December 31st continued!
We arrived at the Fram, our ship for the afternoon. Instead of getting off Pete, Al and myself were taking over to the landing point to go to Damoy Hut. Landed and then had to trek across deep snow up and over the small hill to Damoy Hut. Was so lovely to see the hut in the distance nestled in the bergy bay. We had a good look around inside. This hut was repainted by UKAHT last year. Inside made me giggle…..one of the 15 or so bunks had orange windy gear Phill and I used at Signy lying in the bunk as an example of gear they used to use in the old days…. we are becoming history….. yeh we know! There is also a small, rusty Argentinian hut right next to Damoy. Damoy was used as an air transit facility from 1973 until 1993 but nobody seems to know which came first Argentinian corrugated rusty hut or spruced up UK historic monument and designated… who knows but does not look like the Argentina are interested in their hut any longer!
The Fram shop after our trip to Damoy was steady. The cook heard we had little fresh food for dinner and so we were given so much meat and fresh vegetables…. Kindness once again and Jerome did a wonderful beef dinner with mustard mash potato and vegetables…. The meat was stored in a cold box buried in snow. Few followed dinner with a lot of champagne….. We did some German traditional NY Eve things…. Watched a 10 minute comedy (in English) called Dinner for One and had various predictions for 2024 when we each melted wax and plunged it into cold water and see what shape it made…. this predicts my future… not unlike tea leaves??!!
1 January 2024: Happy New Year!
Many sore heads this morning. It was a good thing the ship that had been booked in for the morning cancelled! My head was not so bad but some had stayed up until 3am and our bottle bank was evidence of that. I was cooking today but first the washing up! Mountains of washing up for the night before… each of us took turns to get through it. Of course we are economical with water for washing up plates as we have all water brought onto the island in 20 galloon Gerry cans from the cruise ships, so carry those from the landing site to the Nissen hut can be quite knackering. The most important thing in the morning was rehydration and changing the buckets for the toilet. More to drink equals the buckets are more quickly filled so that was one job that could not be missed.
We had buried a insulated cooler in snow outside the hut so the evening meal was going to need to be breaded pork. For lunch there was turkey curry left over so that got converted in to soup for lunch with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese with crackers for those who were managing food! Most were quite tired so an early dinner around 6 was called for so breaded pork, potato wedges and vegetables with the banana bread I had made a couple of days ago was my effort.
Soon after everyone crashed ready for a busy day tomorrow as the Protector the navy vessel travelling to Detaille was to be here between 8-9am… we will see…
2 January:
For today we were told the Protector (navy ship) would pick us up between 8 and 9. We were up and as a shop had been requested, we transported that down to the landing site in all the large canoe bags by 8.15. The carpenters set up a tarpauline and weighted it down on the way to the boatshed so the new equipment and wood for repairs of the museum could be put on it and not on the snow which has penguin poo liberally spread all over it. Some cones also showed those helping what route to take. Shabs, Jerome and myself were to go to the Protector to do the shop for the crew.
Do not think any of us were impressed with the tardiness of the Navy… one zodiac arrived at 9.13. One Navy lad was a little, shall we say full of himself bossing the other two Navy guys on the boat and out team… he must have been all of 18-20y and have less experience than most of us! He also ended up flooding the outboard engine so had to be rescued by another zodiac who sorted it out.
The others in our team stayed on the island; carpenters to sort the equipment as it arrived, Laura to talk with the heritage museum team going to Detaille to show the issues she has spotted with the collection and Bridie to direct others and when AJ ( the field operations person for Detaille) arrived to show him around and some of the various issues that would be of interest. Later all of the team came to the Protector and had lunch. I think some of the UKAHT permanent staff had not really understood, how we have managed the current onboard shops and the amount of lugging of stock on and off ships that we do. I think the penny has dropped! It was good to meet up with hose we had trained with in Cambridge, They have about another 36 hours if there are no sea ice issues to get to their destination. The sea ice in the Lemaire Channel is not insignificant but hopefully they will get there so they can do their work.
It had been 3 hours that the Protector crew were unloading the equipment with the carpenters. After all was unloaded it seems what has arrived is not what they were expecting. The nuts for the bolts to repair the main beam that was broken last yar have not arrived. We are going to start begging off the tourists ship engineers. Also the wood for the sole plate due to be replace on one end of Bransfield House is the wrong size so cannot be replaced this year….. good grief. There is quite a lot of head in hands going on today and also talk of trying to get timber for the sole plate down from the Falklands somehow…. To be continued….
Silver Endeavour in the afternoon. Was due to start at 3.30, so we rushed to get the picking of new stock sorted by 3.20pm… then the message was not until 5.30 pick up…. they were running late. Was going to be crazy a shop so having a moment for a cup of tea was great.
Zodiac was on time unlike the navy (!) and this was the third time we have provided a shop on this ship. The staff are so helpful and help the passengers at the tables and we do all the tills. My God it was the craziest shop yet. Initially the tills did not work so queues were long and when they were all working after about 20 mins, we did not stop processing purchases for 1.45mins. My head was spinning but managed to get a shower which gave some head space. We scrambled off the ship for 8pm with a take out of food from the ship so no cooking required…. We had raised £15, 500 in less than 2 hours…
Back to the base, shovelled food down, cancelled a load of postcards so they are done, made up first day covers into plastic sleeves ready for tomorrow. We were all tired and have 2 ships again in eh morning…. need to try an get to bed ready for the morning… goodnight.
3rd January: preparations for a birthday tomorrow.
I have taken a short look back at what I have written before. So many typos (!) but much of what I write is in a rush or at the end of the day when I am a little pooped. Definitely a pooped day today. Another two-ship day and the first was on a ship we are familiar with but the internet was struggling so with a the ship half chartered by Russian tourists (I know, I don’t understand either) and a translator who was pulling his hair out and apologetic as they were so rude it was not the best of mornings. Internet is not our issue, it is the ships and quite frankly they are in the Antarctic and why should everything work, be perfect? I suppose if you pay daft money to live in luxury on a boat for approaching 2 weeks and you don’t feel they are getting what they want then they whine. One woman chastised my colleague because we had sold out of Adopt a Penguins (a membership scheme for the Trust where they get a fluffy penguin in a bag and information)… it is a shop and shop’s sell out of things…. particularly in the Antarctic for ….. sake…. We of course remain polite take it on the chin and the mantra is “we are doing this for the colony”! We were all quite exhausted from the morning as were many of the crew.
Back to Bransfield House and we frantically packed for the afternoon boat after some soup. We now have 100L dry bags that have rucksack straps, so it is slightly easier to get all the merch down to the “Chains Landing” (rusty old whalers chains are still seen next to the shore). We are no longer using the pulks to transfer kit as the remaining snow has deepening penguin highways and so when we need to cross everything is falling out so the new rucksacks are better. The boat in the afternoon we had not visited before but was one of those 5-day cruises where people fly to King George Island, pick up the boat do the cruise and fly out again. The shop was a more chilled affair really, bit frantic initially with some Chinese tourists after the stamps to make sure they got to post postcards for the most southerly public post office in the world. Most payments went through but with only 76 passengers they with us and gone… unlike the 300+ passenger ships. Back to the island, packed for tomorrow (another 2 ship day) and Al was cooking so sat and considered what cake to cook for Jerome’s birthday tomorrow. After dinner, he was packed off to bed to get out of the communal space so we could prepare. There were paper flowers made, a crown, childrens party cupa and plates found in a cupboard. Al has wrapped up a black beret he had with him (Jerome is French) and Pete has made him a wooden box tonight. I have made before coming down here some oven duck material gloves (might sound weird but Jerome’s background is as a high-end pastry chef for 12 years). Jerome has 2 ducks currently being looked after while he is away, but he is very fond of his ducks so I’m hoping he might like them. Also made a chocolate cake that will need finalising tomorrow morning. Plans to be up to decorate the cake and of course we must be ready to leave by 8.30 am tomorrow.
4 January: The Birthday
So, we were up early and got the cake decorated and we all waited for Jerome. Presents were opened and then we were off to a new ship Scenic Eclipse II. We were picked up and then around the corner a beautiful looking ship. New this year, it was quite amazing inside. The shop was set up and I did the presentation while others managed the initial shopping mania. The crew gave us a glass of champagne when we mentioned it was Jerome’s birthday ( not best when standing up and talking in front of people…..and later a small birthday cake arrived… we are treated so well. Not quite so by passengers when they were disappointed before the end of the shop when the ship’s internet when down, passengers could not complete their purchases and we had to go. The zodiac driver offered to show us Jugla Island we see from the kitchen window. Some gull chicks and blue-eyed shag chicks could all be seen. Once back, we packed for the afternoon shop then lunch. We realised using marine traffic App that the ship booked in was 100km away. An email response confirmed they were not going to make it in time and they sent their apologies. More time to prepare for dinner, card games and celebration of J’s birthday. We have discovered that the Port Lockroy Penguin gin we sell onboard ships is actually quite good, but we have limited tonic.. no tonic now…. So ginger ale was tried and it can be confirmed that mixing gin and Magners is not the best.
5 January: no ships today
Think we all needed a day free of ships although later in the day two yachts requests postal services so we needed to do those jobs. We woke to no electricity and then the propane gas we use for our gas cooker also ran out. Most were still in bed after Jerome’s birthday bash, so AL and myself sorted a generator out and changed the propane cylinder. Gas restored, kettle on, tea and coffee made. The sun also started to come out so we started generating solar power. We have had quite a few grey days in a row and together with the carpenters needing energy for tools and hoovers in the museum for their work and the constant Star link use of electricity we will probably need to adjust our energy use. I spent much of my day in the boat shed where most of our food stores are doing an inventory. I am only probably about halfway through but some progress. Gave up after tins of peas become traumatic and I couldn’t bear counting anymore tins. It does give me time to listen to music and just have a little bit of space occasionally watching penguins through the window.
We have had more chicks hatching. The chicks do look, and are, so vulnerable. They cuddle under their parents tucked away from the last few cold dull days and snow. Parents regurgitate partly digested food regularly and they seem to grow really quickly. Starting to see evidence of hatching with a few eggshells amongst the puddles of guano all around the stony nests. We await casualties from the skuas moving in and the opportunists, sheathbills scavenging whatever they can. Tomorrow, we have a big ship in called the Nansen. This will be the third time I have been on this one. Each shop is crazy and we are likely to be on the boat for about 5 hours. Hopefully we will get some internet time and lunch..fingers crossed.
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