Ships oh ships

We have had a very calm week in comparison to the past few. We pottered along for most of Monday and Tuesday doing bits and bobs, clearing up slightly from the mess we had made the week before, putting away the 731 tools (boy did it feel like it) that we used to make Prion serviceable again. It is remarkable how many small jobs can accumulate in a week. We started very slowly getting back to grips with the AMOS jobs and making sure that we are beginning to be back up to speed with things. I think it might be another week or two till we are back up to speed but it is no bad thing to take things easy for a while.

We didn’t do any boating until Thursday when we had to drop off four people on the shore in Enten Bay to do a survey. Of course it was on Thursday that it started to snow a blizzard and the visibility dropped to almost zero. I was in Prion with Hazel and Paula was on the RIB Luna with Keiron. It turned out to be rather a long day. We were out for 6 hours in the snow in the end. I had to navigate us into a bay I had never been in before, in fog,  using only the chart plotter and radar. This is not difficult but knowing that the chart plotter can be offset (i.e. it sometimes tells you you are on land when actually you are at sea) I just wanted to be sure I was getting it right. However I thought that if I can navigate down the Thames in a lifeboat and not hit buoys, boats, rowers, bridges or the banks in the fog, I should be able to avoid ice and make it into an open bay. It was quite interesting going along in a bay where we knew there was ice but not being able to see any except for the larger chunks on the radar; we had to go fairly slowly.  When the blizzard lifted I was rather pleased to find myself in the middle of the bay, as I thought I should be.

Enten Bay has very steep sides which rose sheer above us, not as cliffs do, since cliffs have a limit, but as mountains that just rose straight out of the sea as if a great hand had just pushed rocks into sand. The valley was a bit of a bowl with a very steep bit up at the back as well. When we came into the bay all you could see was solid snow. When I was on the flying bridge and looking out for the beach all I could see were individual snowflakes flying towards my eyes, it was a very disconcerting and slightly off balancing experience. As we crept in, the snow started to shift and swirl around and a ray of light from the weakened sun came through and then the snow lifted out of the valley, it was very beautiful. We had a bit of a surprise because there was a rock which, in the swirling snow and from the angle we were looking at it, looked exactly like there was someone waiting for us on the beach.

We dropped the shore party off and then tried to anchor. It was fine until we had, of course, just got half way through our lunch, when we determined that we were actually drifting. We attempted to raise the anchor (hand pulling it up) but discovered we were just dragging tonnes of kelp. We had to get the anchor as high as we could and then cut as much of the kelp off as possible with whatever knives we had on board. It was bloody hard work but true to my geekiness, as I was bent over the side of the RIB under the bow of the jet boat, with an overloaded anchor in one hand and a rather slippery knife in the other, I did stop and look at a beautiful limpet that was attached to a big frond. It had blue rays and gills sticking out all around the edge of its shell. It was very beautiful and I made sure that it stayed attached to the frond and the frond went carefully back into the water while I remembered how much of a geek I was. It was a reminder to not anchor anywhere round here if possible.

Over the 24 hours of the weekend we had five ships in the bay. The Pharos came alongside over Friday night to take Keiron to the Falklands for a dental medivac and the final stragglers of the reindeer project. On Saturday the Ernest Shackleton came alongside to shift cargo for the rat project. Unfortunately she works on GMT time so when they came in at 0800 for them it was 0600 for us which made the day longer than it had to be. Then we had the JCR who came in with a medivac (a tooth so nothing of an emergency nature) from Bird Island. After her we had the Btanzos, a fishing vessel on which Sue was acting as observer and then later HMS Clyde arrived at the anchorage. I went out and picked Sue up from the Btanzos and dropped their new observer on board. Sue was extremely happy to be back ‘home’ and will be exacting a large dinner from what is reputed to be the best restaurant in Stanley from Martin in payment of having to be an observer.

HMS Clyde are here for 48 hours and they very kindly provided us with lunch on board. I then intimated an interest in their rigid raider and since they were doing boating expeditions I was offered a trip in her. Rod, Mickey (the builder), Hazel and I went on and we had a great time. We saw another Leopard seal from a distance and then on our way home they were called and asked to pick up one of their chaps who had twisted his knee while attempting the ½ marathon. I was able to con her into the beach and then we helped get the casualty aboard. I provided him with my spare hat, gloves and scarf and then he was able to warm up in the boat shed before being raised up to the deck of the Clyde in the ‘man cage’ of the JCB (they only have a pilot ladder for getting aboard so he couldn’t have done it). All in all it was rather an exciting day.

This coming week Kelvin, Daniel and I are going over to Ocean Harbour to spray some invasive weeds. For Kelvin it is work but for Daniel and me it is a holiday so I am rather looking forward to it. It feels like it’s time for a holiday.