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

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.

Mount Duse.

Yesterday was a pretty active day for me.  I spent the morning walking round to Grytviken (the old abandoned Whaling station in King Edward Cove) and continued on up to Gull Lake. Gull Lake is accessed via a steep gravel track from Grytviken, and feeds our Hydro-plant (the Hydro-Electric power plant for the base) as well as providing a sanctuary for the Prions.  It was very peaceful up there on my own, but I learnt to be wary of the strong Katabatic winds which funnel down the valley from Mount Paget.  You can see the gust front hit the lake ahead for you, then an icy blast wraps you up and knocks your balance if your not careful. The walk there and back was about 10km after I detoured.

Part of the old whaling station at Grytviken

  

I should have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing but we had arranged the night before for a few of us to climb Mount Duse.  I was very keen, but apprehensive, as until this point I had only scaled Portsdown Hill; and that was in a car.  Mount Duse is directly adjacent to the base, and is about 1300 feet or so, which does not make it the tallest on South Georgia, but it is very steep and the ascent is mainly Scree Rock.  Katie (fisheries scientist), Matt (electro mechanical techy), Ashley (partner in boating), Luke (fisheries scientist), Kelvin (invasive floral species controller) and myself (boatman) went up, and the more experienced climbers where great at being patient and guiding the way up through the scree strewn faces and tight, steep and rocky gullies.  The Scree can be tough, especially towards the summit, where it is loose packed and falls away underneath you as you climb.

From just below the summit

Looking South from the first plateau, with Cumberland bay and Grytviken in the foreground, and Gull Lake beyond.

My first Mountain Summit :-)

Journey South - Photo update

Hey guys, as promised, a selection of Photographs from my Journey South........

38,000ft above the Equator

Our Aircraft in Ascension Island

My Cabin on Pharos SG

Captain K Whittaker of the FPV PHAROS SG

FPV PHAROS SG

Petrel and Albatross

Lenticular cloud forms

Fortuna Glacier

Me, Katie and our first IceBerg!

Cumberland Bay

The Boat shed.  My office for the next 13 months.

The Base, taken from the Pharos as we entered Cumberland Bay.

The previous over winterers giving us a welcome!!

Journey South

Hi Everyone!,

I'm finally in South Georgia!!  Its a long way from home (I think around 8500 miles from Locks Heath)  No words can describe how beautiful it is.  I will upload some Photographs tonight when the bandwidth is unused (the Satellite internet is very slow and restricted)

As I have had no internet access during my travelling, I have been keeping a diary on the laptop. I have written the entries into an account of my journey south in book format, please feel free to have a read.  The PDF of this can be viewed or downloaded here.

I will be blogging more and more as I get settled in over the next week or so, so please keep checking back regularly.  And please feel free to email any time.

Cheers all,
Matt.

Taken from the Pharos when the station first came to view round Hope Point.  Nikon D90.

BAS Conference

Firstly, aplogies for the lack of posting over the last few weeks, it has been an intensely busy time with training courses, and ofcourse the BAS Conference 2010.

The conference is designed to welcome new all the Antarctic heroes, let us meet each other, and ofcourse bombard us, mercilessly, with powerpoint presentations concerning practically every aspect of living and working in Antarctica.

The conference is hosted at Girton College, Cambridge, which is one of the Cambridge University colleges, originally as a boarding college for women in the 1860s, and then becoming mixed in the 1970s.

It was a great week, and the first aid course in particular provided some (ok, lots) of entertainment.  Its also the closest Im ever going to get to going to Cambridge University!!

I took some photos with the new camera, none very interesting I'm afraid, as I'm still learning with it!  Here are some shots I took around the campus...

Sunshine

The chef during Barbeque night

One of the halls of residence - floor F just outside my room.

The grass courtyard and Cloisters.

Cradle to the slave

Well, my first post. Preparations for South Georgia are progressing well. The car (my faithful VW Polo) went this morning to an Aircraft Engineer from Somerset and in its place sits hard cash. I overlook the Queens gracious gait because in fact this is a new camera, laptop, clothing, sacks, macks, bits and bobs. Honestly, the thought of spending afew guilt-free pounds on stuff fills me with joy, and it is a shame I will be otherwise engaged at the Coastguard station tomorrow as the London Camera Exchange among others would have been emptied by a fayre-paying highwayman, intent on making their's his own, but smiling politely and even handing over the Nectar card. And not a penny on "the knock".

Last week I was invited by BAS to attend a dental examination, chest xray and kit out at the Cambridge offices. In the absence of my VW, I am borrowing my sister in laws Jeep Cherokee 4.0 "armoured personel carrier". It actually worked out cheaper to hire a small car and fuel it, than it would have been to put fuel in the Jeep. So hire I did. A Citroen C2. Enough said about that the better. The chest Xray and Detal inspection went well. It bought home to me how much nicer private health care is. I am a supporter of the NHS, but customer care is of such a higher quality, and the ques... well there wernt any. On the other hand, I may not be so slanted to private health if I was the one receiving the bill and the end of the day. The up-shot was, my teeth are good, but he wants me to floss 4 times a week. Possible more on flossing later...

There are lists upon lists of things Ive identified need doing, or sorting out between now and the 22nd.  My flats need sorting out, tenents secured, belongings packed away for storage, contracts to end, amend and send, things to buy, things to sell, things to swap, resignations to resign, more lists to create, etc etc etc etc etc.....

I will post a packing special edition shortly outlining what I intend to take.... But until then im out of the comfort zone and running just to stand still.....