(us at the furthest extent with Cumberland Bay West behind us and Harpon!)
Rob and I got up early and headed off up the hill with 30kg rucksacks headed for Harpon only to be recalled! So yet again I made it as far as Echo Pass and not to Harpon. Oh well! Instead we get to eat at Carse House and enjoy what looks like a very tasty feast of pies and peas.

The reason for the recall was that a fishing vessel Antarctic Bay has had a breakdown and is being towed by another fishing vessel Betanzos towards King Edward Point. We are not sure if we can help with the repairs but if we can they will go back to fishing. If not they will have to be towed almost 1000 miles at 4 knots to the Falklands. They are still 6 hours out and likely to get in at midnight so will probably anchor off Hope Point.

The walk to our sun filled lunch area was delightful if not a little chilly -4 today and sometimes hard work. The snow was slabby in places and both Rob and I both found sheet ice at one point under 5 inches of snow. Both of us fell several times which is not too much fun with a very large rucksack on but were unhurt. I don’t think I will ever be able to walk comfortably with Rob as he is a giraffe and for every one step he takes I have to do two so he obviously moves ahead quite quickly despite my legs moving at the same rate as his. Several times I was heard to exclaim ”how is it possible you went from there to there in one step!”

So after unpacking my bag I had a hot chocolate and went to the bike to watch History of Britain and spin out 20km before dinner.

Tommy was on earlies this morning and by the time we all got up the board was full! The above picture says the following
‘Looking for strong hardy men and women to manhaul thousands of millimeters across some of the toughest terrain in South Georgia.Will encounter landslides, blizzards, exposed electrical cable, flooding and wild beasts. A voyage of self discovery. Applicants must be light hearted, willing, furry faced, GSOH (good sense of humour), kind, loving and enjoy long walks along the beach. Return for smoko may not be guaranteed. ‘

We found that the stretcher I modified yesterday dug into the snow too much filling with snow and the fins dug into the ground as the snow was not very deep. So all change to the snowsled fiberglass pulk which is designed for man hauling and there wasn’t a problem with digging in or filling up.

As we were about to pull off down the track Matt Mech came to say he needed help as the sewage outfall had frozen over and therefore the sewage was backing up! Nice!! So Matt Boat, Tommy and Matt Mech had the fun job of power washing and roding out the outfall. Meanwhile I studiously worked on my computer!

After the outfall was sorted we headed out with the boys pulling the pulk full of books that needed to go to the musuem and then myself and Sam who decided to have a ride.

I clipped into the hauling system when we went uphill and it was hardwork requiring 4 people to pull uphill with Matt Boat sitting in the pulk. We learnt a lot about setting up the hauling system and how to come downhill safely on skis/snowboard and on snowshoes. I decided not to ski as the snow was thin and I didn’t want to wreck the base of my skis. After a break back at base it was time for the normal friday scrub out.

Turns out it would be helpful to recycle another climbing harness into a hauling harness so a project for next week.

Tomorrow Rob and I are off on a camping trip to Harpon for one night and won’t be back till Sunday. So have a great weekend where ever you are.

Another blue sky day on South Georgia. We had two Krill boats requiring inspection today and as Matt had not been on one yet I drove the jetboat while he went aboard as a witness for the first one. The first was a converted container ship and the second a very old i.e. 40 years old Japanese trawler. All was fine until the starboard engine overheated as the water intake got jammed with ice even though it was taking water from the jet units! Once we cleared that we were good to go. The ice covered the surface all the way out to Hope Point as it has been cold recently. These inspections basically tied up base with boating all day so boat school didn’t happen.

In between boat trips I made modifications to our stretcher unit as tomorrow we are doing a SAR test instead of doc school to see how it goes manhauling. In the test we found the stretcher tends to take on a lot of snow so it really needs a cover which I will make.

Tubular webbing sewn on to handles with jubilee clips to stop them sliding allowing attachment to hauling harness.

Also it would be nice to be able to hook the handles to a hauling harness and when the handles are not being used it would be good to fold them back onto the stretcher without squashing the patient.

Piece of pipe and pipe clips riveted to hood stopping the handles from dropping down.

After seeing the pancake ice sliding around over the top of the optic cable yesterday at high water I went out with some water hose pipe taping and cable tying it on just as a bit of chafe resistance until it can covered with the JCB.

As I was on earlies I made a very simple slow cooked leg of lamb with vegetables and mashed potatoe. One of the krill vessels gave us some fresh fruit including some peaches. Dessert was peach shortcake with whipped cream – a little taste of summer here in the snow! What we all found ironic was this was the first time Tommy had eaten a peach – on an island in the middle of the southern ocean!

A few of my friends seem to be doing charity walks but being down here I am walking for science instead!

Today I went with Ali to Maiviken beaches to collect seal poo. As we are in winter conditions he had to have someone with him which gave me the perfect excuse to go for a long snowshoe for work.

I skinned along the track changing to snowshoes at the church. Such a stunning day – this picture was taken from Deadmans looking towards Gull Lake. You can see small tear shaped avalanching on the sides of Brown.

When we got over Deadmans at the top of cardiac hill there were ice covered grass like I had seen at Shackletons waterfall on Sunday. Ali decided they made tasty ice lollies.

When we got to Evans Lake the ice was thick enough to walk on. I am standing on the trail of a fur seal which froze solid in the slush ice. We followed it to see if it produced some samples for Ali as the lake was frozen solid the seal had made a long overland journey from Evans Lake to Tortula beach.

This is a penguin motorway – the few gentoos remaining in the colony go out to feed every morning and back at night.

Finally we got to the beach and found some seals hiding out amongst the tussock.

Some of the gentoos were hanging out on the beach with icicles hanging off the surrounding cliffs.

After looking for samples along the beach we had lunch finding some tussock to sit on. Being American I needed a cup holder so made one out of the tussock by tying it together.

As the sun went down the light was beautiful I kept on stopping and looking back to the beaches. We rarely see sunsets as Duse over shadows base.

When we got back after 5.5 hours (around 12km) of snowshoeing – which by the way is quite difficult over tussock – we put the sauna on and relaxed for a half hour. Before dinner I jumped on the bike cycled 20km while watching an episode about Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, James and finally William of Orange. Quite a full day – beautiful weather.

Saturday night we had the annual pub crawl. There were 5 pubs in total put together by base members. Seeing as I was on cook Matt Boat did a grand job setting up our marine team one by himself. Our bar was first a cruise ship theme- on the jet boat serving champagne with Chopen playing on VHF channel 15 from the boatshed!

Tommy standing outside with his glass of champagne on the aft deck!

Next stop was the Irish Bar at Discovery House put together by Maureen and Robert. Complete with questions pulled out of a hat about all things scottish or irish before you could receive a drink!

The beakers including Ramon (an observer from a toothfish boat) put together the most amazing ice bar. They had collected snow and put it in the freezer and then carved out ice sculptures with strobe lights inside. The glasses were also made from tap water frozen into glasses with homemade rasberry vodka. A lot of effort that was well worth it!

Rob’s bar was in the Sauna where he served white russians as the theme was Georgia (as in the Russian state). Ali decided to take his carved penguin with him where the poor thing obviously started sweating quite a bit!

Last but not least was the basement (sewage plant room!) nightclub complete with handstamps to get in low ceilings, loud dance music, vodka jelly and pills (skittles) to pop. Well done Tommy and Matt.

As the sky was so clear we did our midwinter photo Sam and Ali did a great job with the star trails and merging everything together so we didn’t have to stand in the minus temperatures for 2 hours!

This morning I went aboard a krill boat with Robert as he needed a witness during his inspection to issue them a license. This is a view from the bridge of the vessel showing the krill trawl net.

The ship is basically a mini Grytviken processing the krill into oil, powder etc. all aboard the vessel. It has mincers, boilers, centrifuges etc. and an army of engineers to run the machines.

After the inspection as it was such a stunning day we took three hours off work and all except Matt Mech took to the track for a skin and ski. Unfortunately the snow was not good enough for downhill and as we were scraping up our skis with rocks we decided to go back to work.

So while my friends in the US had the day off to celebrate the 4th July I was shovelling heavy wet snow and setting off flares. The shovelling meant I didn’t have to lift weights in the gym which is a boring part of my daily routine!

It snowed last night indeed by 11:30pm when I did lates it was already about 8 inches of snow. This morning Rob ticked the winter travel reg box which means full avalanche kit and two people when going off base.

With all the snow there was a lot of shovelling along the walkway. Whom ever designed/built the place decided it was a clever idea to have the walkway extend beyond the roof so the snow falls off the roof onto the walkway instead of to the outside. Not clever.

At lunch Sam, Tommy and I went for a skin around Grytviken which was beautiful in the blanket of snow.

Ali’s penguin from the pub crawl became the KKK penguin with a peaked snowy hat.

Tommy serviced the washer and driers and had an A+++ rant on the board about lint after someone left a napkin in their pockets.

After all the midwinter present making the chippy shop was full of sawdust and needed a good sort out. I made a bonfire from all the sawdust and scaps and put the wood up on some pallets as the heavy rain has been driving in the door and soaking the wood on the floor.

As there were no fireworks on base for me to celebrate 4th July we set off a few flares at the wharf that were out of date.

After setting off the flares it was time for a movie and sitting on sofas at Shack Villa as Kieron and Ruth went back to the UK today for their 4 months off.

This is taken in the building known as the plant which contains the meat cookery which is larger than the blubber cookery. Several alternative or parallel processes were involved varying from one station to another in the plant. The extraction of oil from meat is more complicated than from blubber. The meat was sent in elevators up into the meat loft and into the top of the cookers after being cut into pieces.

Originally there was 16 pressure meat cookers that were replaced in 1956 with two rotary 24 ton cookers and one 15 ton cooker which pressed the oil out of the meat. The oil was blow off to separators from the cooker and the solid remains transported to the meal processing plant. The meat was pressed in a press that extended over four floors allowing input from the meat loft, bone loft and ground level platform. The meat on the top level dropped from conveyors onto rotary cutters to the third leve where it was distrubuted on another conveyor into five holes leading to the second level.

The meat went through five tubes 10m+ long being heated and screwed through onto vibrating screens.

Any liquid passing throught the screens went to centrifuges (beautifully made out of high quality stainless they still spin freely today) removing solid particles and onto a seperator plant.

The solids on the screen went to the ground floor where it went through screw presses.

The wind died down so I went for a walk over to the waterfall above Shackleton’s grave and then up to Gull Lake which is well frozen.

The ice in the center of the waterfall was shaped by the wind and had collected around pieces of grass.

I was on saturday cook (above picture is sunrise from the kitchen window) but seeing as we were having the pub crawl we did dinner an hour earlier and I made just main and dessert. As it was close to 4th July I decided to make food that was themed on what I would have had at home had I been in SF for the 4th.

I did a barley yoghurt pancake breakfast with a choice of bananna or pumpkin muffins. Not sure I will do it again the buckwheats I feel were much tastier! After breakfast it was time to take Robert out to La Manche for the trans shipping clearance procedure.

On the way back up from the boatshed I did my shopping at the food store South Georgia style!

Potatoe, green bean and bacon salad

Lemonade made from lemon juice (bottled kind unfortunately) but still pretty tasty

Rainbow trout fillets on a bed of mixed forest mushrooms

Dessert of apple pie with homemade vanilla ice cream or pumpkin pie (I know more thanksgiving than 4th july!) still trying to use up the pumpkin puree from the 40lb pumpkin that was send down from the Falklands.