A day of housekeeping jobs like stocking up the pantry in our accomodation from the food store. Down here you use the JCB to go to the supermarket and fill the bucket! I made two quiches as one of the cruise ships gave us some eggs and we had some left overs to throw in – onions, broccoli, beef, bacon, smoked salmon etc. I broke down some boxes which will go back to the UK to be used by BAS for shipping things down next season.

We had a base meeting clarifying our SAR responsibilities when the rat eradication helicopters are flying. Things will be a little restricted for the next 6 weeks – similar to Rothera. A maximum of 10 minutes away when on SAR duty (two boat crews so 4 out of our base of 8), 1 hour maximum away when not on duty and no overnight trips. The upside is that we are not on 24 hour cover like at Rothera and we don’t actually have to launch the boats when the helicopters take off like we do at Rothera. We will be even more appreciative of the freedom we have here when the six weeks are up. In the meantime Tommy, Matt and Katie will be going on holiday friday till monday to take advantage of the last of the freedom.

After the meeting I went to Maiviken hut to do a few small jobs before rushing back. I was slightly late for dinner but there was some left which was tasty – toad in the hole. The hut has a new counter top and a few new pieces of trim around the window.