Legs Mechanical and Biological

This week has been quieter after the rather stressful Sunday last week when I was convinced I had well and truly gutted one of the jet boat engines. As I wrote in last week’s post Paula, the other Boating Officer, has returned to the island. It says a lot for her that everyone was very eager to see her and welcome her back. However poor Paula seems to have some type of flu which she has been developing since New Year so she has been rather out of action for a couple of days. But when she felt more herself  her presence in the boat shed has been brilliant. She knows where everything is and can lay her finger on most things quickly which means that the time spent by me searching for things will dramatically reduce, which is a massive relief because it was beginning to annoy me.

The other exciting thing that happened this week was that we finally got our boatshed back. The builders, who have been in there since January 1st, finished putting all the windows in on Tuesday and they gave us back our boatshed in immaculate condition, in fact cleaner than it was when they went in there. It was a great feeling to be back in there because it meant that I could get on with a lot of jobs that I had been holding off on because I couldn’t access the  tools very easily and most of the work that I needed to do required the boats to be under cover so that any weather didn’t damage the engines. It also meant we could use the lifting chains to work on the boat trailers with the boats off them.

Luna in the air

The big occasion this week has been the arrival of the Commissioner of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Nigel Heywood is also the Governor of the Falkland Islands and came down to visit us for a week/ten days on Tuesday. His visit brought about a bit of a tidy up on base and a change of flag. Our normal flag is the South Georgia crest on a blue background with a Union Jack in the corner but the flag for the visit of Royalty (or Royalty’s representative) is a Union Flag with the crest of South Georgia in the middle - quite smart. His visit also coincided with Possession Day which is the anniversary of the day that Captain James Cook took possession of South Georgia for Great Britain and the Empire. I find it rather refreshing that it is not ‘Discovery Day’ or ‘Cook Day’; we are not celebrating the discovery of South Georgia, we are celebrating the day that we took it and declared it ours. I like that it has not been sugar coated and is forthright. Rather like most of the things that happen on the island.

Commissioner's Flag

The work that has been taking up most of my time this week is the rebuild of the troublesome engine which Paula and I started together on Wednesday. I won’t bore you too much with the details but we basically had to strip the entire engine apart into several bits until there was nothing left on the boat but the holding bracket. The most nerve-wracking bit was taking the powerhead off. This is the bit which actually powers the engine and to see that dangling from the engine crane was a slightly dicey moment but it found a safe temporary home on a chair (very unorthodox) and stayed there happily while we stripped everything else apart. We had to cannibalise a couple of bits off a scrap engine but once they were on and we had carefully put the troublesome leg (the bit that is in the water) back together and reassembled that with the rest of the engine, we wheeled Alert out of the boatshed and, with our fingers crossed, started her up. Thank heavens she fired pretty much first time. We still don’t have a telltale (which shows that water is running around the engine cooling it) but I think that will be solved when we put the engine actually in the water. I unfortunately broke the starter cord which pinged the handle back at me with enough force to bruise my collarbone. This means that before we can test it again I have to go down to the boatshed and change it over. I will be ecstatic when the engine is working properly again and we don’t have the worry of it looming over our heads any more.

Paula and the powerhead

The social event of the week for me was on Friday night when Daniel and I were invited over to the ‘Museum’ (the people running the museum who live over in Grytviken in a house called Drukken Villa) for dinner. Considering that the last dinner they hosted over there went on till 0400 we went prepared for a good evening. It was splendid and things didn’t even have a dampener put on them when Sarah (museum manager) called to say that the ship they were expecting the next day would be arriving at 0800 rather than 1300. It was only at 0030 that Thomas (the curatorial intern) and Derren (one of the guys running the museum) realised that there were still tools lying all over the floor and a display not set up properly because they thought they had the morning to do it all. We decided to go over and do it all there and then. Seeing a display being put together by an expert is an experience in itself but when that expert is slightly tipsy and it is 0100 then it is quite a sight to see. Once we had everything in place Thomas let Sam (a volunteer for the museum) and me into the building which houses the replica of the James Caird, the small boat that Shackleton and 5 others sailed in from Elephant Island to South Georgia. I had seen it before from the outside but this time we were allowed to get in her. She is a working replica and was used for an expedition a couple of years ago. Getting in her made me realise for the first time just how small and cramped she was. Seeing her from the outside one realises that she is small but only when I got in did I feel how difficult it was to move around and even to see. I am not very tall but I had to sit hunched over to avoid hitting my head. The only light came from the hatch where the 2 men on watch would stand. The men were constantly wet with their kit so continuously soaked that the reindeer sleeping bags, which had lasted them so well so far, started to decompose. It just brought home how utterly incredible the journey and the men were. It really was an age of heroes. 

After imagining one incredible physical feat we took part in what felt like another one on Sunday! It was the annual South Georgia Half Marathon. There are three categories: The runners (all serious runners who have competed in marathons before or have been training hard), the runklers (runkling is a mixture of running and walking) and walkers. I took part as a walker. The commissioner and the head of the government, Martin Collins, took part as runners and the rest of the field was made up of people on base and some guys from the Pharos. Now 13 miles is quite a long way but when you consider the course, I did find myself wondering, half way through, why I was mad enough to take part. The course starts at the jail at Base. From there we went to Grytviken and around the back of the football pitch (built by the army during their sojourn here). Then we had to go through bog around Gull Lake to a big boulder. Once seen by the marshal there we went straight up the shoulder of Brown Mountain and along the ridge to the highest point of the course and the second marshal at 332m (1090 feet). We then went along the ridge until we met the third marshal who was there to point the way so we wouldn’t attempt to drop off one of the many cliffs that make up most of the flanks of Brown Mountain. Once off Brown we made our way across the Brown Flats (again bog), round the back of the football pitch and back to Base. Once there the false security of being back at base was whisked aside when we remembered we had to go over Deadman’s Pass (100some meters) to Maiviken Hut and then back again. The fastest runner was Martin Collins and he made it in 1hr, 47mins, and 57secs. He was closely followed by Hugh (the Post master) who came in at 1hr, 48mins and 04secs, only 7 seconds behind Martin. As the last of the walkers (I managed to hurt my knee coming off Brown Mountain) I came in at a very respectable 3hrs, 48mins and 24secs. I won’t say that it was enjoyable but I am glad that I did it. I will be feeling the after effect in my legs for a week I should think.

Marathon certificate - yay!

Marathon on Brown Mountain

This week was one in which we managed to get the leg of the engine working and I managed to prove that my legs were strong enough to do a ½ marathon that would nearly kill a lot of people. The final cherry on the cake was as we were all having a well earned cup of tea (only the British would rehydrate after a run with a cup of tea) and lunch this afternoon. Silently the huge iceberg that has been grounded for so long across the bay from the Base collapsed in on itself in the middle. This has lifted the previously submarine bottom sides out of the water and it is incredible to see how far they extend. The waves that were created by this collapse came up the beach about 1.5m, even though we are about 1.5 miles away from the berg. The penguins all had to scuttle up the beach rather more rapidly than they are accustomed to move and watching a couple of Furries ride the wave was impressive. Yet another wonder in this wonderful place.