The beginning of the end

At the end of my last blog I was about to go and meet the new winterers. They have now been on base for one week exactly and they seem to have settled in pretty well.

This week has been pretty manic. We started handover on Monday. My new guys, Tim and Matthew,  are both experienced boatmen. Tim was the boaty at Rothera (he is the 10 month boaty while Matthew is the boaty with the yearlong contract) and they are both very good. However neither of them have had more than the day’s course on a jet boat that BAS sent them on before they came down, and that was a single engine jetboat, so completely different to what we have here.

I will admit that after the first hour on the water with them I did think that we would have to spend every possible hour training, but as the week has gone on we have spent some more time on the water and they are getting on very well. They had to learn quickly, which they were able to do,  and I am very pleased and less worried about leaving “my” boats in their hands. 

The new guys on Prion

 

On Tuesday we went round East Cumberland Bay on a local knowledge gathering tour. We went right up to the Nordenskold Glacier. I rather took it as probably my last visit to all these places that have been part of my working world for a year. A farewell tour maybe. We went up to the glacier and I took control of the boat as they took their photos. It was glorious. I noticed about 50 terns fluttering at the base of the glacier; they must have been feeding off plankton attracted by the nutrients released when it calves. It was a lovely sight, as were the icebergs, and I was reminded yet again why I love this job. 

The Nordenskold again

Dirty iceberg

On Wednesday the JCR returned from relief at Bird Island to do relief here. This meant that a year’s worth of dry and frozen food and drink came off. We were also meant to receive all the cargo that we had ordered over the year. Due to a small timing issue some of the cargo didn’t make the JCR and we will have to get it at last call on the Shack in March. Last year we had to do relief by cargo tender since the weather was not right for her to come alongside but luckily this year she came alongside and we could manage things much quicker. It snowed for the first part of Wednesday which made tallying off the food boxes a bit of a chore, with soggy lists, but it soon cleared and we spent the rest of the day ‘happily’ emptying boxes and putting them away. It was extremely impressive to see how tidy the dry food store was compared to last year. Hazel and Julie (the new doc) did a fantastic job.

Luckily due to weather (perfect weather is needed for relief at BI and they hadn’t quite finished it yet) and BASMU (the BAS medical unit) requesting that the docs get more than the one day handover received last year, the JCR stayed till Friday morning. This meant that we could have a BBQ on Thursday after finishing relief and a bit of a social with the crew and scientists aboard. Before that my new guys and I managed to label, book in and put away most of the boaties’ cargo which was an impressive feat since it took Matt Kenney and me three days last year.

Friday saw Hazel leaving South Georgia to act as the JCR doc for the next 5 months. I am not going to describe it too much but it was an unbelievable wrench to see her go. To add insult to injury the JCR stayed in the bay doing scientific sampling all day. It did luckily mean that when she broke the wire for some experiment or other we could provide a replacement. It was quite a fortuitous breakage since Hazel, in the rush, had managed to leave her walking boots behind. She would need these for BI and Signy before I could deliver them to get picked up in Stanley, so when a boat came back for wire I slipped the boots into the bag and she managed to get them and use them the next day. 

Hazel with a Wandering Albatross on Bird Island

 

The rest of Friday was spent going up Morraine Fjord in the RIBs for more local knowledge (and to try to clear my head) and clearing up.

On Saturday I had a dreaded Saturday Cook. It was the first big one of the season and wasn’t helped by the fact that there were no potatoes delivered since there are none to be had in Stanley. It did mean however that I started using the rather large tinned potato mountain we have (Hazel made a mistake in ordering, her only one which is very impressive, and we got more in when we could already have done with getting rid of some). It went well otherwise, especially since Julie very kindly helped out by making a delicious rice pudding and generally being a brick in the kitchen.

HMS Protector arrived on Saturday so I did boating in the middle of cooking. I couldn’t let my two new guys come alongside a ship in jetboats for the first time ever without a couple of hints and tips and then Protector kindly let us practice alongside which was great. Sunday dawned miserable so I went to the church service held by some of the crew of Protector in the church. Good old classic hymns we could all sing without accompaniment: ‘Battle hymn of the Republic’, ‘Give me peace in my heart’ and ‘For those in peril on the sea’. It was lovely. I then took Julie and the ship’s doc to the graveyard. I realised that I had not yet got a photo of myself with Shackleton’s grave (it is funny what you leave to the last minute). In  the afternoon I walked over to Maiviken with Micky. When I first got here it seemed to take forever to get over to the hut and it was a real slog, now it takes me 45 mins at a push. Remarkable how hill fit I have become. We went over to Maiviken to see the first fur seal pup born in the area. Hazel and Micky ran over to see it on Tuesday but I hadn’t seen it yet and didn’t want to leave without seeing at least one this year. 

HMS Protector

By Shackleton's grave

Furry pup

Discovering the sky

Splendid

Littering the place

Let me in!

 I finished the week with my last ever lates rounds which was a very good feeling. I then woke up on Monday morning with the slightly sickening realisation that this is my last full week on the island.

I suppose I am going to have to pack quite soon .........

The Terrible Twins' Last Hurrah

This was Hazel’s last full week on base. I am not sure who is more distressed by this, me or her. I do not like the fact that it means that I only have 17 or 18 days left on base myself. What am I going to do when I can’t look out of my window at this view? Anyway, enough of that.

Most of this week has been taken up by preparing for handover. Tidying things away, cleaning the boatshed etc. Yesterday (Saturday) Hazel and I had the joy of preparing the main freezer for the arrival of a year’s worth of frozen food. We moved a lot of boxes and made a fair amount of mess before we were done but now we have room, which will be very necessary. Hazel also has been packing and moving into my room to make room for the new guys. It is an odd feeling to be sharing again but it won’t be long. Once Hazel leaves Julie (the new doc) will take her place in my room but soon she’ll have the pit room all to herself when I leave. 

An important event this week was a visit, on a cruise ship, by Hazel’s parents. She was very pleased to be able to show them the base and the island and I was privileged to meet them. They are now on their way down to the Antarctic Peninsula and having a grand time by all accounts.

Hazel with her new coat (she's very proud of it)

 On Wednesday we decided that we needed to make sure that we had one last night off base. After work we (Hazel, Micky and I) collected our tents, stove, sleeping bags and food and headed round to Penguin River. We had planned our excursion to include bright evening sun and a calm evening but the weather, as usual, had other ideas. No rain luckily but wind and clouds which meant that we spent most of the time in the tent. We all had boil in the bag dinners, a change for Hazel and me since most of our ‘rat packs’ are dried. We had a truly lovely evening sitting in the tent chatting, drinking a bottle of wine, eating some of Hugh’s (the post master) excellent brownies and generally enjoying ourselves.

The next morning we were woken at about 0400 by the sun rising and the world rising with it. We lay in our sleeping bags just listening. We could hear the chattering of the King penguins as they stood on the spit in the middle of the river in different stages of moulting. In the distance we could hear the roaring of a bull Elephant Seal who had found a favourite echo on the cliffs and was using it to great advantage to send his challenge ringing round the bay. We could also hear the weaners (young seals) playing in the water. They are the most endearing things. Two males will come together and play, practicing fighting each other, rearing their fat bodies up and slapping each other with their necks. Sometimes however one gets distracted by the clouds and stays with his head up looking at them. His playmate is usually annoyed by this and will slap him gently with his flip until he returns his gaze to earth. I passed one a little later in the morning who was all alone in a pool just blowing bubbles. 

In various stages of moult    Photo: H. Woodland

Lurking in the ice

                 Displeased with our presence           Photo: H. Woodland

Keeping his flips warm

At about 0530 Hazel stuck her head out of our tent to check whether it was a nice day or not and said, jokingly, “I think we have the attention of a male.” She then lay back down in the tent. About five minutes later we heard a thwumping noise. Luckily Hazel looked out again and like a scalded rabbit shot out of her sleeping bag and the tent. The male that she had said had noticed us had indeed got his eye on us, not only that, he was advancing fast (the thwumping noise) to put his amorous advances into action. Hazel had to dissuade him by hitting the ground in front of his nose with a stick but he looked pretty determined. He stayed there eyeing the tent up while we had our tea but luckily Hazel had persuaded him that we were not a good bet. When we struck camp he took massive fright when we took the outer sheet off the tent and hared off. That would have been one very ‘interesting’ way to wake up.

              The terrible twins' morning tea (with smoke)        Photo: M. Sutcliffe

  

Morning tea with our admirer

Dissuading him from his amorous advances

We had a cup of tea and then had to strike camp and return to base fairly quickly. We all had to be back to work, Micky was late since he starts at 0700, and Hazel had to go onto the Fram (a cruise ship) to help with the post office. Unfortunately she was a little late, we only arrived back at base at 0800, but it was fine.

On Sunday we decided that we had to have a last weekend walk. We had heard from Kris and Josie (two of the Museumees), who had stayed at Harpon on Friday night, that there was a huge ice tunnel close to the hut so we decided to go and investigate. We had to be back on base by 1600; Hazel because she was cooking for the builders (in return for the amount of times they have cooked us two Sunday roast) and I  because I had to check the boats ready to pick up pick up the new winterers off the JCR (one of the BAS ships). It normally takes about 3 hours to get to Harpon so we left base at 0800. Hazel and Micky went into another gear and with some huffing and puffing I managed to keep up and we got to Harpon in under two hours. We found the ice tunnel and had a good investigation of it. The ice over there is covered in moraine so there was very little light that got through the ice. This made it look as if it was made of obsidian. Then as you looked into the walls you could see that there were rocks caught in the ice. It was as if you were looking at a meteor shower in space. I found it incredible to think that they were hanging there, not only in space but in time as well. Once we came out of the tunnel we made our way to the beach and had a look at the seals there. The weather then clagged in so we went to the hut and had a couple of cups of tea and bacon sandwiches kindly made and brought by Micky. 

Entrance

The ice tunnel

Suspended in time

Once we left the hut the wind, which was gale force, literally blew us up and over Echo Pass and we got home in an hour and a half. This is a record and is impressive considering that Hugh, who is a fast runner, can get to the hut in an hour and ten minutes and we were walking with packs. It was a lovely and fitting last walk and I really enjoyed it.

Once I have written this I will go down to the jetty and prepare to either go out by boat and collect the new guys arriving or wait to take the JCR’s lines as she drops items off. Once she has dropped these guys off she will turn tail and head back up the island overnight to reach Bird Island in the morning. There she will do relief and then return to us to do our relief. This is my last blog as the sole boaty on base and (probably) my penultimate one from KEP. A sobering thought but it does mean that I am closer to seeing my family and friends... and trees. I do miss trees.

On that note.

Have a good week.

The Beginning of Departures

And so starts the beginning of the end. Yesterday Jo and Nik left. They both return to the Falklands and from there to the UK through different routes. Nik will return to Bangor and start work there, Jo starts her leave by heading almost immediately off to Spain. She will however return here in March for 8 months.

On Monday Erny and I had finished everything we could in the boatshed on the engine so we put it back into Pipit. It was a slightly nervewracking experience, especially since the wind meant that the JCB couldn’t be exactly square onto the boat. We managed it in the end and started the process of reattaching everything. On Tuesday this was complete and we fired her up. She started at the first push of the button which was very reassuring. We did discover a leak in the fuel stop solenoid which had been badly fitted at the factory. Slightly worrying since they had run it in in the factory but Erny soon fixed it. 

              Micky has a new workmate    Photo: M. Sutcliffe

 As soon as we had finished on Tuesday I headed after Hazel and Jo to Maiviken. They had gone ahead since I didn’t know how long I would be. I managed to make it over to the hut in 45 mins form the church, including putting on and taking off snowshoes. I was pretty impressed with myself actually. Coming up to Deadman’s Pass I was puffing, panting and generally feeling terribly unfit but then I looked at my watch and realised that I was probably allowed to feel a little tired. I was greeted by a nice pewter mug of gin and tonic and we had a lovely ‘sundowner’ outside the hut. This was our last night away together and it was a lovely one. We even managed to have poppadoms on the menu in the hut, which is probably a first for South Georgia,  and they were delicious. 

The next day was such a lovely day that we decided to go down to Maiviken and see what we wanted to do from there. We first devoured a couple of bacon sandwiches since the curry the night before obviously wasn’t enough. We even made one for Daniel who had arrived over for his penguin egg count. This is the season in which he has the most work; from now on he has to come over to Maiviken every other day, whether to check on the Gentoo colony or to do a seal count.

While it was a beautiful day it was incredibly windy so in the morning we stayed low. We sat on the top of a small cliff and watched some wonderful Sooty Albatrosses on their nests. Suddenly there was a swoop above us and there was one coming in to land. It was very gusty so he had to make several attempts, spending all in all about 10/15 mins banking and wheeling and trying to land. He did most of this with his ‘landing gear’ flapping in the wind. It was  incredible to have this majestic bird swooping so close to our heads that if we had put our hands out we would have touched him. Eventually he landed and, looking exceptionally pleased with himself, settled down for the day.  

                                               Sooty soaring                    Photo: H. Woodland

 

                                             Landing gear down               Photo: H. Woodland

At that point none of us were ready to return to base yet so we decided to go back up to Spencer Ridge, where Hazel and I had gone last weekend. This time we decided to go up via the tussock rather than the scree and it was much nicer. We spent a very windy hour or so on the top and then reluctantly decided it was probably time to head for home. It was so windy that I could lean with pretty much all of my weight into the wind and still stay on my feet. It was quite a broad ridge so it was safe. I jumped off one bit of rock and found myself landing much further along than normal due to flying in the wind. We returned home to a delicious dinner at Carse House cooked by Sarah to say goodbye to Jo and Nik. It was lovely and I enjoyed conversation with new people (the museumees).

Thursday and Friday were a blur of tidying up the boatshed etc. On Friday Jo, Hazel and I wandered up to Sooty Bluff for a last walk together. The time has finally come when enough Fur Seals have returned that one needs a bodger to walk to Sooty Bluff, just to tickle them under the chin if they start to look a little aggressive. I seem to have found my niche in the Hazel/Jo/Ella friendship: I bring laughter as people laugh at me falling over and I am the shield for the other two to wander along the beach with. We were prevented from getting all the way to Sooty Bluff by one large male with ‘crazy eyes’, we decided it was not worth trying to get past him. It was a really lovely walk though. That night we had a BBQ. It was unfortunately distinctly cold but good none the less.

It was with a heavy heart on Saturday that I wandered down to the jetty with Jo to say goodbye. I know that I will see her again (if only because she has invited me to spend some time with her in Spain) but it really did feel like the beginning of the end of my time here. We have had so many adventures together, had such great times and become such firm friends that it was a real wrench to say goodbye.

The rest of the Saturday was beset by a snow storm. This was very fitting since whenever Jo went on holiday the sun always shone and it seemed as if South Georgia was crying for her departure. I spent most of the day in the kitchen, helping Hazel with her Saturday cook. I also managed to clean and rearrange my room and bath room in preparation for Hazel moving in for a couple of days at the end of this week to make room for the new lot coming in and then for Julie (the new Doc) with whom I will be sharing till I leave. Dinner was a real success: black pudding on a bed of grated carrot and beetroot with melted brie and salami slices on top served with onion chutney. Then a chicken pie with mash, green beans and broad beans. To top it all off we had rhubarb crumble with custard. Perfect.

Today (Sunday) Hazel, Micky and I got out of the house early to make the most of the weather and headed up Hodges. This is a peak directly behind Grytviken, hovering over the whole cove like a benevolent giant. There are three possible routes and we decided to go straight up the front face. It was fine until we hit a snow slope which we needed to traverse. Luckily we had brought ice axes because without them we wouldn’t have been able to go up that route. Now,  I don’t like heights at all and we had to kick steps into the slope traversing it. It was pretty steep and at the bottom of this slope are cliffs and air. I have to admit that I kept my head down, looking at my steps and tried to keep my breathing level. I was very pleased when that section was over. The only other ‘bad’ bit was a bit of a scrambly climb over a step to move onto another slope. This would have been fine in normal circumstances but this is South Georgia and you can put your hand onto what looks like solid rock for it to crumble at your finger tips. I did not want that to happen while climbing. Again all was fine and we made it to the very windy summit after a couple of hours from starting. 

                                      The base from half-way up           Photo: H. Woodland

                                            Scree is unpleasant                    Photo: M. Sutcliffe

At the top

We had lunch tucked under the peak and then returned down the other side of the peak into Boulder Pass and then down Deadman’s. It was as usual a lovely day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (except when slightly scared). Going up Hodges was the last thing that I had on my list of things to do so I was very pleased I managed it. The only thing marring the day was the fact that Jo wasn’t there with us.

By this time next week the new folk will have arrived, we will have started handover and the countdown to coming home, a rather sobering thought. I am looking forward to this week though and am waiting to see what it will bring.

In honour of it being Remembrance Sunday as I write this:

“We will remember them”