RSS James Clark Ross

Yesterday saw the arrival of the RRS JAMES CLARK ROSS to South Georgia.  The JCR is a Scientific support and replenishment vessel owned and operated by BAS, and keeps a busy schedule running supplies to all the Antarctic Stations and running research cruises around the Southern Ocean.  A good friend of mine, Dave King, who helped me enormously with invaluable advice before my deployment,  worked on her as the Chief Officer for a number of years, so I can say to him I have finally met the old girl, and not only that but helped berth her alongside.  Very often when larger vessels come into the cove, the Boatmen of South Georgia are asked to assist by using an RHIB as a line handler.  So me and Ashley donned our dry boat suits and I drove the ALERT out into the cove to tend to her two Head Lines.  A crewman lowers the warp (with no messenger lines attached in this case) onto the bow of the RHIB which is then motored to the required anchor point on the shore and passed to the shore team who make the line fast to heavy ground tackle.

Today she was delivering her cargo of supplies for King Edward Point.  These supplies will be the bulk of the support for the station for the next year, although, the PHAROS will be available often enough for small replenishments.  We spent the day unloading tons of food, boat spares, office supplies, medical supplies, toiletries, beer, wine, spirits... You name it we now have it.  No rest today either, as all cargo needed to be removed from crates and all packaging and waste segregated and processed for recycling and the items checked against the orders and put away.
Today was fairly hard work getting everything booked in and put away, so Katie, Ashley and I took a walk up to Gull Lake after work.  Its been another wonderful day of sunshine, and the lake was very peaceful as the sun went below the mountains.  Heres some pictures of the JCR coming away last evening - mainly for Mr King :-) - She could not stay longer as she has a very tight schedule this year due to delays in a shipyard up the Tyne earlier this year.