{"id":2578,"date":"2011-01-03T08:04:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T16:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/?p=2578"},"modified":"2011-01-04T05:21:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T13:21:11","slug":"pat-lurcock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/pat-lurcock\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Lurcock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pat has lived and worked in South Georgia at Grytviken for 18 years with his wife Sarah. They live in Carse House the new schedule is 8 months on station 4 months away. When they first moved here they lived with the military in the barracks and ate in the mess. As the government officer Pat greets all the visitors to South Georgia – private and charter yachts, cruise ships and fishing vessels. His duties include those of Harbour Master, Customs and Immigration Officer, Fisheries Officer and Tourism manager. He is guaranteed to always have a smile on his face and is a great person to have around. If you have a question about South Georgia he can answer it or will know someone with the answer. <\/p>\n

His christmas poem that he read on christmas eve is below!<\/p>\n

T\u2019was the night before Christmas in Everson House
\nNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
\nand certainly not an earwig or rat:
\nbiosecurity makes sure of that.
\nThe stockings weren\u2019t hung by the mantel with care,
\nthey were still in a heap in the laundry, where
\ntheir owner was grinning in anticipation
\nnot of plum pudding, but washing machine vibration.<\/p>\n

From the bar came the sounds of glasses a-clinking
\nand laughter and chatter while all were a-drinking.
\nWhen out from the kitchen came the clatter of plates
\nand \u2018Time Gentlemen Please\u2019 from the person on lates.
\nTimely prevention of next day\u2019s sore heads
\nas everyone left and went off to their beds.
\nExcept one, who decided to stay at her post
\nfortified maybe by whisky and toast
\nso she cut a bread slice and in the toaster popped it
\nwent off for a refill and promptly forgot it.
\nLuckily nobody came to much harm
\nfor the dining room has an efficient alarm.
\nWhile we stood by the comms tower, cursing black bread,
\nA mysterious aircraft passed low overhead
\nwith jingling bells and antlers and hooves
\nthat splattered and clattered on the Grytviken roofs
\nT\u2019was the morning of Christmas on Wanderer III
\nAnd the deck was as wet as it was in the sea
\nfor incontinent reindeer had stood there all night
\nwhen the chimney flue exit had got rather tight
\nfor Saint Nicholas making his evening delivery
\nwho had sat by the woodstove, all wet, cold and shivery
\nHe had slipped down the chimney after not many tries
\nbut, oh dear, found a tray of Ashley\u2019s mince pies
\nwhich he polished off quickly, washed down with spiced rum
\nwhich expanded his already rather large tum.
\nSo his only exit was by the front door,
\ndelayed by the captain – \u201cGo on, just one more!\u201d <\/p>\n

On the day after Christmas, the Museum shop
\nneeds a jolly good sweep, and the loos need a mop.
\nThe shopkeeper\u2019s busy re-stocking the shelves
\nfor the next round of cruise ships, with no help from the elves,
\nwho, next door in the villa, are baking more biscuits
\n(the tin\u2019s looking empty so better not risk it)
\nand drinking some tea, and then a few beers.<\/p>\n

What a good idea.
\nMerry Christmas
\nCheers<\/p>\n

Some translations
\nEverson House – Our accomodation building
\nEarwig – biggest biosecurity concern should they come in from the Falklands
\nWashing machine vibration – when someone puts their laundry on the whole building shakes like we are having an earthquake!
\nLates – evening shift you do once a week from 7pm to 1am basically making sure the base is all secure for the night and people are capable of looking after themselves or are back from Grytviken
\nWanderer III – the ‘resident’ yacht – Thies and Kikki have been here for two winters and three summers so far based over at Grytviken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pat has lived and worked in South Georgia at Grytviken for 18 years with his wife Sarah. They live in Carse House the new schedule is 8 months on station 4 months away. When they first moved here they lived with the military in the barracks and ate in the mess. As the government officer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-georgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2578"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2581,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions\/2581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingyachtmanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}