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As there were no fireworks on base for me to celebrate 4th July we set off a few flares at the wharf that were out of date.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

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.