Well it rained and rained! I haven’t seen rain like this since I was walking the Milford Trek in NZ. All the snow in the area has melted and combined with the rain there are torrents flowing down all the hillsides. The waterfalls off Duse are postively roaring and the cove is a muddy brown from all the silt.

Substantial damage to the track by the rainfall washing away large sections leaving the optics and low voltage cables uncovered.

Seeing as it was meant to be a day off as we worked two days over midwinter week we had the day off. But not really! Because Saga Sea a krill boat came in to tranship to La Manche who was anchored off Hope Point. I was worried about the wind building so the minute they were ready for us we wanted to head out. Well the wind built before they were ready going from averaging under 10 knots to averaging 20 knots which is still within the boating limit. Looking at the conditions from the boatshed it didn’t look like we were going to be able to safely board however, we might as well try as we were all suited up and there was science waste (fish parts etc) to go out either way.

We headed out and the minute we were out of the lee of Sooty Bluff the large rollers hit us and with some 35+ knot gusts we decided to bag the attempted boarding. The waves were 1/2 way up the pilot ladder at some points pushing it to 25 degrees off plumb! One of the problems is our outside helm position is on the port side. If the pilot ladder is on the port side of the vessel than we either have to come in downwind and down waves so we can see the side of the vessel and line up our entry and exit off our launch. In the conditions it would not have been possible to come downwind and wave so I was having to helm from the inside helm position so I could see the side of the vessel but this means lining up our entry and exit is impossible as I can’t see my fore and aft positioning. Though even if my outside helm had been on the starboard side the conditions would have made it unsafe to board. In fact The vessels ended up untying from each other and lifting anchor. La Manche went out to sea to ride out the storm and Saga Sea is hiding in Cumberland Bay West. Maybe tomorrow they will be back though the wind is meant to stay up.

After our boating excursion I did a bit of wood work on my surprise project tools being used are laid out in the picture above. It is great to have a workshop with relatively good tools and work benchs.

I have started another book sent down by my friends in CA – Two Years Before the Mast which I read with a hot chocolate and marshmallows before heading to bike through the History of Britain. Today saw the Plague killing half of Britain the death of King John and the Black Prince. The coronation of Richard II a boy King who wished to be refered to as Your Highness and Majesty and at the age of 14 crushed a peasants rovolt. The fall of the house of York leading to the War of the Roses and the rise of middle class Britain.

This evenings entertainment is the annual darts match by webcam against Rothera.

Not the best picture sorry.. this is the library at Grytviken which is housed in the back of the church. It has many books from the other whaling stations which were brought to this library when the other stations were left to the elements. There are many books in Norwegian as well as English.

This morning big snowflakes started to fall around 9am and by 10:30 the whole place was blanketed in deep snow. However, by my lunch time run it was starting to get slushy and sleet so that by this evening we had rain and it was like walking through a slurpy. If it is cold tonight it will be slippery sheet ice tomorrow so I hope it rains overnight and I have a clear path for a run tomorrow. This evening while on my ‘bike’ ride I was in the era of Edward I through III with the battles on Stirling Bridge and Banoc Burn, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. The rise of parliament in Britain and the attempt of the Platagonet Kings to rule over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

A day of more painting and fiberglassing to the sound of swell waves crashing against the shore and filling the cove with ice.

The transom on Alert lacked a stainless plate to transfer the load from the thumb screws so the gelcoat had compressed.

As we don’t have stainless plate on station I had to resort to a platter from the kitchen which normally is used for sledging when there is snow!

After a little bit more shaping of the transom extension on Alert I finally put the glass on.

Unfortunately we don’t have peel ply or a way of vacumn bagging the glass so we will have to do with plastic and wood forms clamped in place.

One of our heavy crockpots got some tomotoe relish well and truly burnt on the person shall remain nameless. After a week of soaking, reheating, bleaching, oven cleaner, chipping etc. I decided to take the grinder to it with a wire brush. It made quite short work of the burnt part and didn’t wreck the enamel thank goodness!

The annual check of the self righting bag on Luna was due so using the air compressor I have blown the bag up and will leave it overnight to check for any small leaks. Tommy and I were disappointed as we thought it would inflate with more of a bang!

24 hours after the first coat we had another painting party in biosecurity and tomorrow we will move the gear back in so we can do the other part of the building.

With such warm weather and lots of rain recently the snow and ice has mostly been cleared on the track so I was able to go for a quick run around to the hydro during the drizzle over lunchtime. It was great to get outside for some exercise it seems like ages since I last did that run.

I spent the morning doing a job I absolutely hate and will not go back to in the US! Grinding gelcoat… it leaves you itching despite being covered with PPE. After cleaning up including hosing the boat down outside in the rain I had a long shower and put my clothes in the work wear machines for two washes.

Five of us – the marine team (Matt and myself) the GOs (Kieron and Robert) and Sam the Dr emptied out the biosecurity inner room and after giving it a good clean started painting the floor. The paint is battleship gray and we all think it came from the military!

A sneak preview of my next woodwork project which is a surprise for someone at home. It has taken two full days so far and I think will take quite a few more as I decided to use wood dowels rather than screws to put it all together which is a bit more time consuming!

I have started a new series to bike to every evening at Carse. The collection is History of England and I have got to William the Conquer, Henry II, Richard the Lion Heart and John. It is a great way to stop from getting bored. Works out at about 25km per edition 🙂

I was in the chippy shop all day as it was blowing snow horizontally all day and 30knots. As a result of what I am making in the wood shop (a secret) I needed to remember pythagourous theorem but couldn’t and nor could anyone else on base. So how many of you remember? We are missing Ali as he is on a science cruise and I am sure he would be able to tell me straight away seeing as he is encyclapedia brittanica. Instead I have resorted to google! Hope you had a good day where ever you are.

Today I spent quite a bit of time cleaning it was normal scrub out but seeing as the dining room and kitchen were such a mess I did a pre scrub out. The day seemed to dissappear with some morning boating which I did comms for and Matt drove the boat and then afternoon in the chippy shop.

I made a shelving unit for down sleeping bags in the travel store in my continued attempt to organise the room a little bit better. It is pretty rough as I used chipboard that was lying around and some thin ply that has a few holes in as it had been reclaimed from somewhere. After glueing and screwing it all together I suddenly got concerned it wouldn’t fit through the door and into the room however, Tommy and I managed to get it in with a little bit of shuffling.

Midwinter greeting cards from all the other Antarctic Bases.

Today we went back to work it was windy and rained during the night so the snow has washed away and left an ice rink outside the buildings! Matt took the engines off Alert and started stripping the transom so we can permanently make it higher to properly support the engines in their most efficient place. I worked on some carpentry for shelving in the field store and did some other odds and ends.

This evening we went to Carse House for a wine tasting and cheese evening organised by Katie. I bailed early as I am on earlies tomorrow and am tired. Decided to be boring and seeing as it is Friday will do fish and chips for dinner as everyone seems to like it on base.

The old hydro plant is to the right of me as you look at the picture and behind me in the distance the white building is our modern hyrdo plant. Despite favourable climate and topography hydro was not used at all the station. Grtiviken was the only station that used it long term and to its full potential. The hydro plant had 3 diesal generators to provide electricity for the near by refridgeration plant. Two pipes led from Gull Lake dam and turned three turbines and connected generators. There was also a small turbine in the station itself for winter use when staff numbers were lower.

These days most of our power comes from hydro in fact we use a very small percentage of it’s output. The remaining diesal boilers have been slated for removal and replacement with electric ones in the coming years. It does make us a bit lazy with turning off electrics as it seems like a limitless supply specially on rainy days such as today 🙂

Tommy made a sculpture out of sheet metal which is a replica of the tatoo which Katie has on her foot.

Matt Boat made a jewellry box for Ruth which is perfect as she makes jewellry it is lined with old South Georgia charts.

Believe it or not this was completely made by hand by Rob. He is very talented and made his own guitar at Rothera when working there. The ukelali (spelling!) was made for Tommy and sounds absolutely beautiful.

Matt Mech made Robert a hip flask with shot glasses and a funnel from shell casings recovered from the Falklands and off the HMS York.

Ruth made a collage for Ali with lots of pictures of South Georgia etc.

Katie made Rob two presents – a pin mug with reindeer antler as a handle and this cut out of South Georgia which must have taken quite a bit of patience to cut and sand.

Ali’s present to Sam – the hinges were beautifully made out of ebony and welding rod and inside are many pages to mount some of Sam’s stunning photos

I made Kieron two presents. Tommy is sitting in the chair – it was made from mahogony that washed up on the beach from the fishing wrecks on the Greene. Being beach timber it took a while to mill to the correct size pieces of wood. The second present was a wind scoop for his yacht to draw in fresh air while at the dock.

The present Sam made for Matt is stunning but unfortunately I dont have a picture it is a beautifully presented journal with her photos of time on base.