently the bottom didn’t need cleaning. The jet unit steering system was serviced and checks to the buckets done. Nicks were found in the electrical wiring where it entered the mast system. And as you can see from the picture above it needed a valeting – hence me scrubbing the cabin floor. More jobs to do on monday before she goes back in. The normal monthly and some three monthly jobs were also done by Matt.

Alastair figured out that we would see the International Space Station pass overhead on Wednesday night and indeed at the exact time he said it appeared looking like a plane high above and passed from the shoulder of Hodges (near to Orion’s belt) to eventually be hidden by Duse. Luckily the clouds were gone creating a stunning starscape. We waved just in case they could see us! 🙂