Traps and that hat

 Since being on holiday over last weekend not much has happened. We have had the whole gamut of South Georgia weather with gales and snow storms one day and painfully beautiful days the next.

The only boating that happened during the week was when I took Nik out to Sooty Bluff to deploy a series of traps to see if he could get more larvae at depth. We put an anchor in at 60m of water (which here is only about 20/30m off the shore) and then every 10m he hooked one of his traps. The trouble with poor Nik's project is that he doesn’t know if the larvae are around at the moment, if they are where they would be and even if they are attracted to light (this last is important since he is using light as ‘bait’ to bring the larvae in). He came into this Post Doc when it was half way through and he is picking up the pieces as well as he can but it is rather tricky.We returned the next day with high hopes but after getting aching arms hauling up the anchor, unfortunately no luck; he caught a rather wonderful shrimp and that was it.

If the main bulk of our boating happens at a weekend it can be infuriating, especially over a bank holiday as we've just had.Very luckily, even though we were expecting boats on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, in the end they only arrived into the bay on Saturday night so we were able to have a free day on Saturday. I woke earlyish on Saturday to one of the most beautiful days we have had in a long time, if not ever. Hazel was already up and we decided on a fast breakfast and then to head out. We had decided on Friday that we wanted to see somewhere new so we headed up to Echo Pass.

I was on snowshoes and Hazel was on skis. It was a truly glorious day. Every facet of the snow was a diamond glinting a rainbow back up to the flawlessly blue sky and the air was crisp and clean. Actually the air was rather more than crisp, it was really rather chilly, I reckon it was about -8’C which was fine when we were moving but stopping for any time necessitated the putting on of multiple layers.

I thought I might have a slight difficulty keeping up with Hazel on skis but on the flat or uphill I was just as fast as her, and on icy bits faster, which was reassuring. We stopped at Upper Gull Lake for smoko (a chocolate bar) and then carried on round the corner. We had to negotiate the flanks of Orca (a hill) and were in the shade for most of that which made it a little chillier than before but after a bit of sliding on a steepish slope on Hazel's, we crested the pass into the sunshine. We had discovered on our holiday at Maiviken that the other side of the peninsula is in the sun pretty much all day, whereas the base only gets direct sunlight for a few hours a day at the moment. It is amazing the difference actually feeling the sun on your face makes. One feels rejuvenated and in a far more benevolent mood with the world, or at least I do. The maxim of “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” isn’t quite right I find; rather it's “You don’t know what you’re missing until it comes back”. I can’t even imagine what seeing the sun for the first time after a winter of complete darkness must feel like, as happens on some of the bases.  

First glimpse over the pass

 

Deadman's in the sun

 From the top of the pass we looked down upon the other bay and the other side of the peninsula. The Neumayer glacier swept up into the hinterland of the island, beckoning us to follow it all the way in. The exploring part of me, the small voice that keeps quiet most of the time but sometimes speaks out, called loudly then; it wanted me to continue until I had found what was at the end of that glacier and to go further and further again until I had come to the other side of the island and even then to continue. Luckily it is not an overpowering voice and I can satisfy it by simply doing something new, smaller in scope but new nonetheless. 

 

The Neumayer Glacier beckons

 

On the return

At the top of the pass Hazel took her skins off (on her skis) and proceeded to fly down the shallow slope that leads down to Sphagnum valley and to Harpon. I plodded along behind as fast as I could without tripping over and the feeling of flying through the crisp air was wonderful, I regret my wretched knees which stop me skiing but am determined one day to learn (just not here where access to a hospital is non existant).

We reached a small ravine with waist deep snow that we decided it was unnecessary to cross so we stopped and dug ourselves a ‘snow sofa’ which we lined with our bivy bags. We both decided never to go off on a snowy day hike without a roll mat in the future; our fronts were warmed by the sun but our backs and bottoms were decidedly chilly. Nevertheless we had a lovely lunch and then decided to head back into the valley on the base side of the peninsula for a little exploration. It was so cold that it took both of us half an hour to regain feeling in our hands and then at the top of the pass we had to stop again for me to fix my snowshoe which had snapped at a rather vital pivot point. Duck tape is a distinct necessity in life and I never go anywhere without some wrapped round a pencil or my walking poles. [Star Wars geeky joke alert: Why is Duck tape like The Force? Because it has a light side, a dark side and it holds the universe together!]

Snow sofa

 

Yep, my water bottle froze

We returned to base elated and ready for our next adventure. 

This came in the form of boating all the next morning which was lovely. Again the weather was perfect and we got some good photos of the entrance to the bays, which is rare. It was distinctly cold and both Hazel (who was my crew) and I lost all feeling in our feet waiting on the boat. We had another ship to deal with but in a very civilised manner we came back ashore and Jo, Hazel and I had a brunch of Eggs Benedict, my favourite. 

Transshipping

 

View from the jetboat

 

Next stop: South Africa

Once we had finished boating we went out again. This time Nik and Jo joined us and we went to the dam at the top of Gull Lake to wait for the arrival of the Hercules. The RAF sometimes send Hercules planes down here from the Falklands for a couple of reasons, one of which is to aid with fisheries protection. They have to refuel to get here and back and they can’t stay over the bays for very long but it was worth it to see it fly in under the mountains, it was rather a thrilling sound.

 

Hercules (look hard - it's tiny)

All in all it has been a lovely bank holiday weekend and if we could just order some more of that weather the rest of the week will be perfect.

A Weekend Away

I was meant to have been describing a holiday to Harpon, a hut on the other side of the Thatcher peninsula; I am not.

I will first go over last week. It was a week full of boating. I managed to pass both Rod and Joe out as launch coxes. This means I now have three backup coxes which makes my life a lot easier and means I can relax a little, not much but a little.I was meant to test Joe on Tuesday when I took Jo out for transhipping paperwork to La Manche (a reefer) and Antarctic Sea (a vacuum krill vessel, which has a net almost permanently in the water from which they suck up the krill that is caught. It means they can haul in much larger catches and less time is lost by ‘shooting’ and hauling the nets). When we launched and headed out to the vessels it suddenly became apparent that not only were we not going to be doing any testing, I didn’t really want to be out on the water at all. The wind picked up suddenly to our operational limits and the direction it was coming in meant that getting Jo onto La Manche was tricky to say the least. We discussed it and I had to promise that if she got on I would be able to get her back off again because La Manche had to leave for Stanley that night and Jo did NOT want to be on her when she left. I managed to get her on but unfortunately due to the size of the swell I was against the wooden rungs of the pilot ladder, not the rubber ones and I managed to break a rung. This meant that I had to get her off from Antarctic Sea which was giving less of a lee (shelter) from the wind and meant that my stern would be to the wind (which always makes things trickier) but after some manoeuvring and testing I managed it and the vessels managed to leave on time without an extra passenger on board.  

Harpon is a hut the other side of the peninsula which neither Hazel nor Jo have been to yet. To get there you either have a 4 hour walk (more like 5 or 6 in these snow conditions) over Echo Pass in the middle of the mountains that bisect the peninsula, or you have to go by boat around into West Cumberland Bay and go right down to the very end of it. We were meant to leave on Thursday by boat. This caused a little difficulty for me. I am currently the only boating officer on the island and while I have passed out some very competent RIB coxes and my Launch coxes (all my launch coxes are also RIB coxes) are getting there, if they were to take us round in any but the perfect weather conditions and if anything were to happen then I would feel incredibly guilty and it would have repercussions for future boating officers. Therefore when Thursday dawned foggy and unpleasant with a shocking forecast of wind we decided to postpone till Friday. On Thursday afternoon the Government Officers got a call from the Captain of the Saga Sea requesting permission to bring a crew member ashore for medical treatment. This is one of the reasons that the base has a doctor, to provide medical care for fishermen down here in these treacherous waters. Some vessels have their own doctor (and dentist) aboard but most don’t. Unfortunately she was delayed getting in so our departure was also delayed. Actually it was lucky that it was, since as I went out to collect the ill crew member and the mate (who would translate Russian) the wind proved itself to be too strong for the trip round to Harpon so Jo, Hazel and I made other plans.

We decided that we would head over to Maiviken for a long weekend. Because we were within an hour and a half’s walk from base we didn’t need to take a tent (we slept in the hut) and because there are already sleeping bags there we didn’t need to take our own. This meant that all the food that we had planned to take by boat we could still take because it would just replace the weight of the tent and bags; my pack was still lighter than it has been in a long time when going on holiday.

When Hazel and I go on holiday together three things are known: 1. The weather will be poo, 2. Someone will get ill on base (usually more than one) and 3. We will eat indifferent food (either a pasta sauce that we have pre prepared and we will eat every night for three nights or rat packs). This time was no exception, the weather was poo, poor old Erny came down with a stomach bug and we were planning on pasta sauce. Jo however took it upon herself to educate us in the way of camping food so we took no pre prepared food and had an excellent few days food wise. For ease our way is still better but this was much more enjoyable.

The first night, which was Jo’s birthday, we had a creamy, tomatoey pasta sauce with dried mushrooms and chorizo that Jo had brought with her from her house in Spain. The second night we had chilli con carne made again with dried mushrooms and some excellent dried mince that the Rat eradication project had left us. The third night we had flavoured couscous with dried mushrooms and the last of the chorizo cooked in red wine. It really was incredible.

Unfortunately the bunks in the hut really are very uncomfortable and Jo who has a dodgy back anyway was soon crippled. She managed it well though and we even received visitors from the base in the form of Rod and Nik. After a  lovely lunch we then wandered down to the Sealers Cave which I have mentioned before. As we walked it was slightly surreal, the sun was shining merrily (it was an odd sensation to be in direct sunlight all day over the other side of the hills to base) but at the same time snowflakes were floating ever so gently through the air. Out of the wind it was actually very warm, so warm we didn’t have to put an extra layer on when we had stopped so we made tea and lounged around. It was lovely. On the return to the hut we had gin and tonics out in the sun sitting in a ‘snow sofa’ that we had dug out and insulated with roll mats. We only went back into the hut when the sun dipped low and the wind increased.

The second day (Sunday) we decided to brave the wind (which was very strong) and explore a region of lakes up to the left of Deadman’s Pass. We struck out into the wind and sun and had a fantastic morning wandering around a winter wonderland of hillocks and lakes, all disguised by the snow. It is a real pleasure to be able to re-explore places where you have been in different conditions. It is one of the reasons that I never want to live in a place with no seasons, the changes wrought by the weather are incredible. The only downside to the day was the stinging snow flung into our face by 50-60kt winds. Both Jo and I were knocked off our feet at one point (how Hazel stayed up I am not sure, I will say it is because I took the brunt of the gust for her). When we descended a little lower, true to our typically British nature we had lunch sitting on the snowy side of a hill enjoying the sunshine and stoically ignoring the occasional gust of wind that blew the cheese off our oatcakes.

On Monday we returned to base but not before we spent a delightful morning down on the beach collecting Fur Seal poo for Daniel. He has to collect poo to check what they have been eating to verify theories about the effect that the fisheries have on the ecosystem etc. He is still at sea observing on Antarctic Bay so every other week a willing (or not so willing) volunteer trudges over to Maivken to collect poo for him. We said we would while we were there so we dutifully headed down to the beach to perform our duties. Since I have a dog and am therefore used to the disgusting job I was designated ‘poo picker’ and collected while Hazel dug them out (they had frozen into the snow). It was not the most pleasant of jobs and I am quite glad I don’t have to do that every week. To be honest I am not sure that we didn’t accidentally collect Elephant Seal poo but since we couldn’t ask anyone on the beach who had deposited what it was a little hit or miss.

Hopefully we will make it to Harpon soon but till then we are all rejuvenated by a couple of nights off base and I am ready to throw myself into another week of boating  and maintenance.

I will try and persuade Hazel to give me some of her photos since she does take much better ones than me, but in the meantime here are mine:

Denizens of Tortula Beach

 

Maiviken from the lakes

 

On top of the windy world

Hazel poo-picking

Well, this doesn't look like winter on a sub-Antarctic island .......

Boat School, Doc School and life in between

 As promised last week here is the link to the films for the 2013 Antarctic Film Festival:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6xKzE6p5KMFX0FrZXJlV3lkTDQ&usp

(Click on “48 Hour Category”, then “KEP South Georgia”)

This week has been full of different ‘schools’. In order to pass people out as jetboat coxes they need to be able to do a bit of simple navigation, just so they can get themselves home if their electronic navigation fails. I therefore taught a bit of simple navigation on Monday. I am not very good at navigation myself but managed to teach it without confusing either myself or the others too much which was a bonus. 

After that we went down to the jetty and I got into my drysuit and jumped in so that the others could experience how difficult it actually is to get people out of the water in a boat with such high sides. They figured out that they needed to get me to the back deck which is lower and there they could get me on much easier but I think it gave some of them pause for thought since they hadn’t realised how tricky it would be. 

After being recovered a couple of times (photo: H. Woodland)

 

Rod enjoying far more than necessary pushing me overboard (photo: S. Gregory)

Everyone seems to be on a bit of a fitness drive at the moment. On Wednesday there were 6 people in the gym which is great but it does mean a little bit of cooperation is needed to try and fit everyone in. Luckily on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I can remove myself from the competition: Hazel and I, and now Nik, do gymnastic rings. It is a series of simple exercises such as press ups, dips and pull ups but because we do them on unstable rings hanging from the roof it engages pretty much all of the muscles in your body just to stay steady. It is amazing how tricky it is and how much of a difference it can make to one’s fitness. Hazel and I have a healthy competition going but we only push each other so we can get better.

On Wednesday it was Sarah’s (the manager of the museum and the wife of one of the GOs) birthday so we were all invited round to Carse House for dinner. Pat and Sarah were here during the years that it was under the control of the military. One of the regiments that was sent here to garrison the island was the Gurkhas (in fact they were the garrison a couple of times). From them Sarah was given ‘the Gurkha Cookbook’ and we had a selection of curries which were utterly delicious. It was a lovely night and a reminder yet again of the luxury of sitting on sofas.

On Thursday we had Doc School which was a very good session. Hazel set us a scenario and let us get on with it, then, when we had got as far as we thought we could, we debriefed and ran through what went wrong and what we could have done better. Hazel then showed us how she would have run the situation if she had been doing it. The situation was a cruise ship passenger coming in with shortness of breath and being a known asthmatic. We got to give Salbutamol (the stuff inside an inhaler) through a nebuliser which vaporises the liquid drug and gives it with oxygen. It was interesting to remind ourselves of our limitations and what we can actually do while here. It also gave Joe a chance to remind himself of the contents of the surgery. He will be the paramedic cover when Hazel, Jo and I go on holiday to Harpon at the end of next week.

We had a number of ships in and therefore did a fair bit of boating which is always good. The main other thing that happened was that I passed Hazel out as a jetboat cox. This means that she can back me up when I take the boats out to ships. Now I just need to pass Rod and Joe out, both of whom will be staying next year and therefore will be backing up the new boaty when he is alone. I am very pleased that I have started passing people as coxes and I know that Hazel was very pleased as well.

Not much else happened this week. Next week my blog will be late since I will only be returning from Harpon on Monday. I hope you all have a good week till then. 

It really does look like a film set

 

Spot the penguin

Leopards, Aliens and everything in between

On Monday we said ‘au revoir’ to Daniel as he set out once again on a fishing vessel as an observer. The vessel that he went on, Antarctic Bay, is one of the smallest in the fleet and was so small that when Rod drove towards her as she was moored up to another vessel he thought there was only one ship there. He will return soon we hope but it all depends on how the fishing goes before the longline season ends on August 31^st.

After dropping Daniel Hazel and I launched one of the RIBs in order to help Nik set his traps. Unfortunately this involved anchoring buoys in the kelp which is a pain. We then ran a line from the buoy to the shore on which he will attach his traps so that he can pull them in and out without needing a boat. The only trouble has been that the floats of the buoys get caught in ice which means that he can’t pull them in. We are going to try and fix this by reducing the floatation and increasing the weight so that the float sits further under the surface and therefore the ice. The traps so far haven’t caught any fish larvae which is their purpose but they are catching other organisms. Since it is not quite the season for fish larvae yet Nik is not worried and is just pleased that the traps do work. We will now just have to play with the floatation and then put more traps out soon.

Once we had put the two traps down Hazel and I landed the RIB. Just as I had got out of the water and into the JCB to pull it out Hazel noticed the Leopard seal in the water right next to the RIB. It came up very close and seemed to be having a real look round, not only at the boat but at both Hazel (who was still in the RIB) and me in the JCB. We put out an ‘all stations’ call on the radio to alert everyone that he was there and everyone came down. It was incredibly worth it. He played around the jetty, going from one side to the other for about 45 mins/an hour. We got some amazing photos and film. Rod even got him nuzzling the lens of his camera on the end of a tripod in the water. It really was incredible and a wonderful privilege. 

A visitor

Our leopard seal (photo: Sue Gregory)

The rest of the week passed mostly quietly after that. On Wednesday I gave a lesson in towing to everyone on base. It was a good session and everyone got to feel the differences in how boats handle under different towing conditions. I always forget how much I like teaching until it comes to things like this and people go away with (I hope) an understanding of what I was trying to teach them. 

Teaching the alongside tow (photo: Sue Gregory)

 The two main events of this week happened this weekend. Paula left us on Saturday. She was employed as a boaty for 8 months under a new trial of having boaties here for different amounts of time. Her presence on base will be really missed by everyone and it will be a different base for the rest of the winter.

The other event is the Antarctic 48 hour film festival. We have 48 hours in which to come up with a concept for a film, shoot, it, edit it and upload it to a dedicated website. Once that is done all the bases taking part across Antarctica download the films and in a few weeks we will all sit down, watch them and vote on the winner. 

The winner sets the five elements that have to be included in next year’s film. The elements this time are: A gingerbread man, a ping pong ball, a bath tub, the sound of an authentic sneeze, and the phrase “voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce  soir?”. We have decided to do a spoof of ‘Alien’ and it has been great fun. We started on Friday with my setting smoke and parachute flares off (with the correct warning for all vessels in the vicinity of course). After seeing Paula off on Saturday morning we then set down to the serious business of filming. It is going to be an excellent film. Hazel and I were in charge of the props and special effects and really, who needs CGI? We made a lot of fake blood and a LOT of mess and had a great amount of fun. My heart beat has a starring role in the hospital scene. Due to Nik’s costume we couldn’t have the heart rate monitor on him so I lay under the bed with the leads attached to me, trying to make sure I kept my heart rate steady and trying not to be seen by the camera. Unfortunately the oxygen saturation monitor kept malfunctioning (at least I hope it was malfunctioning) and the alarm kept going off, usually in the middle of  a scene, but we got it all done in the end. I don’t yet know the website address but when I do I will put it up. The quality of all the films from all the various bases are usually varying but they are always good to watch.

Today Rod, Sue and Joe are all in Rod’s office editing and adding sound effects and music. Hazel and I were summoned to create a spaceship landing scene which involved a lot of flour, a ping pong ball, syringes and plastic tubing and as usual a fair amount of mess. As well as being prop master extraordinaire Hazel took it upon herself to be the stills photographer and as ever she did a fantastic job. She took something like 350 photos so I am adding only a very few but I thought you might like to see something of life ‘on set’.

So for this week “That’s a wrap”.  

Prepping a scene . . . (photo: Hazel Woodland)

 

. . .  and another (in -10 degrees) (photo: Hazel Woodland)

Killing off Joe (photo: Hazel Woodland)

My starring role (photo: Hazel Woodland)

Special effects department (photo: Hazel Woodland)

Who needs CGI? (photo: Hazel Woodland)

The strain of filming takes its toll (yes, I was actually asleep) (photo: Hazel Woodland)