This morning we picked up the happy holiday makers from Sorling. On the way back I was mean to Rob and put a piece of cardboard across the windscreen so he had to navigate using the radar and chartplotter. It is amazing how well the bergy bits show up on the radar. There was quite a bit of brash ice around even in the cove.

Everything is so still at the moment – last night with the full moon I did my lates without a torch it was that bright out. This morning there was a thin nilas crust on the cove which was broken up by the boats straight away. We have now turned the stop cocks to take engine cooling water out of the jet units as the slush ice was blocking the normal water intakes almost straight away.

After boating I finished off servicing one of the RIB trailers taking off the wheels and cleaning up the hubs etc.

MWP sign on Chippy Shop door – all over base at the moment!
Then I decided to sort out the workbench in the chippy shop. It has taken me since getting here to finally take action! The worktop only extended over the base by 1/2 an inch which meant you couldn’t clamp things in place on the top. I added 2 inches onto the work bench which required moving two vices etc. and there is now a large lip to clamp to. Sounds like a small project but it took me 3 hours as it is very well built.

Skins on the bottom of my skis
At lunch I skinned over to the hydro and tried to imagine what the cove looked like during whaling days. It is a hard thing to ‘see’ in your mind that this beautiful peaceful place was once full of noise, smoke and blood. Last night after watching avalanche training movies I watched a documentary called ‘The Cove’ about dolphin slaughtering in Japan. A very interesting film- it won an Academy Award in 2010.