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.