This month Ashley and I had to slip both the Jet Pilot Launches and bring them into the Boatshed for repairs and servicing. The jet launches are around 6 tons gross weight, therefore they have very sturdy, specially made launch trolleys which are attached to a winch wire and the JCB. On this occasion it was my job to pilot the launch on to the trailer, allowing ashley to secure it and drive the telehandler and the boat back up the slipway. Both went very smoothly, and a lot of work was carried out including servicing of the Jet Propulsion units, changing anodes, changing oil and filter on the Yanmar Turbo Diesels, Inspecting the ground tackle (anchor), scrubbing the hull (they were exceedingly weedy this time around, so much so that George the last boatman {currently working with the SGHT rat eradication} said he had not seen anything like it in his 2 years here. It was decided the unusually warm summer had prompted greater than average growth) Tommy the awesome electrician also fitted a repeater alarm to the outer helm position for the Fire Flood and Overheat alarms. Oh and one cool thing, the red waterproofs im wearing in the cheesy photo below were once worn by Sir David Attenborough on his visit to South Georgia in 2008! I was truly humbled by this experience!
Once the boats were re-launched I took them to sea for sea trials and while I had this free time, took the opportunity to collect some glacier ice from the bay for use in Gin and Tonics! Its the best ice available in the whole world.
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54 17'S 036 30'W. South Georgia, Southern Ocean.
Follow Matt Kenney during his deployment in South Georgia, working as a Boating Officer and Coxswain for the British Antarctic Survey.
Read Matt's posts with news, reviews and extracts from his Journals, and see photo and video posts to show you some of the work the Antarctic Survey are doing in the Southern Ocean, and also provide an insight into life on a British Antarctic research station.
Matt will also provide accounts of his work at sea and ashore on Humber Destroyer RHIBs and 11m twin jet drive Pilot vessels along side the team at the King Edward Point research facility.
Matt arrived in South Georgia on the 28th October 2010.
Read Matt's posts with news, reviews and extracts from his Journals, and see photo and video posts to show you some of the work the Antarctic Survey are doing in the Southern Ocean, and also provide an insight into life on a British Antarctic research station.
Matt will also provide accounts of his work at sea and ashore on Humber Destroyer RHIBs and 11m twin jet drive Pilot vessels along side the team at the King Edward Point research facility.
Matt arrived in South Georgia on the 28th October 2010.
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I do like your posts and enjoy reading them. The photography is so very good too.
ReplyDeleteI look in on your blogs as Alistair Wilson is a neighbour of mine. I know his Mum and Dad.
Thanks from John Rogers at Penfeidr, Star in Pembrokeshire, Wales.