A very happy birthday Me 'Arties!

Saturday night be as swash bucking as one gets around here.  A theme party it was held to celebrate Tommy and Katies Birthdays, and the chosen theme... well Pirates o'course!  Arrrrr!
Ashley she did a fabulous job o' preparing a wonderful 3 course meal, including a pirate ship cake, and table decorations including silver bullion made from nuts and bolts, and parrots folded from coloured paper.
The bar it was decorated as a pirate ship and a mutinous motley crew of dirty, rotten, cut throat sea bandits showed up to assist with the 15 men, the dead mans chest, and the bottle of rum.
I is a little concerned that the full spectrums of the piratin' community 'ad not been represented (these is some diverse times we live in mateys) so I came as a modern day Somali pirate, complete with a hand crafted AK47 and sunglasses.  Rob our BC thought like wise and stepped outside the box with an accurate rendition of a 15th Century Indian Ocean Pirate made out of bed sheets and a fake seal fur beard.
We ates and we dranks and we blundered and bludgeoned are Arrrrr! we'd be avin a whale of a time...

The mutinous crew o' Pirates!

The Esperanto .... Well I can only hope I can burn my piece off in the gym!

The Cosmos as viewed from South Georgia.

One advantage of being in a truly remote location, hundreds and hundreds of miles out in to the middle of the Southern Ocean, and being the only human habitation on the island (apart from our counterparts at bird island, many miles to the North) is that there is no light pollution.  Go out on a crisp, cloudless evening before the moon rises and the Cosmos is laid bare above you.  The Milky Way (the large cluster which is our own Galaxy) is often visible to the naked eye streaked across the Cove.  Last night was no exception, and with sincere thanks to Dr Sam for her expert photographic advice, here are some of the images I shot of the stars last night.  For those who are interested, the shots were taken with my Nikon D90 on fully manual mode.  They are all 30 second exposures using a range of ISO numbers from 1600 to 2400.  The lens is an 18-105mm set at 18mm with an aperture of F3.5.  The camera was of course sat on its tripod!  These are my first attempts, and with Sam's permission I will post some of her shots taken from the whaling station the other evening.  They are truly stunning!!!  I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Load Testing the ships moorings

Today I assisted Robert, the Government Officer, in testing the integrity of the mooring arrangements on the shore here at King Edward Point.
The base has a wharf which is used by a few different vessels throughout the year, some of whom, for example the James Clarke Ross, are quite large and heavy.
The mooring lines of these ships are fastened to "bits" and "bollards" on the quay, and to "Stenhouse slips" which are anchored in to the ground just above the beaches to the north and south of the quay.  The stenhouse slips are large chains with a hook and ring for attaching the spliced eye of the ships warps to.  This job is usually done by us BAS lot when a ship arrives.  The crew will pass a messenger line of small diameter with a "monkeys fist" on the end (which helps the line travel farther through the air).  Once the light line is hauled in by the shore party, the large diameter mooring line is let go and hauled ashore.  Then it is simply a case of dropping the loop over the bollard or passing the stenhouse hook through and securing it back up with the ring and pin provided.  The vessel can then pull the line tight using large capstans or mooring winches.
The problem with the arrangements are that the integrity of the ground tackle beneath the ground is unknown, and in the case of the mooring chains, their exact design is in fact also unclear.  They were installed, it is believed, either by the military, or earlier, although not much information exists.  Based on one which was removed a few years back, they utilised heavy gauge anchor chain with sea anchors at the terminations.  They are dug in to the ground, although the depth and extent is unclear.  In theory this set up in extremely secure, and it has certainly stood the test of time, as many vessels for decades have heaved and surged against them in rough weather without ill affect.

The Warp attached to the Stenhouse Slip

It is important however to test the integrity of the systems with the use of a "load cell" and a willing ship with decent diameter lines and powerful winches.
The Load Cell is a device which when placed in line with a length of warp or line it will measure the pull exerted on it in tonnes.  Robert, who is an experienced merchant navy officer himself, wanted to test the moorings were capable of at least 3 tonnes without any sign of breaking out or moving.

I am pleased to report all moorings were tested up to and in most cases beyond 3 tonnes of pull, and all were extremely secure.  It was clear to us both that they would in fact take a great deal more force.  So I am told, it is unlikely a force on any single mooring line will exceed 3 tonnes when they are holding a large ship against an offshore gale.  The lines are all doubled and designed to share the load in this circumstance, so for now the Government can be content the mooring provisions are secure.  It was great fun for me, although I will rest well tonight after hauling heavy line and carry 12 tonne SWL shackles around the place!  Who needs gyms!

Showing the Load Cell connected between the mooring line and stenhouse.

The Sled of Death

Here is a slapdash collection of footage taken on my first trip out to the hills to go sledging!  There were a few minor injuries, but a whole load of laughs!

We will no doubt be back out again this weekend with the aptly named DEATHSLED.

Enjoy.