Cumberland Bay Boating

Me driving the Jet Launch from the wheel house (much warmer!)

Today was mostly spent at sea.  Around 1000, Ashley, George, Les, Tommy, Alastair and Myself went out into Cumberland Bay for a familiarisation exercise on PIPPIT, one of the Jet Launches.  Cumberland Bay is quite an extensive waterway, it is scattered with coves, bays, Fjords and Glacier faces, but despite its sheer beauty, it is also our new working ground and there are some beach landing sites, amongst other operating areas, which Ashley and I will be expected to use to land Scientists ashore, or travel to for other reasons.  Therefore familiarity with it is paramount, as the weather here is famously unpredictable at times, and it is very easy to be caught in heavy fog, strong Katabatic winds off the mountains and Glaciers, or even a blizzard.  Should we be caught in such conditions, we need to be able to navigate the vessel back to base using the Radar predominantly.

Mercer Bay - Absolutely stunning in real life!

Nordenskjold with a larger piece of glacier ice in the foreground.

I realised yet another 'first' today by navigating the Sea Ice around the Nordenskold Glacier in Cumberland Bay East.  Its very similar to operating the vessel in Kelp strewn areas; i.e. you reduce the vessel's speed, but keep the engines running well above idle RPMs making the vessel more responsive to imputs to the jets, allowing you to quickly stop, turn, go astern or whatever manoeuvre is required to avoid the larger brash ice or "bergy bits".  The smaller pieces of sea ice can be taken at speed, despite the off-putting resonant bumps and scrapes of ice colliding with the aluminium hull.  The stem is ice strengthened, and the boats are well suited to operating around South Georgia waters, but George and Paula (the superstar out-going boatmen) have had to make some modifications.  The cold water intakes which cool the Yanmar Diesels can get clogged if operating in slush ice, so they took a hose from the ancillary port on the jet units which now diverts high pressure water through the strainer units when required.  It is operated by a ball valve in the engine space, and has apparently eliminated the problem.

Once we returned ashore, it was time for Smoko and then the weekly scrub out.  We all split into teams and get allocated areas of the accomodation block to clean, dust and tidy...... Im now taking a break with the crew in the lounge as I write this, and shortly were off to the beach for a bonfire and a beer.... a perfect end to another great day.

Nordenskjold Glacier