A Day in the Life

I am not sure that I have yet described in my posts the actual day to day running of the station and what we do. Therefore I will run you through an average day. 

I wake up at 0730, roll out of bed and open my curtains to see what the day will present me with in terms of weather. I am lucky in that my pittroom is on the seaward side so my view is ever changing. I am also very lucky in that I have not had to share with anyone yet so I can happily do my teeth standing at the window looking out at the seals and birds. Watching a Tern having to fight to stay in position long enough to grab a bite to eat is a good indication of what I will be doing when I step outside.

When dressed I go through the bar to the dining room where all our meals are taken. There we all have breakfast, generally in drips and drabs. Work officially starts at 0830 so I sit around reading whichever of the magazines I haven’t yet read cover to cover (there is a limited amount, we get ‘new’ - about 6 months out of date - magazines at the beginning of the month) with my large enamel mug (“Keep calm and carry on” of course) till 0825 when I head off to the office. Every Monday we have a Base Meeting where all base members and a representative of every group on the island (except the builders) meet to hear what will be happening that week. It is at this meeting that the GOs (Government Officers) tell us what shipping will be coming in, our BC (Base Commander) gives us information, the scientists tell us whether they need any help (tagging, counting pups/chicks etc) and I warn people about the boating that needs to be done, because they will have to act as crew. When that is over we all saunter off to our respective jobs.

The offices and labs are in the next building along, the Cook Labs (we live in Everson house). In the office I check emails and open up a program called AMOS which rules my life. It tells me what maintenance I need to do and it is how I report all that I am doing. It is meant to make life simpler but the swearing I do at it on a daily basis proves its attitude toward logic and reason.

After dealing with paperwork I head down to the Boathouse. Once there I gather the tools and nerve I need to start tackling the maintenance jobs dictated by AMOS. On a Monday I do the weekly checks to make sure that all the boats are still running at optimum. Any problems that I pick up on those checks get added to my list of maintenance. At 1030 we have Smoko when, unless in the middle of something, we all congregate back up at the Everson House dining room for tea/coffee. We also all pitch in to help with the crossword and the three general knowledge questions in ‘Newslink,’ the 8 pages of news summary we get printed off every day. At 1100 we all head back out to work till 1300 which is lunch. We all get our own lunch and usually I make it up out of the leftovers from the night before. Work starts again (officially, many people start before then) at 1400.

Whenever there is boating I have to get people to sign up as crew/ cox for as many boats as are needed. If we are putting a team of visiting scientists into the field we need to take a Launch (to carry all them and all their kit) and a RIB to land them at the site. The launch can’t do the beach landings because the pebbles get sucked into the impellors and break them. This means that three people, other than me, have to come down to the wharf ½ an hour before we leave, to prepare. The launch cox does the prestart checks on either Pipit or Prion and the RIB cox does the prestart checks on either Alert or Luna. I then get the JCB (digger) out and tow the RIB out of the boathouse and into the water to launch her. 

The View from my Office Window

 While out on the water we have to stay in communication with the base so every 15mins we do an ‘ops normal’ (operations normal) giving location and intentions. Once we have landed the science team we return and ‘put the boats to bed’. A trip to do that can take an hour or the whole afternoon depending on the field site. 

At 1700 the work day ends, although I can find myself working longer trying to put an engine back together, or Daniel can work till midnight sifting a seal poo for otoliths (fish ear bones). At 1700 people start going off for a run, going to the gym, working in the carpentry shop, going for a walk or any of the number of things that we can do in our free time.

The person on ’earlies’ will often have stopped work at 1600 to start cooking supper. When you are on earlies you have to get up at 0600 and start cooking bread for the day. You then have to do the rounds to make sure that nothing has burnt down or happened in the night. You’re also responsible for cooking the evening meal and making sure throughout  the day that there is enough cereal out or that enough cheese has been defrosted (we have to freeze all our cheese), that the kitchen is tidy and the dishwasher put on then emptied. The person on earlies is also responsible that day for the comms. So any comms from boating or field parties etc have to be picked up by the person on earlies. The day after you are on earlies you are on lates and have to do the evening ‘sched’ if there are any field parties. This is a check up call that every party in the field does at 1845 or thereabouts (the times are allocated if there is more than one party out) to ensure they are safe and to hear what their plans are. If the Doc or BC is out in the field they have to sched in at 0900 as well to make sure that nothing has happened on Base that they need to know about. The lates person then has to empty the bins last thing and do the night rounds, closing doors, checking lights are off and making sure everything is safe for the night.

In terms of social events every Wednesday and Sunday night the person on lates gets to choose a film to which everyone on base is invited. I have already described Saturday nights but that is the biggest social occasion on base although any night people can be found in the bar drinking either alcohol or tea and chatting.