After a great bonfire night on friday I had a saturday of exploring. After my normal 10km bike ride in the morning Sam (the docter) and myself walked over to Myviken to the beach. From there after a quick look in an old sealers cave we headed uphill and into the ‘lake country’. There are terraces after terraces of small lakes on the hill sides here some are still covered with snow and ice. The round trip was 14km with quite a bit of up and down! The clouds have been low and the sun has been replaced with gray cloudy days with the odd snow flurry.

After I got back to base Tommy (the electrican) had spent the morning drawing three penguins for me as a present which was a great surprise. He is a good artist. He was heading out for a hike so I went with him for a lap of Gull Lake which is where our hydroelectric dam is so another 5km or so! We got back in time for a BBQ on a visiting ship that went late into the night.

This morning (Sunday) I was on earlies – which means getting up at 5:30am. You do rounds of base checking in all the rooms for leaks, fire etc. including all the electrical panels, alarm panels etc. Also the bread is made in time for 7:30-8:00am breakfast. As it was sunday we didn’t have to cook anything else as it is a day of rest for everyone however, I could resist. So I made chelsea buns for breakfast, minestrone soup for lunch/dinner and a upside down pineapple gingerbread cake with custard.

Tommy and I went off for a walk to the end of Gull lake and along the ridge of Brown Mountain. We talked to some people who sailed in on Pelagic that are attempting to circumnavigate South Georgia by kayak unsupported. The resident yacht Wanderer III came back from a trip somewhere else on the island on friday so we have two yachts in at the moment. The Dr from last winter left on a ship today on her way to Halley for the summer as they have two drs on base during construction. This was quite sad for the old winterers as their group is now being broken apart.

After a dinner of bangers and mash which I made for a few of us and a big bowl of cake and custard we watched Letters from Iowa Jima. Sunday night is film night at KEP and the movie is chosen by the person on earlies. So that is my busy walking/cooking weekend! Hope you had a good one.

Today is Guy Fawkes so we are celebrating on station with a beach bonfire as we have lots of old wood to burn from last years relief. I am introducing everyone on station to an american classic – smores. Seeing as I don’t have graham crackers I had to make homemade ones and unfortunately I didn’t have corn syrup to make homemade marshmallows so we are using our precious bag of some that have been saved for the occasion.

This morning we took the jet boat around the boating area of east and west cumberland bay up to all the glaciers and looked at all the landing sites. The clouds are low and it has become a bit gray. This morning on my morning bike ride it tried to snow a bit.

Smores – homemade graham crackers

Last Saturday night appetiser…

This week we have had a large cruise ship in, the JCR came in on relief and we had some building experts come in on another ship. Meanwhile I have started my exercise program of 10km bike rides in the morning, gym at lunch and hiking in the evening. It has been a week today that we arrived on base and everyone is settling in well. On Saturday and Sunday last weekend I went for a hike up Mt Hodges and Mt Duse. This weekend I am planning on going over to Mytviken to see the penguin colonies with a shorter hike on sunday as I am on earliers (more about that at some point).

Saturday meal was amazing cooked by Ali (base commander) and Paula (boating officer) with a starter of poached pears in a phylo basket with blue cheese. Main was toothfish skewers and veg and dessert of white chocolate mousse.

Will try to get some pictures up at some point. Have a great weekend.

This is a picture taken of base from Mt Duse on Sunday.

From left to right the buildings are as follows….

Larsen house – self catering accomodation (this year used for museum staff, rat eradication program, external science staff, building staff)

Sat B dome – put in by american project sending siesmic information to their program

Container next to the blue one (so red one) is the sauna

Building next to containers (short one) is the old jail which will be refitted for storage

Long building (from left to right) Shack villa (government officer accomodation self catering), accomodation for base staff, bar, dining room, kitchen, temperature control facility (aquarium), labs for scientists, offices, post office, conference room, communications room

Sat C dome on tower

First detached building after long building – Carse house – government officers accomodation self catering

L shape building – Discovery house – old labs – not in use and in need of renovation

Small red and white building between L shaped and green – food stores

Green building – boat shed, garage, garbage facilities, gym, carpenter shop, generators

Green building in foreground – fuel storage

Small square white building between two green – biosecurity building

Wharf with two jet boats tied up

Yet another beautiful blue sky day today and it was a busy day on station. The James Clark Ross arrived this morning so we unloaded all the food and supplies for the next year. We loaded on all our garbage neatly divided into cardboard, plastic, tins, glass and landfill and also the outgoing winters personal posessions. I still got my 10km morning bike ride in around to Grytviken passed a french yacht which pulled in yesterday and left today. After a very brief visit the JCR took off for the Falklands to start a science cruise which will see them finishing up doing relief at Rothera in a few weeks time. So the food stores are now full to bursting and we the new winters have all our kitbags of gear and personal items – lets see if we can fit them in our rooms!

Ship alongside the morning after we arrived.

Got to station after 6.5 days of travelling. Weather is absolutely stunning so instead of writing my blog I am off up a hill for a bit of scrambling so will write more later! Already did a night ops last night on the jet boats.

Station in evening light yesterday

Six and half days after leaving the UK I arrived on station on Thursday 28th October. We were basically travelling the whole time. Due to runway resurfacing at Mount Pleasant Airport in Stanley (Falklands) the planes can only land once a week so as not to disrupt works. The plane left at 6am on Friday morning from RAF Brize Norton which meant a 2am wake up call as we had to be at the terminal for a 3am check in.

Mum and Dad took me to Brize on Thursday evening and we had a great pub dinner in Burford. I was put up at the Gateway Hotel which is on station where I managed to get 4 hours sleep before it was announced on a hotel wide PA system ‘those going to Falklands on the 6am flight this is your wake up call’. I felt sorry for the people not going getting woken up! As they were weighing our check in luggage as part of the 54kg baggage allowance I had to transfer my skis to one of the BAS HR ladies who was flying down on the same flight to get all my possessions on the flight without a large fee of 18.42 pounds per excess kg! Mum and Dad turned up at 3:30 am to say good bye along with Katy and Sam’s parents. The flight was run by Air Seychelles the poor flight attendants have a horrible 6 week schedule where they flight one 9 hour flight per week. They fly from London to Brize the first week spending at week in the Ascension Islands where we stop to refuel then the next week they fly to Falklands spending a week there then the next week back to the Ascensions, then back to the Falklands for another week until their 6 weeks is up. Our landing was rough in Stanley as there was quite a brisk crosswind. It had been stormy weather for the last week with up to 60 knots for a few days.

27 hours after waking up for the flight at Brize we were stumbling to our bunks on the ship which was to take us to South Georgia after a brief safety discussion. The Ship is an ex weather buoy service station that worked in the western isles of Scotland, so she was built with only 4m draught and therefore rolls quite a bit even in a very moderate seaway. The job of the Ship is as a fisheries patrol vessel for the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands Government (more on that later). We had the luxury of our own en suite cabins which is the last vestige of privacy for a while as station is going to be very full this summer with so many projects occurring. Unlike Rothera there are no air strips in South Georgia so people can only come and go once a month on the Ship. The other methods of getting to the islands not use by BAS are cruise ships, private sailing vessels and British military patrol vessels. Also a few times a year the BAS ships the Shackleton and James Clark Ross call in to provide relief for the station – taking away rubbish and bringing in food and supplies.

Only 8 hours after arriving we were due to be at the Governor’s mansion to meet the Governor of the Falklands. He is also the Commissioner for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands – apparently someone can only be a governor if they live in the territory. Rob our base commander was sworn in as the magistrate for South Georgia apparently the legislation that is being put in place in the next few years will increase the magistrate’s power. After his swearing in we were given a talk by the various members of the government regarding our role in South Georgia and a little more about the projects that are meant to occur over the summer season. Afterwards I went with Ruth and Kieron (government officer based on South Georgia – more on this later) to the Chandlery (the biggest supermarket in the Falklands) and opened up an account. Unlike Rothera because we have a monthly ship visiting base we can order food from the Falklands. The rest of the group headed off to the museum however, seeing as I have already visited it once this year I relaxed at Shorty’s before taking the launch back to the ship as she was anchored in the bay. Saturday evening we had a buffet dinner with the government officers at the hotel Malvena our last meal at a restaurant for 14 months for some and 2.5 years for others!

Sunday morning we pulled anchor and set out through the narrows for South Georgia after the obligatory ships drills and safety briefs. We all got to experience the famous rolling of the ship for five days at sea to our new home. When at sea there is not much to do aboard besides sleep, eat, read books and watch movies. A little bit of bird watching on the aft deck which gets Alastair (one of our beakers) very excited.

My last night at home in England my parents, little brother and I went to a tapas restaurant in Richmond followed by the theatre. Mum got a box for the fun of it right over the right side of the stage. The production was Carries War it was very well done indeed. So with my new skis, lots of mountaineering gear, sweets, DVDs etc I am off to Brize Norton with my parents. Stay tuned for the adventures in south Georgia I won’t get to station until the 28th as we take a 4 day ‘cruise’ from the falklands on the fisheries patrol vessel.

Today Matt and I spent the day at Hamilton Jet Drive learning how to maintain the jet drives on the boats down at KEP. We fully dismantled and put back together the jet drive unit – they are pretty simple in concept and not hard to take apart in the workshop. It will I am sure be a total different kettle of fish down there! Unfortunately our course on handling jet boats was cancelled so it will be on the job training on base. I am sure there will be a lot of hilarious moments while I learn especially as going in reverse requires you to steer in the opposite direction of what is second nature to people used to running prop boats.

A few answers to the many questions I get asked..

Do I have time off and can I come home? No I can’t leave South Georgia (until december 2011) but yes I do get time off which means I can go camping, skiing, hiking in the travel area around base.

Can you come and visit? Yes if you pay to come down on a cruise ship but you will likely only be in Grytviken for a day at the most.

How long does it take to get down there? I leave next friday 22nd at 0600 on the RAF flight to Falklands via the Ascensions getting in late that same night. We have a day or so in the Falklands where we meet the South Georgia Governer and then take a ship to base which will take around 4 days.

Are there other bases nearby? There is another BAS base in South Georgia on Bird Island however, we might if we are lucky see the base from the ship on the way down and maybe on the way back out in December 2011.

How cold does it get? We are at the same latitude south as scotland being at 54S however, we are within the polar front so the island is glaciated and there are icebergs and sea ice. When Myles and I sailed Round Britain and Ireland we went to almost 61N. The average temperature is 1.7C or 35F it will feel colder due to wind chill and the damp. In June, July and August is will be around -5C and in February (the height of summer) it should warm up to 9C. The average rainfall is around 54 inches per year which is double the amount of rain that falls in London and San Francisco per year. So basically high humidity, low amounts of sunlight, lots of rain and a little bit chilly!

South Georgia Climate graph contributed by climatetemp.info