December: Sunshine in morning, cloudy and wind picked up in afternoon
We woke to sunshine on one of the peaks of the 7 sisters mountain range. Laura had an interview with the Guardian (bizarre to be interviewed while down here). Not sure which Saturday edition it will come out on. Jerome cooked French onion soup from dry onions. I reminisced about the time I made this soup at Signy and later the whole base levitated with resulting wind. Sure that this would not happen again as Jerome was cooking we tucked into a fine soup….. the same effect. You would not light a match down here but really don’t make French onion soup from dried onion it took a day to recover! We did a beach survey in the afternoon/evening. It is still difficult to access the west side of the island due to overhanging snow onto the shore but we found some plastic cabling and some red paint that had peeled off the windows of Bransfield House (the museum). This gets logged and we are hoping that some of the buildings that are looking quite tatty might get a lick of paint this season maybe when the carpenters arrive (should be Christmas Day). All was then quiet until the two yachts in the bay decided they would like us to do a shop on board. Two of the team went onboard a Russian ship (Aurora) followed by a French ship (Mon Coeur). It was quite bizarre and involved much sorting of requested stock, so they could purchase on board ship. It seems a strange thing to do and was finished around 10, but yachts tend to spend quite a bit so something like £3000 is spent on two yachts and we also got boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables so all was well.
15 December; cold, windy. Penguin count- 622 nests (746 eggs) on Goudier Island, 25 nests on Bills (35 eggs).
The morning was spent doing the full island count of penguin nests and eggs. Clickers, clipboards and a rather odd way we have to try and get to see the eggs. Back in the day when at Signy, we used to have a paint brush on the end of a stick and an orange paint pot so when you counted a nest you dabbed the nest with the paint. You would lift the penguin’s bottom and check how many eggs. All was over and done with quickly and you could leave the colony. Things change and you cannot touch the penguins. Instead, it is suggested you dangle a glove above them and try to get then to reach up to peck it enabling you to see the eggs. Well, this was pretty useless and seem to me to result in more stress than a quick lift of the bottom and away. The good news that after trudging through much guano over the rocks where the penguin nests were. Ee have counted about 100 more nests this year and if all remains well, we will hopefully have more chicks than last year too.
Afternoon was spent on a ship. Totally different feel to other ships. Felt authentic expedition type ship. Many Dutch passengers and crew, but then a lot of last minute deal backpackers on board who had hunted out a good last minute deal to get the trip. Met a Slovak man who had got drunk one Sunday evening , booked the trip and was flying on Wednesday heading for Ushuaia to pick up the ship. We did another fairly crazy shop, got a shower, got rid of all our rubbish and had six Gerry cans to fill up to replenish our water supply from the ship. Had my first gin and tonic since I have been down here and we left the ship at about 9pm. Good fun, lovely crew and passengers.
16 December: dingle day. Humpback whale day.
Well, what a morning… such a beautiful clear, sunny day. We were picked up at 8.30 after our breakfast and arrived on a brand new luxurious ship with a Exped leader called Scotty. Quite a cool US dude and staff could not make us more welcome. Breakfast number 2… OMG there was yogurt and most had full English! Feeling stuffed we sorted out the shop ready for passengers and Jerome and I did the presentation before the chaos of onboard shopping began. We had lunch there too then back to base to get two lots of stock ready for the two ships tomorrow and we are running out of the adopt a penguin offering. We have Adopt a Penguin parties which involves us playing loud music and compiling the bags with a cuddling penguin and information about your membership of UKAHT for the year with an official adopt a penguin certificate. So far in 6 weeks we have made over 450 penguin packs… more to arrive with the next cargo drop in the new year…. more parties.
The afternoon finished with a call that a humpback was in view, several beautiful sightings but no camera = no photo! Decided to go out again, take my SLR and spend some time in the calm late afternoon, watching penguins. Odd Adelie wandering with no intent and one Chinstrap. The colonies here are Gentoos, so seeing these is unusual. There were four Weddel seals on the outcrop called Bills too.
Got my blog for the UKAHT website done. We each have to take turns in writing each week and provide UKAHT with a few photos. Not sure when it will go up as lots of people are on holiday already for the Christmas break.
17 December 2023: a two ship day ….knackering
Oh my, a ship called The World arrived today. Zodiac out to it and it seemed such a a large hotel with many floors. It seems that the boat is owned by the guests. They buy apartments on the boats for mega money (many millions) and then an annual fee (100,000s). For this each has a right to suggest 3 years in advance, where the ship should travel to. If 50% of the occupants agree, that gets put in the itinerary. Quite bizarre and the only ship of its kind apparently. Needless to say, it seems they liked to shop. The manager wanted to treat us… 3 bottles of champagne and 6 bottles of wine for Christmas and a mega amount of Christmas treats…. they return in 10 days with another cruise so hoping for similar treats! We got back, had lunch and then back out to another ship for another presentation and more shop setting up and selling. It can be quite exhausting, keeping smiling in the scrum of passengers. Certain nationalities are very interested in stamps so spend ages fiddling and fussing about unimportant stamp related things…. patience is a virtue….
So, I am back in the Nissen hut having converted some food given us into a Rogan Gosh (2 bottles of) curry and a pear crumble…… we had been given so many pears and apples by several ships now, that we are on a mission to find ways to get through them. Another two ship day tomorrow then we are hoping to get a ship free day the next. First ship tomorrow has 300 passengers…. full of Germans. They have requested if we have a German scientist on the base. Laura is German and worked at the science museum as a museum curator but don’t think that’s what they want but we will see… we will see. We have to get off by 12 so there is absolutely no way we can get through all those passengers. There is going to be a scrum and staff will need to manage the crowds…….. deep joy. Update tomorrow… groan!
18 December: raining… what??
I am at 64 degrees south and it is raining?? I find that really quite worrying. It rained for most of the morning. We were up and out to be picked up by the German vessel at 8.30. We tried to make conversation with the 4 guys in the Zodiac but we established they were Russian then they decided they were Ukrainian but there was certainly a language issue. They also seemed to drive the zodiac so slowly even though it was bitter rain. Arrived drenched at the German vessel and as predicted the whole morning was a disaster. A boat full of Germans, all with credit cards that as they are European seem to have extra security on them so transactions will not get through unless two way authentication… then passengers have to pay for WiFi and most do not. Long queues of Germans very frustrated and poor Laura could understand all their swearing at the ship and of course they considered it our fault their bank wanted this from them. Decided was not worth getting upset with them and just did the British thing and smiled, said very sorry and endured 2 hours of this. We had predicted it would not work for 300 passengers and it did not….. we got home drenched and licked our wounds…. Have said to the ship that unless the internet is available for passengers then we cannot come back… which would be a shame as they kindly gave us pastries and 6 bottles of wine for our troubles…. our wine store is starting to look healthier for Christmas!
Out again at two, for another ship…. Was quite poorly organised so business was not busy and managed to use the ships internet well! Back home and we were all knackered. The rain had changed to snow in the afternoon. Few of us prepared the bags with merchandise for the shop tomorrow. We are back on a huge ship called the Nansen tomorrow so expecting more chaos… I might get to port this too.
19 December: dicing with death….? Ok maybe a little dramatic…
We woke to a wild island. Nissen hut was whistling and there were wavs in the bay… not a great sign. Yacht to be visited in the morning and a large passenger ship of 250+ passengers. Plan to split the team, 2 to the French yacht (logically Jerome, fluent in French) goes there this time with Bridie and the rest of us head out to the passenger ship to be joined by the other two when they are finished. Some dobt if we should be on zodiacs but the passenger ship said they were getting their most experience zodiac driver to assess the waters and the yacht was in marginally calmer waters in the bay. Radioed through that the driver thought it would be Ok but not at our usual landing site so we had the boat sed landing site so had to carry every bag, no resting bag in snow because of penguin guano. Got everything in the zodiac, bouncing up and down clambered in then holding on for a 5min journey. Wild, holding on to all the merchandised bags and frenched as waves over the boat and us. An interesting embarkation but we got there and then peeled ourselves out of our drench not so water proofs… there are limits to Gortex. It was always going to be a big shop but passenger’s zodiac cruises had been cancelled as it was too rough (ummmm…) so bored passengers= shoppers. Craziness and there are only so many purchases we can manage in 3 hours. Hardly came up for air and certainly no break…. General practice memories?
Passengers turned away as we had to leave and get off as they were moving around to another bay and it was too dangerous to get a zodiac back to the island from around the other bay. Packed up again, disembarked into the wilds and got back to the island….. so wet and knackered, carrying everything back to the museum and the hut. So cold, and the hut at 10 degrees was not much better. Wrapped up in puffer jacket, thermals, handwarmers, hats and blankets. Eventually the gas fire worked wonders and we were up to 15 degrees… tropical.
We did a lot of tidying up, sorting out and one amazing thing was a huge cheesecake from the French yacht and take away chips and burger from the passenger ship… they do look after us… also did our clothes washing in the 3 hours we were there (and dried… not possible in the hut)! Have completed Jerome’s request to embroider a penguin on a serviette… a happy customer! So we hope for a better day tomorrow.. although currently another 2 ship shop day….
20 December: Humpbacks while the kettle boils!
The kitchen sink looks out to Jugla Point. Blue eyed shags and some gentoo colonies live on there, so it makes for a good view when blurry eyed in the morning. So today was special, 3 blows in the distance then one whale took a dive and confirmed they were humpbacks. No sooner were they there than they had gone again… early bird, catches the humpbacks! Amundsen was delayed by weather and so cancelled in the morning. We did have Penguin Watch knock at our door in the morning… a little bizarre…. Who knocks at your door when you are staying in a hut in the Antarctic? Penguin watch staff trave on cruise ships around the Antarctic counting penguins using drones. The two staff went out with Jerome and apparently they could not get the tech to work so I think they are due back at some point. We recorded the Christmas and New Year message from here for UKAT to post on the appropriate days. We had an uneventful ship shop on the Ocean Nova.
21st December: mid summer’s day
A no ship day.. yeh! Glorious sunny day so we all got out to walk about the island enjoying the wildlife taking pictures around the island. Such good timing for a sunny day and no ships. We all got on with various tasks. There were VIP postcards to write. Someone calle Pamela Anderson…. There was speculation but the beach babe Pammy from TV. Jerome did the Princess Anne postcard (a patron of the Trust!). There was someone who lives in Mold so I wanted to do that one….. the address was Mold Cheshire…. Everyone knows Mold is in Flintshire…. Ummmm….
I spent many hours trying to sort out the boatshed food supplies… The food stored from last year and the various boxes randomly packed with nothing that works together… why pack tinned chicken curry with biscuits. So, I am in trying to put food stuffs in groups for two reasons:
- So can find stuff currently impossible (powdered custard for crumbles was a real find)
- Know what we actually have (you would think we should, but we don’t)!
Only 4 small bags of sugar for this season… Ummm.. 8 small bags of rice…. Ummm… not much dried yeast …. we will make do.
Midsummer meal Jerome and Bridie went wild. A midsummer menu was made by Bridie and Jerome. Veloute of seal (chicken soup), pan-fired penguin (Spam cut in shape of a penguin with penguin biscuit cutter!) medley of garden veg, rosemary roasted pomme de terre (all veg tinned!) and apple and cinnamon crumble and Birds custard! The wine flowed and we watched a film Inside Out… I instantly fell asleep in my usual sofa way at home!
22nd December: woke to a sunny day
We had a full team on board the Octantis. It was the first time that we have been am to run a shop onboard for them with the internet issues sorted out. This ship is always generous so we were able to enjoy the facilities, gym/spa etc! We did the presentation as well. We left with an 8kg turkey and 10kg pf sprouts….On our return journey Sam a UK zodiac driver was kinds to go on a slight detour down the Peltiar Channel. Good to finally see this channel and if we had been able to go down it (right in front of the 7 sisters mountain range) we would have arrived at Yelko Research Station of the Chileans. The station is so close but we are not allowed to visit which is a shame. I don’t think it is because it would be an issue, just that we would be leaving our station and these are not our zodiacs.
23rd December: a day of Silver…
We were running a shop on the Silver Endeavour today. We had been invited to dinner that evening on this very fancy ship. The shop was busy and much was bought. Think many were in a Christmassy mood. Billy from the ship helped us sell things too which was great. Towards the end of the shop we had rum and coke and G&Ts before we were shuffled to the dining room. We had not realised we were in the posh space so we arrived in our Crocs, branded fleeces and not really looking the part. We were shuffled into a corner and a few members of crew had been allocated to be with us. Kyle opposite me was a skipper of a whale watching ship in Alaska. This was only his 2nd day in Antarctica and on a cruise ship as a safety kayak officer. Interesting fella and he gave me his card. Who knows, maybe one day I will get there…
Wine flowed that night and we somehow got back on a zodiac to the base.
24th December: grey morning but brightened up in the afternoon
On the ship the Ushuaia in the morning. Lovely simple ship run by kind Argentinians. 55 passengers very engaged with the presentation loads of questions. Lots of fun, little in the way of sales <£2000 which is small for us, but this was a budget trip to the Antarctic. Back and had lunch and Laura got all the German biscuits donated to us on a big plate and we all dug in. We have a 16lb turkey for tomorrow and it was cooked in advance today as we have a small cooker so not everything will fit in tomorrow. Laura is made mince pies and I am made more bread ready for tomorrow.
25th December: Yes it is a white Christmas!
So, it was snowing, and we had the day off!
A slow start, with lots of checking on WhatsApp with messaged received and sent from family and friends. It is so good to hear from home. Managed to speak to Phill for some time in South Georgia. Feels like the first proper conversation we’ve had as the internet at Bird Island was not great but is better at KEP. He’s having an OK time settling into life in KEP and seems will not be leaving for Signy until around the 3rd week in January. So, good he is getting back to Signy, such an opportunity but no doubt lots of work too. It looks like he might be back sometime in March.
We all opened our Secret Santa presents. Bridie had made a Race Around Goudier Island Game that I received. We played it lots of times in the morning. It is a kind of Snakes and Ladders type of game. Al and Pete’s arrival kept being put back in the day, so it was decided that we would go ahead with the Christmas meal around 2-3pm. It was all hands on deck. Lots of table decorating including the cloth crackers with sweets I had brought and a knitting sock Christmas decoration for everyone with a penguin Croc charm. We have all been issued with the same Crocs for indoor use and for on the ship visits, so we need to be able to distinguish Crocs, so now it seems quite straight forward. On that note, we were given a fair amount of branded kit, Gortex jackets, puffer jackets, T-shirts, and hoodies. As we all have the same and they all get piled in to get washed by ships that agree to do our washing for the duration of a ship visit. How they managed to wash and dry all our laundry that we request to be done about once every 10 days-2 weeks, seems quite a challenge to me but we have yet to have any issue.
Christmas dinner was amazing. Pigs in duvets (bacon was very thick!), turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts (round 1), glazed carrots in honey and gravy. We opted not to have a starter which was a good move as we could hardly move after this meal. Pete had the Christmas pudding but as they did not arrive until 10pm when we were well oiled it was not eaten on the day. So we went down to the Chains Landing to greet both of them and then had a poster on the front door and official welcomed them as they entered the hut. It must have bene quite strange for them as we had had quite a bit to drink by then, the place was in the post Christmas Day mess, even though we had done the washing up. We stayed up until after midnight and then all crashed. Pete is on the sofa in the communal room which is not ideal but no other option so we will have to make the space better and empty a few shelves. Not sure how the day will pan out tomorrow. No ship in the morning but The World is back with the residents on board who own the apartments. Hoping for a good spend to top up the targets for the shop. I expect they will not disappoint.
26 December: Boxing day sales….
So, with the morning off it was starting to get to know how the next weeks with 7 of us on base is going to work. Al and Pete are here to get quite a few jobs done particularly the beam that was cracked last year due to the weight of the snow on the roof. Most of the wood and equipment they need is apparently on the Navy Protector ship. This is an old ship now which regularly needs repairs. Seems it is currently waiting for a part in the Falkland Islands and has been so delayed that it might have to go straight to Rothera even before it comes to PL with the equipment for Al and Pete. Like all things here you just must go with the flow and see what happens.
Spent time sorting out more in the boat shed and boxing up lots of waste cardboard. The afternoon on the ship was busy, we sold lots, all had showers, so life was good. We were going to use up the turkey in the evening, but the ship had given us loads of filled rolls, so we just had those for dinner and a piece of stollen (one of 3 given to us). Sat around talking to Pete and Al. Al has work for the NZ Antarctic Heritage Trust for 18 years, has worked on Scott and Shackleton buildings and was the person who found the 2 crates of Shakleton whiskey under the floorboards in the hut. Lots of tales to tell no doubt, so looking forward to talking to him more about how he got involved and what he has found at the historic sites. So, I am bed writing this. Think more time will be spent in here for things like writing diaries. Seven on base, does change the dynamic and it is quite tight for space. Jerome, Shabs and I are due to do the presentation and shop on board tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will not need to get involved with the yacht tomorrow afternoon.
27 December: the Chinese and stamps…………
Went on the Vega for the morning. All quite frantic getting the shop together while Jerome did the presentation. First round of tourists were fine, busy but polite. Second round who came back from their Zodiac trip around our island were quite rude and demanding, but not all. I am not sure what it is but when there is a Chinese charter it is always the same. Lots of demand for the passport stamp of Port Lockroy and a love of stamps. We have 5 different postcard stamps with penguins on and most will just have any, but others will slowly and painstakingly choose each individual stamp. Could have launch one lady who kept tapping me while I was serving another and despite three occasions trying to make it clear I was with another lady she still demanded attention…. most peculiar. She left smiling later on, but I was losing the plot! Glad to get away and back to the island. The zodiac driver took us via some big bergs that have grounded in the bay. It was a sunny day today, so the blues of the berg and the height were fantastic particularly with Mt Liuigi and the 7 sisters clear from cloud as a backdrop.
Back to the island for lunch and then I spent some more time making bread and working down in the boat shed trying to make an inventory of all the old and new food. The bread proved to be a nightmare and only proved very slowly as it is cold in the hut. I gave up by 9.30pm and masterclass from Jerome was to put in the cold and re-warm/prove in the morning. Frankly I have no idea how that will work but we will see in the morning. Al was cooking tonight so helped him find stuff to cook. Three others went on a super yacht that had asked for a shop. World seems to get crazier by the day, Super yacht with two other yachts accompanying it. Apparently, that allows for all the toys to remain on the accompanying yachts and the main yacht can be solely for the comfort of the owner. As a result of 3 yachts the team did the shop on each of the yachts and finally got ack for dinner. In previous years they would have just come to the island, looked around the museum, gone to the shop and job done. Instead, this year merchandise is packed in dry bags prior to the shop, zodiac to the yacht, do the shop and move onto the next ship. Back to the island, unpack, re-pack ready for the next ships. You can see why this year is quite a pain compared to previous, but is the only way with the worry of bird flu. I have been told tonight that I will not go on the yacht tomorrow morning and to take tomorrow morning as a morning off. Will see how that goes and expect I’ll be on a yacht tomorrow afternoon.
28 December: how the super rich play…
I was told to have the morning off. Others went on some yachts and so I got the bread in the oven that had risen somehow overnight (slowly) … seem to work and was not like a brick! Wondered what to do with myself as under strict instructions not to do any work. Weather was quite grey so ignored instructions, if they don’t make sense, I am not going to listen… uh oh …😊… and got things ready in Bransfield House where all the merchandise is currently stored for all the shops. Decided to finally get my tin whistle out and annoy the penguins! Seemed sensible to get away from others in the hut although was mainly the carpenters doing stuff in the museum and just back and forth to the Nissen Hut. Really enjoyed just having some head space although being outside with ungloved hands and handling metal is not a good combination! Didn’t last that long will find time to do this again!
In the afternoon three of us went on a ship that was a very smart support vessel for an even bigger ship that the owners were on so we were definitely not going on there, they came to us. It was really the five children and various other members of the extended family. The dad is a scientist who has a multi-million dollar business involved with all sorts. The support vessel has a laboratory and one of the crew pointed out the portable MRI head scanner. Still not sure what exactly was the purpose of this on a ship but it was what it was. The whole time was quite a whirlwind. Lots of quite spoilt teenagers with credit cards buying some stuff. It was all over within hour and a half and we were shuffled off the boat again as quickly as possible. Hardly worth our while but did meet someone who had been to my High School in Monmouth who was one of the crew so that was fun. Who would think two ex-pupil from Monmouth Comprehensive would end up in a superyacht in the Antarctic!? We did get a lots of left overs from the kitchen which meant we did not have to cook dinner!
29 December: a dingle day
A no ship day and a glorious day coincide. Still had various jobs to do but priority was 7 very old bananas to convert into banana bread… 3 cake mission accomplished. We also had a request from Cambridge for us to hand write 61 postcards to people who had kindly adopted a penguin and therefore have a postcard sent this year. There were many more than 61 overall, but these were the ones that had got missed by the automatic postcard print so we were tasked with handwriting. We were quite unimpressed at trying to fit in the poetic far too long suggested wording. We have nearly finished the task but by 5.30pm I needed wine! The carpenters have been trying to assess the plans for the repairs to the museum. We are awaiting the navy ship the Protector, but it has been stuck in Falklands being mended and seems it has finally left the port and now we have a message to say they are trying to fix one engine and might need to turn back as they cannot cross the Drake with one engine. The reason this is of interest to us is they:
- have the cargo for Bransfield House repairs
- are taking a UKAHT group due to camp at Detaille Island and make the building secure and catalogue the contents
Who knows if anything will arrive. If the engine is fixed and they continue across the Drake they are due 2nd January. They will probably dump the stuff and keep going straight on south as they are so behind schedule. After ridiculous postcard writing, had to clear my head. There was a plan to walk around this tiny island but needed some space, so wandered over to Bills and had a look out to sea and penguins. There were two Weddel seals on some snow and saw sea urchins on the shore. The postbag arrived on a ship that had been to the Falklands and collected the post for the team. Had not expected anything, as I had not given my address to anyone. Thanks Rog (my brother for those who don’t know) and Sam for my Christmas card, that was lovely x
Not sure I’ll get time tomorrow to post this, if I do Happy New Year everyone!
Hoping 2024 is good for everyone.
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30 December: Plancius in morning
OK so no chance to post this…. Maybe tomorrow.
Awoke to a second sunny day in a row today. Out at 8.30 for a ship shop. It is a ship we quite like as it usually has people travelling on a budget and all the activities are included in the price of the trip. The crew are all friendly too… and they have free postcards for the passengers. We set the shop up in the restaurant and then we usually have some struggles with the internet for European cards where the bank security is more so the two-way verification can be an issue. Still we got through the shop and were invited to have lunch which was really good. Even had a cheese board and some fresh cherries… this is mad!!
Left and got back to the hut and processed all the postcards so they were all cancelled as there is a ship going to the Falklands tomorrow so we are hoping to get all the post off. Got to speak to Phill today which was really good too. Went down to the boat shed to get some dried onions for dinner so Pete did his beef ragu….. beef from the super yacht a couple of days ago worked well and we ended up having a few wines for the festive season and as Al the NZ carpenter pointed out it is nearly his NY in NZ so we had to oblige. Learnt a new card game and for once did not come last. I am still to win anything to geta point on the board… but I am so uncompetitive…. unlike the others here. I think the more competitive people are the less I become… hence I do not feature on the games board. Must try harder as people are noticing my apathy! There was heated debate about UK royalty which frankly I did not get involved with. After quite a night and much playing of games we finally got to bed.
We have a two ship day tomorrow so its going to be busy! Ughhh.
Another Happy New Year in case I get to post this tomorrow. Fingers crossed xx
31 December: Two ship day
Morning on the Ocean Victory. Chinese tourists followed by USA crowd. Two presentations too. Not much to report. Afternoon on a bigger ship. Jerome is did the presentation in French and Laura in German. I am going to Damoy Hut around the corner to replace some brushes in the hut. It is a bit of an excuse to go as the carpenters need to also look at any necessary repairs.
Just posting this quickly befre we leave the 2nd ship…
HAPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
xxxxx
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