happy penultimate day of 2007

It's a foul, wet and windy day for our 'maintenance day' so we are in the bunkroom trying to stay warm instead of up on the roof painting. Ships are changing schedules, some are changing times to agree with Argentinian time changes, the one that was meant to be here yesterday or the day before, depending, has hit a glacier after a power failure and is not coming at all, we think. It's all a bit vague at the moment. Not quite sure what we are doing for Hogmanay, but there are a few yachts around and a couple have come in to shelter behind our island. However if this wind continues then it is doubtful if we will meet for a party, it may just be a case of a radioed Happy New Year, and an early night!
There are so many happenings I have not mentioned, a case of time and power limitations, but Rachel is managing to produce a much fuller account which I recommend. When I started this it was just intended as an update for family and friends and I have been startled to find that word has spread and I have no idea how many readers there may be! More than the dozen that I began with. A couple of passengers in the shop the other day asked which one of us was Helen ... turned out they live near Kendal and there had been an article in the Westmorland Gazette about my sojourn here. Did any one else see it, is it true!?
I also didn't mention the school group that visited recently who were astonished and surprised to find an 'old girl' here - they were from St George's in Edinburgh where I went for my 6th form years. Much reminiscing, and photos for the school magazine. They had 328 large letters to post, as a fundraising venture - hmmm, a great deal of organising of stamp-sticking. Many different values of stamp required to make up the £1.10 for each letter, as I only have a limited numbers of each denomination.
Cold toes now, must be lunchtime - which I might eat in bed!

Santa has been, and so has the stork

We have a Christmas baby! on Christmas Eve a passenger spotted a penguin chick, conveniently close to our hut. Pengy has since had a second successful hatching, and they are both peeping away and being fed regularly. How nice to see, we had been wandering around the island daily, looking at any standing mum (or dad I suppose) to see if there were still just eggs underneath or a little furry bundle. We are so looking forward to them running about, but slightly apprehensive about the pooping mess to come.
Talking of pooping penguins! we have a population explosion. There is a small plastic penguin that has been living in our bunkroom for some years, but his origin was unknown. He needs feeding with poops and then on winding up he flaps his way across the table, pooping regularly, but with not quite the same force as the real things fortunately. Now, the tragic thing was that this penguin had run out of poops and there were no suitable substitutes to be found. I knew none of this, but saw a pooper at home and brought one here for Rick's birthday. What joy! now there were two and they were able to poop and flap with each other to their heart's content. Now the amazing thing is that we have each received another as a christmas present! Oh dear, you can have too much of a good thing. We have managed to give one away so far, to a couple of Ukranian scientists who stayed with us on Boxing Day, but that's another story!

To briefly recap the last couple of days - we had a mad Christmas Eve, with three ships visiting and another calling in briefly to buy 2000 stamps and send mail. The evening turned sunny and warm and we were invited out for a barbecue on board. A lovely meal, quite surreal as they played King's College carols for us as we stood on deck in the sun with snowy mountains and icebergs all around. A far cry from the dark early nights of home. And Christmas day worked out perfectly with one ship in the morning, full of Christmas cheer. Rachel and I have taken to singing carols in the shop - sometimes the passengers join in, and sometimes they just look at us as if we are mad and ask us how long we have been here ..... too long obviously. We then had the afternoon to ourselves, put the fire on and warmed up the lounge, turned on the ipod Christmas carols, and had a cheese sandwich followed by Christmas pud and brandy sauce. Spent a lovely couple of hours opening presents and drinkin
g champagne - we were so lucky with timing as we received more mail on the 23rd - parcels and cards all round! a big thank you friends and family. A yacht came by later on, I did get round to making the mulled wine as we rushed about clearing up all the debris of paper and sweetie wrappings. So we had a few more visitors, and then happily another ship came in and invited us our for Christmas dinner - so we did get turkey after all.

Merry Christmas everyone!

So much time has passed so quickly and Christmas is nearly upon us! Our first mail arrived, one sack from Stanley PO and I had two cards - hooray. One from Martin at Keswick YHA and one from Uncle John. Most of the packages were for Rachel and it was just as much fun seeing her open them and sharing in her Christmas wishes. We have more mail coming tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, so who knows what surprises there will be.

We have had a holiday! A wonderful day and night out on National Geographic Endeavour, the same ship that took us for a day earlier in the season. It's so thoughtful of them to realise that we don't have much opportunity to get out and about, and then do something about it. They took us to visit our neighbours - Vernadsky and Palmer stations - the former Ukranian (though British til 1995) and the latter American. We had a lovely tour round Vernadsky which ended in the bar where we were plied with vodka - memories of Mongolia! They have a bra tree behind the bar (it's an all male station!!) - Rachel was persuaded to leave hers, but I've only got a couple for the next three months, so managed to make myself scarce at the crucial moment.

And on to Palmer station for the evening where they threw a party for crew and staff. They really live in some comfort there! Massive cinema screen, a whole wall of DVDs, popcorn machine, broadband internet, free phone calls, unlimited power. You might not even notice that you are in Antarctica. They couldn't believe how we live, but I think I prefer it!

So home again and back to work. Still no chicks on our island, though they have been seen nearby. We maybe just haven't spotted them yet. The weather is varied, sunny and then snowy again. We have had our first yachts around, three visited the other day. The passengers were climbing, skiing and kayaking. We watched them on our nearby glacier - it looked wonderful. And it was hard not to wish we had a little boat as they paddled their way through the brash ice in the evening sun. We were up on the roof in our lovely red overalls with tins of bitumen paint. We haven't made much progress with painting the whole building this year yet because of all the snow and wind.

Three ships in yesterday, two today, FOUR tommorrow! we'll be a bit pooped by the 25th, but will try and have some fun regardless. I have a plan to make mulled wine for our passengers on Christmas day, as I have done for the past years for beach clean volunteers and Millom Christmas Fair-goers. Doubt I will manage the mince pies though. Thanks to all for the lovely Christmas emails I have had - it doesn't really feel very festive here, so it's nice to hear it is happening elsewhere!

(no subject)

Cold and snowing hard again! Where has summer gone? can't really complain as we have just had two glorious days.
Spent an evening sitting down by the rusty chains with a cup of tea, actually ended up lying on a flat rock like a seal. Very relaxing.
Less soothed however when I decided to uncover my long-unseen feet and give them a bracing salty dip, and on doing so discovered chilblains! The other two have had them for weeks and I was feeling marginally smug about my obviously superior circulation and/or boots. I have three on one foot and a couple on the other! Not too itchy and sore yet, perhaps now it is getting warmer I can take extra care and make them go away. So the next morning we had breakfast on the verandah, and I made a foot bath with peppermint and tea tree oils. Very nice, I'm sure that's helped.

We have a morning off, no ships! so do a little joinery with Rick. We make a raised board for under my bunk bed to enable me to slide my clothing boxes over a bar on the floor, which was annoying me. Fine job, and now it they glide in and out with ease.
I have my first run! We all set off round Bill's island, I get wet feet from looking at the view instead of the puddles, but it's really enjoyable. We can't get round our island as well though - the tide is a little too high and there is a great cornice of snow to crawl under so we stick to Bill's. The shop is warm from the sun, and we are enjoying a little after-run stretch when I spot Europa coming into the bay. What a glorious sight! she is a tall ship, built in 1911, and looks so much like a historic expedition ship coming into view under sail. We sit and watch on the verandah, wave at some figures on deck who wave back. They come and pick us up and we go over for a pre-vist beer. Later we go back again for our first barbecue of the season. The weather is wonderful, there is a minke whale in the bay, and a leopard seal swims round and round the ship watching us watching it. We have a lovely evening, great food and company. There is a bad flu bug on board though and we ho
pe we haven't caught it.

Next morning they pick us up and we go over to Jougla Point on Wienke Island. It's so close, and we've never been there yet! There is another gentoo colony there, and blue-eyed shags too. We have a great walk, see our island from a different perspective! and go over the low ridge to view the Peltier Channel. Slide down the snow slope back to sea level, filling our jackets and trousers with snow, and back to the ship for lunch. Afterwards they take us round the corner to another British Hut, Damoy. There used to be an airstrip on the snow here - the hut was built in 1975 and used up to 1993 to enable staff and stores to be flown south to Rothera when sea ice prevented ship access. After we have a look round they whizz us back home in a zodiac and we have a peaceful night in - all really tired by our day off!

satellite communications

Have heard from home that our post is starting to arrive! Joe, one of the camera crew, lent me his satellite phone and I went and stood outside in a blizzard yesterday and phoned home. Got through after a bit of wandering around trying to find a signal, wishing I'd put gloves on! It was such a bad line we spent the first couple of minutes shouting "can you hear me ... I can hear you..." at each other. I also had the problem of drowning out the penguins. Sorry Mum! not altogether satisfactory, but better than nothing ... maybe. Also left a message on Bill's answerphone - of course he was out!
Then out of the cloud and snow I saw the next ship arriving so back to work. Some of the staff from USA Palmer Station - our nearest neighbours - came too, on a day out. Brought us freshly baked bread! Finished up work at 8ish again - dinner and couple of beers and then more filming. 'The Lockroy staff relax in the evening' Rick reading, Rachel writing and me knitting!
This morning the next ship was in at 7am, so early porridge, the first crew were here at quarter to. But the wind changed direction, and my goodness there is still a lot of ice out there, and it all started arriving in our bay. It built up so quickly, it was amazing. Everyone was bundled back on board and they scooted off to clearer waters hopefully. The ice is beautiful though! We have a few more big bergs close by now - we have had one really large one since we have been here, which is gradually losing lumps. The giant petrels and cape petrels swim around it, the bottom of the berg brings up food from the sea floor.
Anyway, we shall wait and see what the morning brings. We did have another visit this afternoon, but they didn't stay long either, the wind is howling and it is nervy work watching to see where the ice goes next. The poor penguins are having such a tough time. We are pretty chilly too! yesterday was the coldest I have been yet in the shop. Early night tonight I think - it's been another long day!

A few more pictures

These are the last for now. Seems like they have all the necessary accoutrements for a cultured and comfortable life - a snowman, flag and nice sunny spot for a cup of tea!

penguin news

Here we are again, another day, another couple of hundred people! Having a bit of a rest before Fram, the fabulous new Hurtigruten ship, arrives in half an hour or so.

I've had a lovely long email from Phil - thank you! - telling me all about the Christmas un-Bakerstead weekend. It sounded great - but I'm sure you didn't really have any fun without me! I find myself often thinking about cycling up the Duddon for some reason! finishing with a pint or two in Broughton. We have again had a couple of not so busy days which gives too much time for thinking, which is not always a good thing. A couple of ships changed their plans and we didn't have the visits we expected.
But now everything is hectic again - two ships a day, plus yesterday the Nordnorge brought us a two-man film crew. They have been commissioned by the Antarctic Heritage Trust to make an information film to show passengers on the larger ships before they get here. We can't always go on board, the bigger ships often don't have a lecture theatre big enough for all of the passengers, and they also have several languages on board. We had a wonderful visit from Polar Star this morning, with a number of British aboard and there were some great comments and activities being filmed, with our visitors being very cooperative. The film crew are only here for 2 days and they leave again on Friday.
The snow is beginning to melt, and the rocks are emerging. Every day we find a new artefact (new to me anyway). The whale bones, the sledges, various other bits of machinery, graffiti (the date 1921 carved into the rocks) - even the mooring chains at the landing site, which are left over from the whaling days too, are only just starting to appear. It's hard to imagine what it will look like when the snow has completely gone. I don't know how deep it is! Rick says the path from the landing site is still well buried. The visitors are walking up to the hut on old snow, and this melts during the day under pressure of the footfall, and then freezes into an ice rink at night. I was out at 8.30 this morning with an ice axe bashing the surface to rough it up a bit to make it safer.
I believe that there are now new pictures visible on this page! I haven't seen them, in fact I don't even know what they are of. They were selected by Tudor who took some of mine home on his laptop. My brother says that they are all blue sky and crisp snow - hmmm, I wouldn't call that representative. I may try and get a couple of blizzard shots up there too! The penguins seem to be doing well at the moment, they are about 2 weeks behind last year however due to the lingering snow. Many of them have three eggs, which is unusual. They can't really incubate three, and we see them turning round and round trying to fit them all in. It may be because the first ones were laid some time ago and the weather was so cold and wet since then they have assumed that the first egg is addled and have started again. However they don't have the wit to push out the old ones and sometimes it is the new ones that are left out in the cold. It's amazing the eggs are ever warm enough to hatch, as th
e birds are constantly on their feet defending their stony nests from marauders! We saw one poor penguin just outside our front door trying to chase off two robbing penguins coming at her from different sides - and while she was occupied one of her eggs rolled out behind her and was eaten by a sheathbill. There are pieces of egg and splashes of yolk all over the island now - the skuas are around all the time. The penguins make a terrible hoarse wailing noise whenever a skua lands nearby or flies overhead - it sounds desperate. But the skua babies have to eat too I suppose.

Enough from me for now - better go and check the shop is ship shape, but I think we are ready for the fray!

More birds

I'm guessing these are more gentoos:


These are sheathbills (he says knowledgeably, cos the photo is so named):

And here are some more penguins (gentoos again, presumably) enjoying the snow shower:

The shop

The staff proudly showing off their wares:


and Helen and Rachel modelling the exclusive t-shirts (presumably)

Fetching ice

Helen (top) and unidentifiable togged-up people (below) collecting ice:




Some of that ice doesn't look so white...

Penguin Parade

Another picture, apparently these are Gentoos:

Pictures from Port Lockroy

Some pictures have arrived in my in-box, courtesy of Tudor who has just returned. So I'll post them here:



This is the building itself, in case anyone couldn't guess.

Social whirl

We've had some busy days! things are starting to hot up (but not the
weather! still lots of wind and snow - we are digging feet of snow out
of the landing site every time a ship radios us to give warning that
they are about to arrive). But the hardest thing is combining the
meals,drinks and showers on board with work! We didn't know whether the
Nordnorge would come to visit as scheduled since they had been so active
in the Explorer rescue and deviated from their intended route. Then they
contacted us to ask if they could come the following day, in Explorer's
slot. But as before, we had a radio call after dinner to say they were
here in the bay, and would we like to come on board! Mmmm not a
difficult decision, even for me! It was lovely so many of the expedition
staff came over to collect us, and we were home again! So strange being
back on the Nordnorge, and sad to miss Tudor being there too. Then we
were offered the chance to stay overnight, and since the weather had
calmed down Rick said yes. Fantastic. We had a cabin each, and I was
wondering if I would be able to sleep on my own! Then after a great
shower - first for 10 days! (we had resorted to snow washes again over
the past few days) we adjourned to the bar. Captain Hansen came to join
us - he's an amazing man. The staff were all really exhausted after a
hard couple of days looking after the rescued passengers. It was
extraordinary to be on the ship so soon after the event, and very moving
listening to them talking about it. The Nordnorge were near by only
because they had changed their plans, and it still took them 4 hours
flat out to get there. We were amazed that the expedition leader on the
Explorer had the presence of mind in spite of what had just happened, to
ask Nordnorge to pass a message on to say hello to Rick and 'sorry about
your christmas presents - they are at the bottom of the sea!' So sadly
it's true! thanks for anyone who posted things to me, but I probably
won't get them unless you missed the first post! We had a chance to use
the internet - I saw my blog and Rachel's. Thanks James - for putting
the links in it and forwarding comments to me.

So we had a lovely breakfast on the Nordnorge, after actually not
sleeping all that well - we are not used to the humming engines any
more. Then they popped us back on shore with just enough time to prepare
for the passengers. Oh my goodness the Endeavour want to come in today
too - we receive an email. They can see we have an empty slot on the
schedule. They are delayed so we have dinner on board and then an
evening landing. We have a tilley lamp on in the shop which makes a
great atmosphere. They shop well - it always helps if we have been on
board before hand - Rick does his Lockroy talk and promotes the
charitable nature of the shop, and Rachel and I model T shirts! We also
think that a couple of glasses of wine before the shopping helps us add
up faster - Rick is doubtful! We cash up, empty the postbox and cancel
stamps til midnight. Another long day!

Sad news

Rachel wakes at 7 and declares that she can hear an engine - pops
outside and Ocean Nova are in the back bay. We were expecting them at 7
pm! so leap up and dress and are whisked over for breakfast of melon and
yoghurt, sausage, scrambled egg etc great. Shame we are all smelly and
unwashed and in our grubby thermals. Their passengers come shopping and
are gone by 11. Just as they leave the expedition leader tells us that
they have just heard that Explorer has abandoned ship - we retire to our
bunk room for elevenses and check emails and discover that it is news
already and the ship is sinking. Rick is very sad, we are all shocked.
They were due in to us the day after tomorrow. And the ships that are
coming tomorrow, Nordnorge and Antarctic Dream have gone to help, so we
don't know if they will come either. Rachel is gutted as she had quite a
lot of post, gifts from family and friends and stuff she was sending to
herself, that had been put on the Explorer by Stanley PO.

After lunch we restock the shop which takes an hour or so and lie down
to wait for Polar Pioneer due at 2pm. The weather has worsened, and the
penguins are all buried! Still sitting on their nests with just heads
sticking out. The landing steps are completely snowed in again and Rick
goes to dig them out. Read and snooze and keep warm in sleeping bag -
they are here! at 4pm. A nice shopping session, lots of Australians and
friendly staff.

Restock shop again! we keep repeating the mantra 'it can only get
easier..' as we empty boxes. They are piled to the ceiling and stacked
three deep in places. Thanks Tudor! Inevitably the small blue ladies
fleeces are at the bottom of a stack of six. But we are finding our way
around more quickly, each time we find the thing that isn't what we are
looking for we know where it is when we do need it!

Enough from me now, Rachel is blogging like mad! and I am probably
repeating her. Shame I can't send photos, might try and post some home
or to james? cheerio, time for bed, thanks again for emails, Phil, Helen
Karin, David - lovely to hear from you, and that you are all having bike
rides for me!

And then there were three..

To continue briefly - we get up on the Endeavour and have a wonderful
time. Try to make contact with the ships that might have been coming in
to visit us, but they are not in the area, so the Endeavour keeps us on
board for the whole day - cruising through the Lemaire channel, one of
the most scenic spots, and down to Petermann Island where we land and
see Adelies and the Oceanites people who are studying them. The sun
comes out, the pack ice is amazingly thick, we are crunching through it,
the views are stunning. Try not to spend too much time on deck as we
have no sunglasses or sun screen with us. We have endless cups of tea on
board sitting in the library, fabulous food, and a sauna! End up getting
back to Lockroy at about 11.30pm, and a sad quick packing-up for Tudor.
Endeavour has agreed to take him to Ushaia to fly home, so that the
Klebnikov didn't need to wait around to try and collect him. I am busy
counting out money and adding up credit card slips - the zodiac driver
is waiting - Tudor comes to help as I am all fingers and thumbs in the
cold and dark. And he is off at midnight into the beam from the ship's
spotlight. The three of us go to bed feeling at bit sad and quiet.

Fresh fruit! hot shower!

Excitement! We are sitting down to Rick's special curry feast and I am
in the shop titivating when I hear a stampede to the front door - the
radio has spoken for the first time! and Antarctic Dream (who we were
expecting, hoping, would arrive tomorrow morning) is just anchoring in
the bay. We all rush out to look for her - we have been invited on board
for a shower and drink! Wonderful, ecstatic news! Finish eating, quick
wash up dishes, flapping around packing all that we will need, T-shirts
instead of thermals, shampoo, clean socks if I can find any. It is
snowing hard outside, we can't see anything but can hear the hum of
their generator, and the buzz of the approaching zodiac. We have
struggled into our immersion suits for the first time! I love them! they
are super snug with wellies attached to trousers, waterproof full length
zips, neoprene cuffs and hood - and metal hoops at the chest for lifting
us out of the water ....
And a quick hot shower, and up into the bar for presentation to the
viewing public - going to have to get used to being the focus of much
questioning - it's not so different to working at Black Sail really! My
first Pisco Sour, and the passengers present us with a couple of apples
and oranges each. We have many promises of bringing over bacon
sandwiches in the morning! Back to our little hut, bed at midnight after
a cuppa.

The next day, up quickly, no porridge in bed, our first shop. Surprising
how tiring it is on the brain - my adding up is getting noticeably
quicker fortunately. The whirlwind is over and they leave. A quick
lunch, cash up, Tudor and Rachel wrestle with boxes in the boat shed to
get the stock necessary for refilling the shelves. Then at about 3pm we
have National Geographic Endeavour on the horizon. The weather has
deteriorated significanltly - we wonder whether they will try to land
passengers at all. We have done our best to cut good steps in the snow
but the windy is gusty and strong. They make it ashore and we have
another busy couple of hours in the shop. Just beginning to cash up at
6pm, and think about restocking - we may have another ship first thing
in the morning - when the message comes to drop everything and pack
..... we are invited over for dinner and another shower!! Don't even
feel like I need another one for a couple of weeks now. So off we go -
the ride out there is very rough and bumpy, but soon we are in the warm
in someone's cabin, lent to us for showering. A wonderful meal, chats
and drinks, we see the Kapitan Klebnikov going backwards and forwards
through the window, sitting out the storm, we wonder if it will head off
or come in tomorrow to pick up Tudor and take him home as planned. The
weather gets wilder, I'm a bit worried about getting back, and quite
surprised that we came on board at all. But we are staying, the decision
has been made that it would be foolish to go out. A bit of reshuffling
and we are found beds in various cabins. I am the only one who has
brought their toothbrush! But no toothpaste so borrow some from my room
mate. Rachel and I stay up til past midnight exploring the ship and
visitng the bridge.

I am writing this a few days later - we have another ship due in soon,
got to go and tidy up. Thanks for the messages I have had from everyone
- sorry I am not able to spend the time replying individually - it's
been great to hear from home though. Missing my bike a bit! and a pint
of decent warm beer - most drinks are well chilled here! The penguins
have jsut started laying eggs - they have done an amazing job of melting
the snow back to bare rock for nesting on, by pooing on it and then
lying down, they are getting so filthy! It's great fun to see them
stealing pebbles from each other and beating each other up with their
wings, which creates a tremendous slapping sound as they go tumbling
down the snow in a whirl.

Right then, that's it for now, will complete the exciting Endeavour tale
soon! Byee

Lonely as an iceberg...

...only 1500 penguins for company!
Yes, we have now had 4 ships cancel - beginning to worry about the 8
tonnes of stock we have to shift! Carry on painting and scraping and
sanding - the place is looking really good now. The weather improves. I
have breakfast on the verandah for the first time. Totally silent except
for the splosh of diving penguins and the patter of their flappy feet on
the snow, occasional rumble of collapsing glaciers and the squabbling of
the sheathbills. They are getting pretty lively on the roof at 5am these
days so we are still rising early. Eating reasonably well - forcing
ourselves to get through last year's left overs before we begin on the
food we brought. We are getting more and more inventive - chilli con
spam, salmon spaghetti surprise, soya mince rogan josh. We are able to
eat most meals without the use of a knife, or much chewing that's for sure.
I have had three washes too over the last two and a half weeks! Two of
them snow washes at the landing site. A flannel, a dollop of snow and a
good rub, top half and then bottom half. Not as bad as it sounds on a
sunny still day. Great views! And once when the weather was wild for a
while, half a bowl of warm water in the bunkroom in front of the gas fire.
Had a lovely afternoon off the other day - completed a total
circumnavigation of both islands - Bill's and Goudier - at low tide. Saw
much marine invertebrate life. Sea urchins, limpets, starfish and a
giant isopod! which only I was brave enough to fetch for closer
inspection (necessitating removal of trousers, socks, shoes and a fair
bit of a paddle - it was pretty bracing to say the least but I survived,
just a little bit pinker-skinned than before).
Must be time for a cup of tea - bye for now!

ice, ice everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

We wake up to cold, cloudy and windy weather. Three more days of sanding
and painting - a bit of a challenge as each coat takes two days to dry -
it is above freezing indoors, but only just. We are making good
progress, the kitchen is done, the ionospherics room also. We tidy up
again - the Nordnorge is due to visit us - but another email again
brings bad news! Apparently there is a lot more ice around - the sea is
clear where we are, but it seems the change in weather and wind
direction has brought ice out of the Weddell sea and blocked the
Gerlache and Bransfield straits. So they aren't coming! We were looking
forward not only to seeing the staff again, and also to the possibility
of some fresh food, getting our clothes washed and stocking up on water.
And another of the large ships, the Orlova, has cancelled too and the
film crew that were coming out to stay with us for 5 days are also not
coming! Begin to wonder how long it will be before we see another
person! We have a long gap in the schedule now, the next ship is not due
in til the 13th, and who knows if they will be able to come either?

We rally round and cheer each other up and decide that we can do lots
more decorating - much of it hasn't been done since the base was
renovated in 96 by Rick and the other team members. But first we have to
brave the snow and strong winds and go down to the shore with buckets
and ice axes to chip pieces of ice off the beached bergs for our water.
It's pretty wild and windy out there, and we come back with alot of
spindrift down our necks. Got enough for a couple of days though - just
need to encourage it to melt now!

First Shop! Or not.

After a hard day's work moving our 600 boxes and trying to get them all
under cover before the weather changed, we set to getting the shop
organised. First we sanded and painted the ceiling and a couple of
walls, before having a general all round scrub up. Had an email from our
first visiting ship, the Alexander Humboldt, to say they would be with
us a day early with 300 passengers! Help! Spent a very long day
unpacking shop stock, trying to fit 15 different t-shirt combinations of
price and size on the limited shelving - not to mention the fleeces and
kiddies clothing unsold from last year - and then last thing making
prices labels for it all. A late night, all very tired.
Up bright and early, not knowing when the ship will arrive - Rick checks
emails - they say 3pm, so we have time to do the final titivations.
However no ship turns up - and at 4 ish we receive another email saying
that they are unable to make it through the Gerlache Strait - too much
ice. We are all a bit disappointed and deflated, but turn back to more
painting followed by a peaceful evening and early night.

We're In!

Hello all, just a quick message as batteries are low - we got ourselves
and our 600 boxes landed on Monday night - good thing it was light til
11. The weather has been fantastically kind to us, blue skies and
sunshine since we got here, no wind at all, so it is feeling almost
warm! Only just below freezing most days, have a bowl of ice in our
bunkroom which is melting very slowly so I guess not much warmer in here!.

Better go, got snow to dig. The penguins are wonderful! the sheathbills
less so! We have also been visited by a wounded elephant seal and a
chinstrap penguin so far.

Will post again when I can. Thanks for your messages, from Mum and Alan,
it's nice to hear from you - yes, give susannah the blog address, that's
fine Alan. Rachel's blog is very good - much better than mine!

www.rachelhazellisaway.wordpress.com

Helen x

Will we, won't we .....

We are just rounding the south tip of Wiencke Island, probably now within half an hour of Port Lockroy, glorious sunny evening, plenty of fresh new snow around. We were informed this morning that they were going to try and land us and our 9 tonnes of cargo tonight! So we had to bring our on-board shop forward to lunchtime today - it was mayhem! and a good taste of the weeks to come. Took an amazing amount of money in 3 hours - wish it was my shop. Surprised how tiring it was, we were all quite exhausted afterwards.

Have had a couple of landings over the past days - visited a Brazilian base, it was cozy despite being under snow. They had dug a path down to the front door which appeared underground, but of course wasn't normally. Was very jealous of their central heating!

Just been out to see a passing pod of orcase, and now I must go and put my last few things in bags and get my thermals on! If we don't make land then I will be able to write again soon .... if we do land it may be some time!

A glorious day in South Georgia! We moor up overnight just off Grytviken, in the bay, so have a beautifully calm night and a good sleep. Up for a run at 6.30, breakfast and then off on the first boat at 9am. Meet Sarah Lurcock, the Postmistress here, good to make contact with her and again pick up some tips, though she is pretty busy with our shipload of tourists. Visit Shackleton’s grave, and the museum which has many old whaling artefacts, and some wonderful photographs of Shackleton’s expeditions. We really couldn’t have asked for a better day, it’s so beautiful and I talk to the museum curator about staffing for the next season! It’s just a thought – might as well keep my options open! In the evening we have a silent movie of Frank Hurley’s cine film of the Imperial Transantarctic Expedtion. It’s astonishing footage, all the more so because of what it survived. The black and white photo above shows the 22 men left on Elephant Island waving off the James Caird as Shackleton leaves to try and reach South Georgia after the loss of the Endurance.

First ice bergs! Then we see plenty more in the next few days. Rick says he doesn’t remember seeing such big ones here this time last year. They will have come out of the Weddell sea a couple of years ago.

Penguins galore

Another couple of days fly by at sea – a mix of runs, visits to the gym and sauna, lectures, bits of work, punctuated all too regularly by enormous meals of wonderful food.
Arrive South Georgia – two landings the first day, at Fortuna Bay, followed by a visit to the derelict whaling station of Stromness. King penguin colonies at both places, the weather is pretty dire at Fortuna Bay. Sit in the horizontal sleet waiting for penguins to walk past me, some come up really close to have a look. The chicks are so funny, standing around hunched against the wind in their enormous fur coats. Plenty of Antarctic skuas around too, hunting around for scraps. Getting pretty cold now, but don’t want to walk back facing into the wind and snow! Many people leave before their allotted 90 minutes ashore.

Postmistress Lessons

A great day in Stanley, changeable weather, at times bitter and then glorious sun in the afternoon. Spend a couple of hours in the post office, picking up £68,000 worth of stamps – makes for a pretty heavy suitcase! I go back to Sally’s house (she was the Postmistress at Lockroy last year) for lunch and a chat about running the PO. She has some good advice about how to keep people moving quickly through the shop and prevent postcard frenzies! Then meet the others again for a fun game of badminton! Not what the average tourist does in Stanley I suppose! The others have all been here before, but when I point out that it is my first time and I really ought to be seeing the sights, Rick and Tudor take me on a guided tour for an hour or so til we end up in the pub, which is a Falkland Islands experience not to be missed!

rugby on the beach

Had two superb landings in the Falklands - Westpoint Island and New Island. Had the good luck (or skill) to position myself next to our resident bird expert on landing - within the first minute we had spotted turkey vultures, kelp geese, upland geese, flightless steamer ducks, striated caracara, blackish oystercatchers (yes they really are called that), long-tailed meadow larks (aka Falkland robins - bright orange breast) and a pair of peregrines. Wonderful! Strolled over the island to black-browed albatross and rockhopper colony. Amazingly close, and unperturbed by our presence.

Some of our party members made a run for the first boat back to catch the rugby final - I hung back and by happy discovery found a man with a radio! so half a dozen of us stood on a beach listening to the last 20 minutes. Not that it cheered us any. Quite a bizarre place to be listening to the world cup final though!

It's swell on board

Third morning on the Nordnorge – getting up to grey skies and drizzle. Up on deck a little later than usual feeling pretty groggy from a rough night and drugged by the Stugeron! Poor Rachel wasn’t very well, the swell got up a bit just before we went to bed, but she has resorted to her first ‘anti-nausea patch’ and is coping fine now. Too wet and slippy for our morning run, so brisk power walking round the deck followed by sun salutations, which have worked as the sun is now out! Our numbers are swelling – there were 6 of us taking the sea air today! Usual splendid breakfast and then an IAATO briefing to prepare us for Antarctic landings, followed by our own briefings on Health & Safety, and the daily routine at Lockroy from Tudor and Rick. Very sleepy afterwards! Rachel had a snooze while I went for lunch.

off out now to look for albatrosses! there were a few giant petrels following us earlier.

We arrive at the Falklands tomorrow, landing at some small islands with albatross colonies, and then on to Stanley on Sunday. We have been trying to figure out how to get to Stanley by tomorrow afternoon to watch the rugby final! but I don’t think it is going to be possible, and there is no TV reception on board ship. Oh, well, as mum always says, they will probably do better if we are not watching!

boxes, boxes everywhere!

We have got onto a routine of a 20-minute run round deck 5 followed by some yoga before breakfast. It’s great to have Rachel as a running partner, there is also a Norwegian lady who we have teamed up with, and tomorrow we will get the boys out too! We will have to see how long we can keep going for, until the seas get too rough for it to be safe I suppose. The days are flying by, I went to a lecture about the sub-antarctic islands, and tonight they screened a couple of episodes of David Attenborough’s Life in the Freezer. But we are still all a bit tired from missing a night’s sleep on the plane, and look forward to lying down at night.
We went to investigate all our boxes of cargo today, and weeded out the ones we will need for the on board shop that we will do after South Georgia. Was pleased to see that my box of personal stuff was there – I had wondered whether it might still be in Rick’s spare room, but didn’t like to ask!
More bird-watching this afternoon, plus reading the manual for the new camera I bought in duty free, and the draft Operations Manual for Lockroy. Then cocktails and dinner. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it!

coz I'm a wanderer...

Rachel is writing a blog! She has already posted messages and images, and will probably be more dedicated about keeping it up than I will be. The address is
www.rachelhazellisaway.wordpress.com so it might be more worthwhile checking there to see how things are going with us. We will also be sending updates every now and again to the UK AHT website www.ukaht.org

The talk today with the crew has been about the extent of the ice cover. Apparently Bransfield strait is full of ice (with one tabular iceberg the size of Elephant Island), there is 9/10ths ice cover all around Lockroy and it isn’t looking likely that we will be able to land at all. Rachel asked our First Officer what the Nordnorge could cope with and the answer was 1 or 2 tenths ice, he said the ship was fragile ‘like an eggshell’, which wasn’t immensely reassuring! So we may well have another week up to Ushaia and then have to come back down. We will have to see what happens when we get nearer. Last year it was completely clear at this time.

We have had superb weather, hot and sunny and very calm. This morning I saw my first albatrosses, following the ship. Wandering – they are HUGE – and black-browed. Also the little cape petrels are everywhere. It is so warm that I really can’t imagine that we are heading towards ice! although we have a way to go yet.

We're Off!

Safely arrived on the Nordnorge! basking on deck in tropical heat, fighting off the mosquitos. The one thing I didn’t bring for an Antarctic voyage was insect repellent! or shorts – I have had to borrow some from Rick who has brought two pairs (!).

We had a smooth and well-prepared journey, once I had found my passport, collected my North Face boots (on the morning of departure!) and got off the wrong train and onto the correct one! The only stumbling block was our 31 kg of excess baggage! the bill was over £600, but Rick did some smooth talking and got it down to £100 in the end, which was a bit of a relief.

We settled in to our cozy cabins, I am sharing with Rachel, and Rick with Tudor, then had a superb buffet dinner and watched from the deck in the dark as we set sail out of Buenos Aires and off down river guided by several pilots.

About this blog

This blog is administered by James. Helen is now (Oct 15) on her way to Port Lockroy and should be there there around the start of November, staying for about 4 months. Hopefully she will have some email access (or else this blog is pretty useless!) but it may be rather limited. They have an Iridium phone and a generator...

(Update 2 Nov: she has landed and the email seems to be working.)

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