A Week of Fishing Vessels

At the end of the last blog I mentioned that we were in the midst of ‘Race Antarctica’. As we thought, we were not able to put in as many hours and miles as we had hoped due to injury and a heavy workload. We did manage to get below 1000km by yesterday (Sunday 21^st) which was a boost but then that boost was shattered when we heard that Bird Island (a base with only 4 winterers) had won. They were in 3^rd place on Wednesday, trailing behind a determined Halley and Rothera, so they must have put in some phenomenal distances over the days since because they won yesterday. An amazing achievement for them all.

We have decided to continue and in fact to double the distance to what it should be. The organisers had decided that they would take the distances from Bird Island to KEP (my base (King Edward Point)) to Rothera and then to Halley and then halve that distance. We have decided that actually we want to complete the whole thing which is very good. It has got a bunch of us back into doing exercise and it is quite fun to try and beat your own distances. I think I may get saddle sores from Hazel’s bike though.

Talking about saddle sores: I want to use this opportunity to promote a very good cause. My Aunt Isabella has decided to do the ‘Purer 3 peaks’ to raise money for a charity that supports sufferers of breast cancer. Normally the challenge is to climb the three highest peaks in the UK: Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scaffell Pike in 24 hours, driving between them, but my aunt will be cycling between them. It will be an amazing challenge and I for one am in awe of her. Her justgiving site is http://justgiving.com/isabella-3peaks in case you are interested in finding out more.

Last week has been full to the brim with fishing vessels. I was taking GOs out to vessels transhipping (transferring fish or fuel from one to another), or needing licensing, every single day except for Tuesday. It was great to be out doing the boating that I love but there was one small incident. Pat (the GO who has just returned) had just got onto the pilot ladder so I dropped back to ensure that I wasn’t underneath him in case he fell. All was fine until Rod (who was my crew on Friday) and I smelt something extremely unpleasant. I looked around to see yellowy/browny/lumpy water flowing from the ship all over Prion’s deck.  I had inadvertently manoeuvred myself under the sewage pipe just as they were emptying their tanks. It was an awful smell and took me quite a while to clean the bilges out I can tell you. Apart from that, just being on the water was wonderful. With the ice forming on the cove you can see water ‘wrinkle’ as the boat moves previously invisible ice on the surface of the sea. It is almost hypnotic to watch.

We have a new chap on base, Nik from Bangor University, who is working on determining the genetic effects of temperature increase on fish larvae. This will allow him to determine the possible change in patterns of movement by larval fish and therefore ecosystem change due to climate change. First he has to catch the larvae. He has two designs of traps and is busy building them in the workshop. He will have finished one type by tomorrow and then we can work out how to deploy them to the greatest advantage.

On Sunday the weather was perfect and the snow conditions were just right so pretty much everyone went out. Joe (sparky) climbed the hill more times than I would have to snowboard back down and Rod, Hazel, Jo, Nik and I all went for a little trip to Maiviken. My knee still isn’t quite right from our trip to St Andrew’s so I forwent the skis and took snowshoes. Although I obviously couldn’t keep up with them on the downhill, uphill I wasn’t much slower than them (well not ridiculously) and so we had a nice little outing. At the top of Deadman’s the ‘cripples’ Jo (bad legs), Rod (bad shin) and I (bad knee) turned back and had lunch at the top of the pass while Hazel and Nik went on to Maiviken. It was a lovely lunch and then an enjoyable and leisurely stroll home.

So not much happened last week but it was an enjoyable one all the same. I will try to be more prompt with the next blog but till then have a good week.

 



Jo's slightly unorthodox skiing method



The view from Deadman's

My early morning companion