Piped aboard on the 25th

As everyone knows, 25th January is when all Scots celebrate their only famous poet. It was looking unlikely that we would get a Burn's night invitation, and I had been hiding the fact that I had found some frozen tins of haggis (best before: Long Expired!)in the boat shed. It was yet another wet and windy day, we've had tremendous rain, some penguin chicks are dead in their nests and the rest are shivering sadly. After the last ship visit on the day in question Rick and I took the opportunity to nip aboard for a shower, intending to come straight back, but of course ended up in the bar, sharing champagne with a honeymoon couple and chatting to the staff. After dinner we had a lift back to base, where Rachel was just about to go out to a French yacht for a late continental dinner, so off we went again. There were 7 yachts moored behind the island, an extraordinary sight, all come in for a bit of shelter. A strange squealing sound was heard just as we were getting to the fruit
and cheese - which alarmed the yacht owners somewhat ... someone glanced out of a window. A piper on deck! The British Army aboard yacht Discoverer have been on expedition down here for a couple of months, they have paid us many visits, and helped to dig a drainage ditch around the back of the hut to aid penguin poop clearance. Two of the party are Scots and had brought not only a set of pipes, but also kilts. The piper then climbed into a zodiac and was driven on a circuit of the bay, piping as he went, kilt flying in the breeze! A wonderful moment. An invitation was issued to all yachts to come aboard, so off we went. Wondering how many people the yacht could hold! we all crowded on deck and sampled many varieties of whisky. Oh dear. We had another early start the next morning and a 350 passenger ship in at 7am .... the less said about my less-than sparkling form the better. Still it was another night to remember - we seem to be having a few of these.
The schedule is hectic for the next couple of weeks, two or three ships most days. I seem to think I might have said that before sometime! This has been our busiest month without doubt, February looks a little quieter. But we really need some good weather, as well as free time, if we are going to make any progress with the painting - my favourite job! Fingers crossed for some sun.

Chilli chocolate, jumbo oats

The postman came yesterday! Two more bags of mail from Stanley, and it was like Christmas all over again. We had an afternoon off, a wild and windy day, cosied ourselves up in the bunk room and lit the fire. I had two little packages, chocolate! extra-special chilli chocolate from Rachel (even more special because my roomies don't like chilli so I get to eat it all myself!). And a big heavy squashy parcel from Phil containing ..... jumbo oats!. Ever practical. I had been bemoaning the fact that we had very few here - they do make the best home-made muesli - and he took it upon himself to do something about it. Fantastic, down to the last packet but this should see me through. Only 6 weeks and 5 days to go til we leave, not that we are counting but Rachel and I did work it out the other day .... just curious you understand ..
The days continue much the same, with the odd spectacular highlight here and there. We had an emperor penguin visit, over on Jougla Point across the water. Of course we can't get there being boatless, but the ship that was visiting at the time gave us a zodiac trip over to view it. Beautiful big bird, amazingly huge, made the gentoos all look like babies. And even better, there were a few spare kayaks that evening, and Rachel and I borrowed a double and went out for a circuit of Goudier Is. What a treat, I had been so jealous of kayakers we had seen in the area. It was magic seeing the ice cliffs and bergs from sea level, and having penguins popping up next to us to take a look.
And having said the days are much the same, that's not quite true - they are different also! It seems that almost every day one of us has a connection to a passenger, or a visitor has some link to the early inhabitants of the base. A couple of days ago Rachel sold a stamp to a friendly couple, and they put it on a card with an Ayr address - when I had a look I was sure the address rang a bell - White Gables? It dawned on me that Judith, one of my best friends at school had lived there! They were astonished when I told them I had been in their house! admittedly not for near on thirty years - they said it had changed a bit. And took a photo of me to show Judith who they still knew. How funny, they went around the museum telling everybody of this odd coincidence.
Well, it's a wild and windy day today, the baby penguins are in a right bedraggled state and I'll be surprised if we don't have casualties poor things. But from what I have heard the weather has been grim back home, and I imagine we are still in a better position to have long sunny days than the UK. No more painting for a while, but we haven't really got time now anyway, big ships in everyday for the next week or so.

Another sunny day

Not up on the roof this time, but out painting window frames. Just thought I'd try experimenting with sending a very small image, wonder if it will work.
First ship in at 6.30 am this morning. We have been forced into changing our time zone in our habits but not our watches, and so went to bed at 9.30 pm. Argentina has for some bizarre reason gone forward an hour right in the middle of summer. We are staying on GMT -3 and so are some of the ships, but not all. Sadly it seems that the early morning visits are all from the ships that have gone to GMT -2. Still it was interesting getting through our first hundred passengers before breakfast time. And then still having 250 to go! it was a big ship - out biggest landing yet.
Absolutely gorgeous day though, not a cloud in the sky, hence the window painting this afternoon. Now we are waiting for our evening visit, due to arrive at 6 pm. They have just radioed to ask if we want the sauna turning on! some of the staff on board the ships are becoming really good friends and look after us so well. We are also invited for dinner and then the passengers will land afterwards. It's going to be a(nother) long day.
The baby penguins are growing so fast! the 'feed-me' squeaks are becoming squawks, and our first hatched are beginning to step out of the nests and experiment with pottering. They are so comically wobbly - huge bellies and ungainly flat feet. The skuas are around more and more, and occasionally we see the Lockroy flying penguins, as a poor little chick is whisked away into the air. There are even some eggs not hatched yet - we think they must be duds.
Time for tea on the verandah, and then better pack my clean clothes for socialising!

Up on the roof

Seems a bit late to be saying 'Happy New Year'! But there it is anyway. We had a really good Hogmanay, invited over to a yacht, Xplore, for a wonderful dinner, fresh avocados, roast beef, sponge with custard (more than made up for the cheese sandwich on Christmas Day!) and then they came back with us at midnight for the bells and following party in our wee hut. A great evening, dancing til dawn - well, it's hard to tell when dawn is even though the nights are drawing in now. I seem to recall being surprised when I went into our bunkroom in the early hours and found my room-mates asleep already.
Needless to say, we were all a bit delicate the next day - I have to admit to being the most delicate though! and struggled with conversation during the ship visits on the 1st. Took all my concentration to add up. Was pleased to see that our party-sharing yacht didn't move at all during the day either.
And so followed a busy busy week to begin the year. Three ships a day for a few consecutive, plus a number of yachts nipping in between big visits, the weather still continuing wild and wet. And yesterday we had a maintenance day, no ships! and the sun came out. Was a wonderful morning, I was up on the roof with a tin of bitumen paint and a sheathbill shit-scraper, and finished off the last sections over the old generator shed. Sloping and corrugated - not good for the knees. Had a break at noon for an outing of the Lockroy Harriers - I had noticed from my vantage point that the tide was good and low, lots of dry rock exposed, a chance for some exercise. Am concerned by the state I will be in when I get home - so unfit - it will take some time to regain any leg strength and lung capacity. Anyway off we went for a couple of laps - I returned for some stretching and when I next looked over there were Rick and Rachel with towels going in for a dip. I was too far away to see the
ir expressions - later found out that Rick asked Rachel to record the fact that he swam for several strokes while smiling. Followed this with lunch on the verandah, during which the wind really picked up and we all got very chilly and retired indoors. I had to go back up to finish the roof, and managed to get more trails of bitumen on me than anywhere else. Followed this with an hour trying to find grey caps in the boat shed - Rick helped move boxes, but it was still a struggle and we had to open many! I had then to scrub my arms and face with paraffin to become respectable enough to go out for dinner on Discoverer, a British Army yacht which has been with us for a couple of days while the lads scaled peaks nearby. A very pleasant evening. We have done extremely well for meals recently - in fact a late long four course lunch on one luxurious ship a couple of days ago was followed three hours later by an invitation to dinner! No wonder I need to worry about getting unhealthy.
I didn't believe Tessa when she said she put on weight in Antarctica, however we have been so overwhelmed by generosity from the ships that we have begun to give away food parcels to yachties more needy than ourselves.
Time for coffee and cake - oh dear more stodge - and then siesta til the next ship.