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.