Things you learn…

May 30, 2011   


Yesterday (Sunday) Ali made coissants he actually delivered one to me in bed! It had been a late night on Saturday so I stayed in bed till 10am! Crazy for me.


Last night I did a talk about California and what my life is like before we watched our Sunday night movie. It is an attempt we are making on base so that people know a little bit more of everyones lives off base. I showed this picture of me going around the Farlonne Islands off SF. I read quite a number of years ago the book Devils Teeth which is about the islands however, I went back to google to remind myself. I was surprised with some of the similarities of SG to the Farlonnes. Granted we have glaciers here and the island is a lot bigger however, both islands have elephant seals, fur seals, many species of seabirds, are jagged rocky peaks with no trees and the only inhabitants are researchers. Also the Farlonnes had seal hunters which I didn’t know from New England and Russia – 1500 seals were taken annually. If it wasn’t for Roosevelt protecting the islands the rate at which they were taking the seabird eggs 500,000 per month there wouldn’t be a seabird population left.


Today here we had fog at a low level most of the day however, I did go to the hut to finish off the turnbuckle and also to do an indent of what is in the hut. While I was there the wind brought more damp fog in so that I could not see more than 50 meters ahead put high above where there were breaks you could see bright blue sky!

Hope you had a great Memorial Day or bank holiday in the UK

 

4 Responses to “Things you learn…”

  1. “Things you learn”…….looks like you learnt that Ali knows how to make croissants……Thanks Ali’s Mum!

    How’s the weather as last time I looked most of your snow had gone…..however a sprinkling now maybe! I admit I thought you would have a lot more by now!

  2. Even Rothera is having a mild winter they only have an inch of snow. Everyone on base was hoping for more here especially as most people have brand new skis! Today it sprinkled a bit. Ali is trying to perfect his croissants and is trying different recipes. I have only had the one batch as the other he did when I was on holiday. Rob is also in the croissant business as we have now got more butter in. Tasty but not great for the waistline!

  3. Hey! that’s you on my boat last year (or the year before). We just did the race to the Farallones last weekend. (Happy to report we took 3d in our division — only one place worse than last time you did the race with us.) Saw two whales, and best of all, no rat tail fish.
    Looks like the big adventure down south continues. stay warm.

  4. Sounds like you don’t need me on the boat anymore! Well done on the 3rd. The picture was taken the year we did it with Gus, Myles and his girlfriend. Glad to hear you saw some whales that is two more than I have seen down here!