I’ve been meaning to tell you a little bit about everyday life at Lockroy and what we do here when we’re not being pampered by ships, receiving post and generally having a party-tastic time .  However, I’m afraid that may need to wait until tomorrow because first of all I have to tell you about our best day so far at Lockroy – in my opinion anyway!

We started bright and early after a very good night’s sleep, as we had a two-ship day with Molchanov due in about 8.30am and Andrea in the afternoon. We were all fired up and ready to go after a quiet day yesterday and the sun was splitting the sky for the first time in weeks!  Molchanov is a small expedition ship with approximately 50 passengers.  Rather than have the usual on board pre-landing briefing by Rick and one of us girls, Delphine, the very nice French Expedition Leader, had already shown the Port Lockroy DVD, which explains the history of the base and what the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust does here now.  After a brief zodiac cruise, the team landed the passengers on the island for the beginning of a very special visit.  Guests had a look around the museum, asking Laura questions about the artefacts and how we live here now, while Nikki and I were busy working away in our very busy Gift Shop and Post Office, helping people with clothing sizes, recommendations of gifts for people back home and purchasing stamps for their postcards.  With it being such a lovely day, Rick suggested we took it in turns to take a wander outside and enjoy the sunshine. When it was my turn I was chatting to a German girl for a while about life here and how I came to be here, when I noticed three or four people with cameras trained on some penguins down by the boatshed. It’s not at all unusual to see clusters of people taking photos around here (!), but they were in a bit of a random location so we wandered over to investigate…  sure enough my suspicions were correct and they had spotted the first chicks of the season – WOO HOO!  One chick had already fully hatched and the other was still standing inside it’s eggshell!  Typically, I didn’t have my camera handy but you can rest assured it didn’t take long to fetch it!  A group of people started to gather as news spread.  I then decided to take a quiet wander and check out some other nests, which I suspected might not be far behind and sure enough – more babies!!!  They’re just so cute.  They’re about 10 cms long ,with grey and white downy feathers, a pale orange beak, tiny flippers and feet which are far too big for them!!  Soon after the passengers were leaving, so we watched them make a sorrowful retreat as they jumped on board the zodiacs by the whaler’s chains landing, to re-join their ship for the rest of their expedition. We had just enough time to cash up, sort out the outbound mail and have a very quick cuppa in the sunshine before Andrea’s Expedition Leader was on the radio. It was already 1pm and we hadn’t even thought about lunch – eek!  Rick and Nikki donned their Goretex gear to join the ship for a briefing, while Laura and I had a quick tidy around.  On their return they explained that they’d been on a little zodiac cruise, had seen a Minke whale out in the channel as well as a Leopard seal on an ice floe and also had a little Christmas gift for us all which had been sent by the folk at Palmer Station (the Andrea had stopped by the day before).  Wendy, the previously-mentioned lovely chef, had sent us more bread made from glacial water, decorated Christmas cookies and chocolate truffles. We were over the moon, it was soo nice of them .

There was the usual frenzy of postcards, stamp and souvenir purchases during their visit, but we did get to catch some more rays as it’s also a fairly small ship and lots of the passengers were making quick purchases and just making the most of the sunshine outdoors. We were then offered a zodiac cruise around into the Peltier Channel by one of the expedition team and got to cruise around the back of Jougla Point and discovered a small group of Chinstrap penguins. We had an ornithologist with us from the ship and he wondered whether there  may be the beginning of a small colony further up the slope as we could see footsteps leading up there in the snow and it was the typical ‘chinstrappy’ high, rocky location. We’ll have to keep a beady eye on it!  The Andrea left at about 4.30 and we took advantage of the sunshine, walking about, taking pics and just taking everything in, sitting on the rocks watching, overlooking the bay and the gentoo colony.  Needless to say we took a squillion photos while we were at it!  At the last count we had about 620 nests and so far we have seen 4 nests with chicks.  Two have two chicks that we can see, and the others each have one.  In the next few days we expect many more chicks to arrive. I just can’t believe that this day has come around so quickly.

Tomorrow is mid-summer’s day and we’re crossing our fingers for another sunny one. We have no ships due in tomorrow so once we’ve caught up on all of our jobs we’re planning a mid-summers day swim (!), mulled wine and will maybe even round off the evening with a Christmas DVD!

I have a lot to tell you today but I’m a bit hesitant as I think I might be starting to sound a little bit smug… sorry!  If it helps to soften the blow,  remember that sometimes we go for days on end without showers and we have very smelly penguin neighbours!!!

Anyway, so yesterday morning after a few very busy days, we had a small gap in our schedule so we awarded ourselves with a very small lie-in followed by scrambled eggs on bread (see: no toaster!), then we cracked on with a few jobs around the base before the National Geographic Explorer sailed into the bay.  We had a lovely lunch on board and a brisk visit by their guests in the afternoon.  During the visit we were also offered the opportunity to visit Jougla Point for the very first time.  To explain, Jougla is a landing site which is almost within spitting distance of Goudier Island and is home to nesting Blue Eyed Shags (with chicks) and lots more Gentoo penguins, but sadly it’s too cold to swim, we don’t have a boat (!), and when the guests are here we’re needed in the gift shop and museum!  Having heard our plight, Matt, the very kind NG Explorer Expedition Leader, offered to take us over one at a time during the course of their visit – what a star!  It was blowing a gale with heavy snow and each of us got absolutely soaked, but there was a little treat in store when we arrived.  I wasn’t planning to even take out my camera as it was so wet, but as I followed the path through the deep snow to some of the old whale bones, one of the expedition team pointed out a special visitor: a juvenile elephant seal.  It was sooo sweet.  I have to confess at this point that I still have a lot to learn. Personally, I could have sworn it was a Weddell seal pup, given the colouring and the markings, but I stand corrected !  It wasn’t exactly what you would call tiny, but it was much skinnier than seals I’ve seen before and it had such a cute little face. We managed to get a few snaps as it played on it’s back in the snow, before it flipped onto it’s tummy, made snuffly noises and started coming to investigate us.  At that point we moved back to respect the usual 5m rule.  So between our lovely lunch on board the Explorer, our little wildlife visit to Jougla and having all of our clothes washed and dried during the course of the NG Explorer visit, we were an exceptionally happy team!!

The day just kept getting better and better with a visit from the Aleksey Maryshev scheduled for the evening.  All of the expedition ships have had a tough time recently with weather making landings difficult, however the Maryshev has battled her way down from the Falklands and South Georgia with three bags of inbound mail on board for us!  The team and guests arrived at about 8.30pm and we had a great visit with the tilly lamps lit in the shop, Christmas tunes playing and the passengers were on great form and really pleased to make a visit to Port Lockroy. The group was a special South African charter with bird watchers on board, so they were loving the resident gentoos, snowy sheathbills and skuas  and couldn’t get enough of our penguin stamps!  We knew there was more post office stock coming from Stanley so we didn’t want to get ‘too’ over-excited by the quantity of mail bags, but when we investigated we all had lots of Christmas parcels and letters!  I was fortunate enough to receive lots of parcels, cards and letters (thank you so much everyone!) which Laura wrestled off me before I could scour the customs labels!  I’m not quite so bad as you Elissa (!) but everyone’s getting to know me here and the rest of my Christmas presents have also been hidden in the boatshed!!!!  Tsssk.  Just so everyone knows, some of the post was postmarked in the UK as recently as 27th November, so post is getting through this way quickly – thank you!  Rest assured, I’m also getting mail out and there are lots of letters and postcards on the way if you haven’t received them already!  I’ve also sent a DVD of photos home so hopefully they will arrive and be posted to the blog soon!

This morning we got off to a brisk start. We woke up and turned on the radio at 7.00 and by 7.05 Prince Albert II informed us they had a zodiac in the water and would be at the Whaler’s Chains landing to collect us for breakfast in 5 minutes  – argh!  We made it though and a full English breakfast awaited us on board. It was great to see Captain Peter and the lovely expedition team and crew.  We were once again asked for our polar ID by the security man and Nikki had to break the news to him that sadly we were never going to have one!  They had approximately 120 passengers on board and they seemed to really enjoy their visit to the island and asked us all the usual questions including how they could apply for a job!!  We also had another celeb visit from a member of the band, ‘Blink 182’.  It was completely lost on me as I have to confess I’d never heard of them :-/!  On the plus side, hopefully he appreciated the fact that I wasn’t star-struck and he could enjoy the anonymity!  Prince Albert II also spoiled us with a lovely gift of lots of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as frozen cauliflower florets, diced sweet red pepper and a box of sausages, which we’re rapidly working our way through!  Lunch was sausage sandwiches followed by fresh fruit salad – it’s really not a bad life!  This afternoon we had a visit from Ocean Nova, the expedition ship I travelled down on last year.  It’s very strange being on board and being on the other side of the microphone!  They are currently running an adventure programme, so many of the passengers had already departed for skiing or had been dropped off in kayaks to paddle down the Peltier Channel before Rick and I jumped aboard to participate in a pre-landing briefing.  They were a lively group and all seemed to enjoy their visit, including the kayakers who arrived at the base late in the afternoon.  As always, the Ocean Nova team very kindly offered up their cabins so we could have a nice warm shower before joining a BBQ on deck.  We’re now back at the base and ready to hit the hay.  We have a small ship in tomorrow morning then hope to see our friends from Ushuaia in the sailing yacht, Northanger in the afternoon .

Bye for now but more soon!

So what can I tell you about the last few days?  More howling wind, more snow, more sea ice and sadly more ships that have had difficulties landing passengers due to the uncooperative weather conditions!  However, the Expedition Leader of one of the larger ships wasn’t going to be put off by a bit of ‘Antarctic Weather’.  If he couldn’t bring the passengers to us, he would take us to them!  And so came about our second mobile shop of the week!

As a matter of base safety, we wear full immersion suits every time we travel back and forth between Goudier Island and the expedition ships, which some may argue is overkill, but on this occasion we were very pleased to be in them!  If they couldn’t make a full landing, then the Expedition Leader asked whether the four of us would like to go on board to explain the history of the base and offer the passengers the opportunity to write and send some postcards and buy some souvenirs to support the Trust.  We agreed of course, and after loading up a huge dry bag and waterproof Peli case of small, light, stock items we made our way out to the ship.  We slowly pushed our way through the ice, which to be fair wasn’t anywhere near as heavy as at Palmer, but as we approached the ship’s gangway it was clear that the swell was going to make for a ‘bumpy’ arrival.  There were plenty of crew on hand to help though and in no time at all we were swept up the ladders and into the hub of the ship. The passengers were thrilled to see some new faces and swarmed around the reception area as we set up our little shop.  Three cheers for the expedition leader who made it all possible. Despite not being able to make a landing, the passengers all seemed very upbeat.  It was a speedy operation and we had only just time to serve everyone and take a very speedy shower before the ship heaved anchor and moved on to find a more sheltered spot.  There was no time for dinner on board, but we were very grateful to be clean and were sent home with some beautifully made sandwiches from the ship’s kitchen and wine gums from Brent, a friend we made on our initial trip south on the Endeavour, who has now switched ships.

It’s been pretty non-stop ever since with ship visits most mornings and afternoons. The sea ice has been amazing though, with ice calving off the glacier around the bay and huge bergy bits drifting in with the wind from the Neumeyer Channel.  Multanovskiy were able to visit us for the first time this season and weather permitting (!) offered us a formal invitation to join them on New Year’s Eve. We then had Polar Star return to see us in the afternoon. They’re always really good fun and yesterday evening we joined them on board for an Argentinean BBQ on deck, which was out of this world. They were staying in the bay until late in the evening so we were able to spend some time with the expedition team, crew and passengers (including a girl from Wokingham!) before heading home later on at night.  The only down-side of bonding with passengers, team and crew is that they think it gives them free license to pummel you with snowballs on the return zodiac ride !!!  We had about 20 people mercilessly throwing snowballs which they’d been secretly piling up while we were donning our immersion suits downstairs.  Many of them unfortunately had surprisingly accurate aim. The direct hits weren’t actually quite as bad as the ones that hit the water by the side of the zodiac, splashing us smack bang in the face – nice shots guys !

Well that brings me up to today. We’ve had another great day with a Quark ship visit this morning.  Rick and I went on board for a quick breakfast and pre-landing briefing before hot-footing it back to shore. The passengers were great and had the added perk of a zodiac cruise around the ice where a leopard seal was playing in the water and putting on a quite show.  ’Us girls’  took it in turns to hotfoot it outside to take a few snaps when we could as it really was close to shore, but every time I went out the seal jumped back on the ice floe and did it’s best sleeping lion impression .

No ships this afternoon so we have had an afternoon of catching up and preparing for the very busy days ahead.  The weather finally seems to be turning a corner (we hope!) and we have ships due in morning, afternoon and sometimes in the evening over the next few days.  I expect we’ll be burning the candle at both ends, but the Christmas decorations are up, cheesy Christmas tunes are playing and we have three bags of inbound mail due tomorrow night :0)!

Predictably, a few more days have lapsed since my last update and while it’s not so fresh in my mind, I still need to fill you in on our day trip!  At this time of year we sometimes get the odd day when no ship visits are scheduled and yesterday was one of those days.  Not one to miss a trick, the Expedition Leader on the National Geographic Endeavour (the ship which brought us down) noticed that we had a ship-free day and approached us with a proposition.  We weren’t expecting them to be in the area for a few more days, but he contacted us and asked how we would feel about him bringing in a group of passengers in the morning to visit Port Lockroy, then we could jump on the ship with them afterwards to go on an overnight trip to Palmer.  What is Palmer I hear you ask? Palmer is a Scientific Station which forms part of the US Antarctic Programme and is our closest neighbour!  Given that we had a gap in the schedule, we’re all up to date with everything on base and ready for a rare afternoon off, we jumped at the chance of a short break.  Palmer is just 1 ½ hours from PL by ship, but since we don’t have a boat and they can only allow 12 expedition ship visits per season (in order to minimise disruption to their scientific programme), this was a rare but very welcome opportunity!  After a brief, but somewhat queazy,  journey to Palmer (no breakfast – rookie error!), we arrived at Arthur Harbour, to find an immense amount of tightly packed brash ice (fragments of ice less than 2m wide), blocking the final leg of our journey.  Captain Olaf had of course already spoken with the station way in advance to check the landing conditions and was aware of what awaited us.  Eventually some of the Palmer Team fought their way through in a zodiac and gave us a presentation about the US Antarctic Programme before we tried to make our way ashore.  The expedition staff were complete stars and it took more than a little patience and perseverance on their part to negotiate the zodiacs through the very heavy ice.  They managed it by manoeuvring two zodiacs of passengers at a time, with the first zodiac breaking a path which would make the passage marginally easier (!) for the second.

We went in the last zodiac with the final members of the expedition team and our little mobile shop, which the Palmer Team had asked us to bring.  The station seems enormous when you compare it with Goudier Island (where we are), however to be fair they currently have 25 people on base, but can accommodate up to sixty. They also have their own osmosis plant which creates an unlimited supply of fresh water, internet access and a hot tub !!!!  The tour of the base was really interesting, taking in all of the above plus the aquarium where we saw ice fish, Antarctic cod, various star fish and isopods, plus the shop where we got our own little dose of retail therapy. Purchases complete, we were ushered through to their recreation centre but didn’t even made it as far as the lounge where coffee and brownies were being served,  as we were so gob-smacked when we stumbled upon their kitchen!!!!  Their food store was the size of our boat house, their ‘baking area’ was the size of our kitchen and their oven was the size of our solitary 6 x 1.5′  food storage cupboard !!  We exchanged base cooking notes with Palmer’s very lovely chef  Wendy and upon hearing our plight she plied us with fresh pastries straight from the oven and warm fresh bread which she had made that morning from glacial water.  We were in heaven .  I have to clarify at this point that we are very, very happy with our simple way of life at Bransfield House and wouldn’t change it for the world, but this certainly gave us a taste for how the other half live!  After wrapping up our own little mobile shop and fighting our way back through the brash ice, we spent the rest of the evening back on the ship with some of the station staff before hitting the hay in preparation for our return to Port Lockroy in the morning.  After a lovely night’s sleep in a cosy cabin and another couple of showers under my belt, we returned to PL at 7.00am. The sun was shining and we were all set for two ships arriving in the afternoon and evening. When we arrived however, there was another surprise in store.  Pelagic Australis (a 70-80ft) sailing yacht was in the back bay.  Their passengers weren’t in a huge rush to come in, having had a late night on board the night before but they were with us by late morning.  It was a really leisurely visit and they were a really lovely group.  The passengers will of course change, but we will really look forward to Stewart and Jess’ return visits over the coming weeks.

The rest of today was very hectic with Fram bringing in almost 200 passengers in the afternoon, followed by the arrival of another smaller expedition ship in the evening.  It turned into quite an action-packed day and with the final ship making it’s onward journey to Stanley we topped the day off by managing to dispatch three bags of outbound post .

Well I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear that eventually the weather turned, ships made it in, we finally have a new water supply and best of all, we’re clean!  In fact over the past few days the ships have been EXCEPTIONALLY good to us and I have all sorts to fill you in on.

As the wind died down and the sun came out, Prince Albert II confirmed they were going to be making a landing.  The Prince Albert II is a 6* expedition ship which is making it’s Antarctic debut.  Captain Peter had been speaking to us in the days running up to the visit and they offered us not just a shower on board, but dinner AND washing!!  After a lengthy zodiac ride to the ship at the other side of the bay, we arrived at the Prince Albert II.  Having not had a shower for a week (!) we were feeling somewhat dishevelled and it was a bit of a shock to the system to climb up the rope ladder and clamber into a huge, plush carpeted lobby, complete with enormous Christmas tree and be greeted by a Security Guard requesting our ‘Polar ID’!   Yikes, this was a whole different animal!
After persuading the Maitre’D that it would be a much better idea for us to have a shower before facing the general public, we were escorted to the bridge to meet Captain Peter.  We said a quick hello, but as it transpired he was very busy so we were escorted to our cabin.  We thought they were joking when we were told we were headed towards the best suite on the ship, but as it turned out they really were giving us a very generous surprise.  We walked into a huge reception room with sofas, a bar, and a wall mounted flat screen TV.  Leading from there was a long corridor with a door to a walk-in wardrobe on the left and bathroom on the right, complete with separate wet room with a huge bath and a rainfall shower.  At the end of the corridor there was a huge bedroom with windows overlooking the bow of the ship. WOW.  How long can we stay?!!  Sadly however, all 4 of us had to shower and make ourselves presentable before heading down for dinner.  We were already glowing with joy after our first shower for a week, but the restaurant was like nothing I’d seen on a ship before and we were presented with a menu with a choice of six courses!!  It was getting on in the evening but the waiting staff encouraged us to take our time and enjoy ourselves – what a treat.  Will not rant on in miniscule detail tempting as it is , but it was FABULOUS and I had carpaccio of beef, endive and Roquefort salad, beef tenderloin, tiramisu (with ice-cream on the side – little additional treat from the waiter!), then coffee and mini pastries (we skipped the sorbet in case you’re counting courses!!!).  I was in heaven and nearly fell on the floor when they asked if we’d like to stay the night while they cruised around the channel  !!!!!!  After dinner we joined Captain Peter who was relaxing in the lounge bar.  If it weren’t for the stunning views we wouldn’t even have believed we were on a ship.  There were huge sofas, enormous plants, a fabulous very cool bar, and best of all a grand piano with a singer. We spent the rest of the evening there sipping Amarettos and taking in the glaciers all around, where were you girls ??

By midnight it was very definitely time for bed and the very kind hotel manager had found us an additional suite.  We hit the hay pretty quickly, but not before Laura and I took a few moments taking in our temporary home.  While I checked out the huge walk-in wardrobe, Laura was torturing herself in the reception room with the spa menu, then we both took it in turns to weigh ourselves in the bathroom having seen scales for the first time in five weeks.  Not sure if that was a good idea or not, but since the measurement was in pounds and I only know my weight in kilos, I’m really none the wiser … which is just as well or I may have felt the need to decline the fabulous full English breakfast in the morning .  After a great visit with the passengers from the Prince Albert II we waved them farewell, re-stocked the shop and cancelled the mail in preparation for our next ship visit.  At this point, I’m very pleased to tell you that Nikki’s attempt to lure a ship in with the promise of home-made cookies and chocolate brownies paid off!!  We enjoyed that visit immensely, not just because they were a very nice group and we love the expedition team, but also because they brought us post!!!  Thank you to everyone who sent me letters and Christmas cards.  Everything I received was posted before 10th November, so if that was you –  thank you very very much .  It was lovely to hear what you are all up to and to know that you’re thinking of me back home.  I do have to say an extra special thank you to little Lily for my home-made cards and Halloween photos. Thank you especially for ‘sticking on the penguin’s eyes and tummy button’!  For anyone who sent post after that, I heard this morning that more post is on a ship Port Lockroy-bound and will be here by Christmas.

I’ll sign off for now as I’m nearly out of battery, but will be back very soon as there’s still lots to tell you from the last few days!  Hope you’re all enjoying the party season!  Christmas decorations are going up as I write this and I’ve just had tinsel wrapped around my pink fluffy hat, .. nice!

This will just be a quick update, but thought I’d send one while I can and to make up for the shambolic nature of my blogging over the past couple of weeks.  We’ve had another productive day here at PL.  Rick and I spent the morning in the boatshed re-arranging some of the boxes of stock.  We managed to get them really well stacked the other night and we pretty much knew where everything was, but we need to be able to find boxes of stock fast between visits etc, without having to move 10 boxes to find what we’re looking for!  Nikki and I then spent the afternoon bringing up new books and kiddies t-shirts among other things, so the shop’s looking fab and we’re all set for our next ship visit. That said, the weather’s still really bad here with high winds, heavy snow and a continuous battering of waves on the shore.  Even the penguins and skuas seem to be battening down the hatches and have just settled down in the snow with their backs to the wind, moving very little.  The highlight of the day was Rick completing the installation of our new gas stove in the bunk room. Until now we’ve had a small gas heater which wasn’t very pretty and we had to move it out of sight whenever passengers arrived, but we now have an old fashioned gas stove with feet and little doors at the front with visible glowing warm coals.  It makes the whole room really cosy and the humidity level in the bunk room has dropped considerably even over the course of the past 3 or 4 hours.  Given the water situation, we had planned to start gathering ice today, but at low tide there was none on the shore  .  We’ve also now heard that a couple more ships who had planned to visit over the course of the next few days are altering their routes due to the bad weather and don’t expect to be able to make it this far south, including the ship with our inbound Christmas post from the Falklands !!!  At the moment there’s an outside possibility we may not have a ship coming for three days – so aside from the lack of visitors,  let’s hope some ice calves off the glacier soon or else we really will need to resort to gin and tonic and beer!  Before bed Laura took it upon herself to send a little note to the Expedition Leader of the ship which is carrying our post.  We have genuinely been saving him some home-made cadbury’s chocolate cookies to say thank you, but there’s no way they’re going to last another week!  Laura sent him a cheeky little note explaining that unfortunately if they’re going to be altering their route then maybe we’ll need to set Rick on them instead… time will tell .

Well better get off to bed for now.  Better catch some zzz’s and take advantage of this quiet period while it lasts!

………  well it would be if the seas calmed and the wind stopped blowing !!!  For the past couple of days the weather here has been wild, which is apparently really quite unusual for this time of year, even by Antarctic standards.  The last time I posted an update Rick had become stranded on the Fram due to high winds, which prevented them launching zodiacs in the water.  He finally returned with the Fram’s expedition team in tow at about 9pm in the evening, shortly followed by a cycle of 180 passengers – argh!  They were great fun though and really pleased to have been able to make a landing.  It’s still fairly light here in the evenings, but with relatively small windows it gets quite dim in the shop.  We lit the Tilly lamp and hung it above the counter which provided some much needed light and also created a bit of ambience as our passengers gathered souvenirs and did some early Christmas shopping.  During the course of the visit, the Bark Europa, an absolutely beautiful three-masted Tall Ship, sailed into the bay.  We weren’t expecting them for another couple of days, but things change on a dime down here and it was a very welcome surprise.  It was a bit of a late night by the time everyone left at 12.30am, but we did a good trade for the Trust and we had a lot of happy passengers, so a good time was had by all. Yesterday was an early start with a long day ahead.  Rick was on board ‘Le Diamant’ for a pre-landing briefing at 8am before they landed 130 very bubbly passengers.  The rest of the day was committed to clearing our already very full boatshed to accommodate 600 new boxes of stock due to arrive in the evening.  It was a huge team effort with a lot of lifting, carrying and clearing sneaky corners in Bransfield House where we could squirrel things away out of sight around the base.  By 6pm we had cleared almost half of the boatshed and I think Rick was slightly mesmerised as to where we’d hidden everything!  Most of it was stock and supplies from  07/08 plus approximately 300 boxes which were delivered last week.  Rick made us a carb-tastic dinner to boost our energy levels for the onslaught which lay ahead, before setting off to the Bark for an hour or so for a cheeky beer and boogie on deck.  Us girls were seriously disappointed to miss out on our first opportunity to board the ship, but seeing as we were barely capable of stringing a sentence together we decided to conserve our energy for the Fram returning at 9.30 to unload the remaining supplies.  They cruised into the bay bang on time and wasted no time at all getting their zodiacs into the water and loaded up. When Rick was on board the previous day, he was astounded at how much stock needed to be unloaded, so we’d already worked on a game plan to try to ensure we had the best possible chance of sorting the boxes into piles of similar items, with labels facing in the same direction, so that once everything was in we could actually see what was in them!!!  Sounds simple enough, but when there’s a chain of eight people between the relatively short distance from the zodiac to the boatshed, with boxes landing every few seconds, it’s no mean feat!  On pure adrenalin, we were literally spinning and throwing boxes to the right piles with them stacked way above our heads, but after 90 minutes of non-stop throwing, catching and stacking, we all gave a huge cheer when we unloaded the last box.  We weren’t looking very pretty (!) but the job was done. A huge thank you to the whole Fram team!

While we were unloading, the rain had started to fall and the wind picked up again during the night. It was really a blessing in disguise, as we had been expecting a ship in early this morning and weren’t entirely sure we’d be able to move!  As it turned out, the ship we were expecting couldn’t make it down here due to the weather. We had a bit of a lay in and Nikki treated us to coffee and porridge with Nutella in bed!  Despite the weather we’ve managed to catch up on lots of indoor jobs today as the wind roared around us and the waves kept rolling in. The down side to the weather is that we haven’t had many ships in and we’re rapidly running out of water!  We’re currently down to our last 25ltr jerry can and in the spirit of conserving water we are now drinking beer !  Laura also made an effort at cooking a water-free dinner with Fray Bentos pies, tinned carrots and potatoes.  A caravan dinner if ever I saw one, but it was absolutely delicious!  The only concession was gravy, which we just couldn’t resist.

It sounds like tomorrow will be another quiet day ship wise as the ship which was due has just radioed in to let us know they are heading north this evening to try to get out of this weather. They’d experienced an absolutely wild day today with wind speeds of 85 knots every 10 minutes.

It’s now 9.30pm and the others are settling down to watch a film.  For me it’s a night with pen and paper so that I can get more mail in the next lot of outbound post.

Happy Birthday Verity!!!!!!!!!!!

Here we are on 1 December entering ‘high summer’ and I have to tell you that it’s blowing a gale outside!  I’m sitting writing this in the warmth of the bunk room waiting for the winds and sea to calm sufficiently for the ship anchored in the bay to contemplate landing passengers, but who knows when that will be.

The past 24 hours have been action packed down here. We had our first group of passengers land at 8 am yesterday. It was a nice visit with a fairly small group of 30 or so passengers. They were keen to look around the museum and get some retail therapy in the shop before checking out our resident gentoo penguins and three seals which were lying on individual ice floes out in the bay. Towards the end of the visit I noticed we had a visitor much closer to home.  An enormous female elephant seal had somehow managed to work her way up the rocks and was lying at the entrance to the boat shed.  Even after Laura and I had fully investigated the area it was a complete mystery how she managed to get there. She was lying in the middle of dozens of closely packed gentoo nests, which were completely unharmed and undisturbed.  As the day went on the mystery was solved as she made her way back to shore wriggling and writhing her way back through the nests. She would rear up and roar as she heaved her way through and the penguins would stand their ground, fiercely protecting their unhatched eggs, but miraculously she twisted and turned to a degree we would never have dreamed possible for her enormous weight and size.  Eventually she made it to the rocks which was the final challenge. Since she had arrived the tide had dropped considerably and she either had to wait for the sea level to rise or else work her way down.  She managed so far but eventually took a very ungraceful tumble down onto the shore line below. It looked painful to me but she heaved her way off and made for the open water.

An hour or so later National Geographic Endeavour sailed into the bay and we had a lovely visit with their 60 or so passengers. It was great to see the expedition team we had travelled down with and it was hugs all round at the front door .  At the end of the visit the Expedition Leader, Tim Soper, asked if we would like to come on board for a shower and dinner. Needless to say we were ready before you could say ‘boatsuit’!  On board we were welcomed by the Asst Expedition Leader, Kendra, who showed us not to the usual sauna area we go to, but one of the luxury cabins where we took our first shower for 4 days! It was pure bliss and needless to say we didn’t rush!  After showers we joined the daily de-brief with the passengers and staff, taking questions about life at Lockroy before joining them for dinner.  After 10 mins or so when our starter had just been placed in front of us, Tim came to our table with a grim expression.  He explained while looking out the window that we might have noticed that the winds had picked up outside and ‘unfortunately’ he was going to have to ask us to stay the night ……… ‘Oh no, what a disaster’ ! The winds built up and we got word from the bridge that they were gusting up to 70 knots and coming from every direction.   Minutes later, Anders the friendly hotel manager, appeared with cabin numbers scribbled on a piece of paper for us.  Pure bliss.  Not only did we get to shower in the posh cabins - we were now staying the night in them – woo hoo!
It was a tough decision not to dive straight into bed to make the most of the warm cosy cabins and soft fluffy duvets, but we joined the passengers to watch a couple of episodes of Life in the Freezer, then had drinks with Anders and Captain Olaf before falling into bed just after midnight.

After a blissful nights sleep we were up at 6am and driven back to Goudier Island. This morning has been spent re-organising the boat shed in preparation for the next delivery of stock and general supplies. It’s now 5pm and it sounds like we’re in for our first girlie night. The winds calmed for long enough earlier for Rick to jump on a zodiac to do a talk on board the Fram, which is anchored in the bay, but we’ve now had their Expedition Leader on the radio explaining it’s too rough to bring him back so he’s staying on board for dinner.  Not to worry, Nikki’s baking scones and we’re just working out which chick flick to fire up .  It’s a hard life!

First of all I have to start this with an apology as I can’t believe it’s taken me three weeks to write a new blog entry.  I really hope you’ve not given up on me! The past three weeks at Bransfield House have just flown by. We’ve been rushed off our feet getting everything sorted, taking deliveries and generally getting ourselves ship shape, but hopefully even though the number of visitors will increase dramatically over the coming weeks, we’ll be all set up and it will be easier to steal a moment here and there to send you a quick update.

I’m going to struggle to do the past three weeks justice in one blog entry as we’ve done and seen so much already but I’m going to try to give you some of the highlights.
A couple of hours after I sent my last blog entry, the National Geographic Endeavour turned off the Neumeyer Channel as Port Lockroy, our new home for the next four months came into sight.  We watched from the bridge as Bransfield House appeared, dwarfed by the mountain range and glaciers which surround it.  Given the drop in sea ice and snow cover at the north and east of the peninsula, we wondered how much snow there would be at Port Lockroy. We needn’t have worried though as there was no shortage!!  Using binoculars, we could see from the Bridge that the path to the front door of the hut was clear, however to the left side of that, snow was piled almost all the way up to the top of the windows. Once we were on the island itself we could see that the snow was piled so high that it had created a natural snow ramp and penguins were even trying to nest on our roof!  After our final quick dinner on board, we were assisted by the Captain, very kind crew, expedition team, and even a few passengers, to load all of our gear into one of the awaiting zodiacs and were driven over to our new home.  As we approached, there was so much thick sea ice that poor Lisa (Expedition Leader on the Endeavour) had to lean right over the front of the bow to try to push it out the way and ultimately stand waist deep in water (in chest-high waders I hasten to add!) and try to haul it out the way.  It took us another  half an hour or so to unload our bags and seven 25 litre jerry cans of water, falling knee deep in snow every other footstep as we carried it up to the hut.  In no time at all we were saying a fond farewell to Lisa and Robert and we were finally alone on tiny Goudier Island.  Rick wasted no time at all finding the Union Jack which was raised by Nikki, Laura and I with Rick as official photographer.  It was a beautiful clear evening and there was the most amazing sunset which hasn’t been matched since.  At 9pm in the evening it was still relatively light outside, however since we were pretty much snowed in up to the tops of the windows of the lounge area and the bunk room, the inside of the base was pitch black so we put our handy headlamps to work straight away.  I’m sure you’re all loving the image of me in a spoddy headlamp but it’s bizarre how these things become part of normal everyday life here! Once in the bunk room we divvied up the bunks and set to work laying out two thermarest mattresses each, a sheepskin throw and not one but two down sleeping bags (one inside the other).  The next day we were up bright and early. Although we really needed to start shovelling paths through the snow and removing the snow from around the outsides of the windows, Rick was insistent that we spend a while wandering around the island taking lots of photos while it was still pristine and before the penguins had ‘made their mark’ on it.  Nice!  Between us, over the next 24 hours, we cleared snow from the hut entrance, made the passenger landing points safe, set up the base computer, radios and satellite phone and cleaned and stocked the gift shop and museum in preparation for our first guests.  After all that hard work, dinner was a brief affair of tinned stew, mixed vegetables and instant mash which was not two, not three but FOUR YEARS out of date… but after all our hard work, it tasted fantastic.  Well done Laura!

We were originally expecting to arrive here on 10th November and have our first ship visit on 18th but as it transpired the ships started rolling in straight away and within just over a week we’d had over 400 guests through the museum already. This included a small yacht we’d been on in Ushuaia and HMS Endurance which was in the area as part of their usual Austral Summer ice patrol. It was a fantastic surprise and it was a pleasure to welcome them to Port Lockroy.  It was a very relaxed visit with people coming and going all afternoon, including a Channel 5 film crew who were on board. They also had divers in the bay, who could at one point be spotted all lined up and standing on an iceberg (!) and a very cooperative elephant seal (which we don’t often see at Port Lockroy) even turned up to pose for photos.  In the evening we were over the moon to be invited on board. A number of the officers very kindly offered up their cabins for us to take showers before the Operations Manager gave us a tour of the entire ship, showed us a film about the Royal Navy’s activities in the Southern Oceans then invited us for dinner with the Captain and a group of the officers. It was an amazing experience and we were really grateful for their kindness and hospitality. It was definitely a very special day for us here and I’ll remember it for a long time to come. Needless to say I took lots of photos and will send them home on a DVD in due course!
Since then we’ve had many expedition ships in to see us and we’ve had great feedback from the passengers who seem to be loving the museum and shop. While Rick has known many people on the expedition teams for years, us girls are really enjoying getting to know everyone. We’ve also been really bowled over by the generosity of the expedition teams in inviting us on board for meals, showers and, when they’re able, doing our laundry!  We’re averaging showers every 3 days or so at the moment which sounds hideous but given that the air is so much cleaner and it’s so cold, it’s not such a huge deal as you might think . That said, I definitely wouldn’t advocate it back home and can’t begin to tell you how good I feel after I’ve had a shower on one of the ships and how luxurious it feels to wander around on board wearing one ‘normal’ layer of clothes rather than the 3-4 thermal/fleece layers we normally wear even inside the house … plus a beany hat! 

Over the past 10 days we have received all of the postal supplies from the Falkland Islands and the Fram (a Hurtigruten expedition vessel which has carried approximately 90 passengers on an Arctic to Antarctic cruise) arrived with almost 400 boxes of supplies for us which included food, maintenance goods, our own boxes of personal bits and pieces and stock for the gift shop. We knew we’d have plenty of helpers from the ship, but in order to minimise the amount of muck that ended up transferred from boxes into the boatshed, which we’d have to endure for the next three months, Nikki and I spent the best part of the afternoon cleaning penguin poo off the rocks. It was disgusting but quite hilarious and again… not really recommended!  Zodiac upon zodiac arrived that evening with boxes for the boatshed but our eyes were on stalks when the chef sent over an entire crate of fresh fruit and vegetables including watermelon, avocados, lettuce, lemons and all sorts of other goodies. We eat REALLY well on the ships, but it felt like pure luxury to see all the fruit and vegetables in their raw format for the first time in a month! They even gave us three whole salmon and chops, so we’ve been eating like King and Queens ever since. Thank you Fram!

That more or less brings me up to today. The sun has shone for the first time in a week and Laura and I took full advantage by undertaking the first ‘official’ wildlife count of the season.  Between us we counted approximately 640 gentoo penguin nests on the island.  Laura is the official ‘Penguin Counter’ at Port Lockroy this year but it was a lot of fun to help her this afternoon and not nearly as easy to count as you might think!!  We were each double and sometimes treble counting in some areas to ensure the figures were accurate but the scary part is that today we were counting stationary nests…  the mind boggles as to how we’ll manage to count hundreds of little chicks running around our ankles !!!!

Well once again, I apologise that it’s taken so long to get this to you. I’ve probably not done the past three weeks justice as I haven’t told you all about the sheathbills playing ‘bulldog’ running across the roof at night; how I’ve eaten my body weight in cheese since I arrived; our hilarious photo shoot to gather photos for our sponsors back home; learning to use the VHF radios to communicate with the ships and all the bizarre but delicious meals we’ve managed to concoct in the evenings even without any fresh food.  We really are having the most fabulous time and I feel very fortunate to be here.
This has been a very long entry, but hopefully now that I’ve caught up a bit, I can send short regular updates as originally promised. Please hang in there with the blog. It means so much to me that you’re following what I’m up to back home.  I’m missing you all loads and just wish you were here to see and experience all of this for yourselves.

Please also see the official Port Lockroy Diaries which will be posted on the UK AHT blog (www.ukaht.org).

Well, after a week on board the National Geographic Endeavour, it’s almost time for us to leave.  In a few hours we will be rounding the corner of the channel and arriving in the safe harbour of Port Lockroy, where our new home ‘Bransfield House’, awaits.

The past week has been amazing. We got off to a great start with a relatively smooth crossing of the Drake Passage and after just a day and a half at sea, we made our first landing at Barrientos Island at the north end of the Antarctic Peninsula.  Ironically, this was the final landing of my trip last year so it was a great place to begin this year’s Antarctic adventure.  There seems to be a lot less snow cover this year and a lot of lichen was visible on the slopes where chinstrap penguins were starting to build their nests.  It almost looked like they were walking on grass but they certainly seemed happy enough. It was icy cold though and even with seven layers on my top half plus warm gloves and liners, I was still chilly so made a quick retreat back to the ship!

Later that evening, due to an unusually low amount of sea ice for this time of year, we managed to work our way down the east side of the Peninsula into the Weddell Sea. This is an area that is often restricted to ice-breaker expedition tours, even in the Austral Summer when the sea ice is at its minimum extent. Captain Olaf navigated the ship down through the Antarctic Sound and we made a number of landings over the following days. These included Brown Bluff where we watched small armies of Adelie penguins marching along the shore to find a safe spot to enter the sea, while a Leopard Seal patrolled the shore; and Devil Island where Captain Olaf navigated exceptionally heavy sea ice before the expedition team took us on a zodiac cruise around small icebergs while Adelies, Weddell Seal rested on the bergs and small ice floes as we cruised on by. I truly felt so relaxed afterwards that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other as I walked back to my cabin and felt like I’d just spent a day at the spa J. The day just kept getting better as later on that evening just as people were drifting off to bed, our Expedition Leader spotted three pods of Orcas. The water was almost completely still, with a heavy grey backdrop of sky as we watched the Orcas gently gliding in and out of the ice cold water.  It was really too dark to take photos from that distance, but it was an awesome sight.

The following day we cruised back up through the Antarctic Sound leaving the Weddell Sea behind us.  We passed enormous tabular icebergs which had likely carved off the Larsen Ice Shelf and the captain estimated their depth to be up to 200m.  In the afternoon we visited Paulet Island, home to 100,000 pairs of nesting Adelie penguins. The landing wasn’t for everyone as the landing area was icy and the surface uneven, but we grabbed some walking poles and off we went. The island was also home to the 22 men of Nordenskold’s expedition in 1903 when they were forced to overwinter in a small stone hut.  Only one perished and a cross marks his burial place on the other side of the island. During our landing the sea ice closed in so we jumped back on board and moved on up the coast towards the north end of the peninsula. There were more huge icebergs and we were accompanied on our way by a pod of up to 16 orcas.
Yesterday we made two landings around the Deception Island area. The first was at Bailey Head, a notoriously difficult shore landing. The swells weren’t too large though so we made it on and once again walked among what was like an amphitheatre of nesting Chinstrap penguins. There were literally loads of the little fellas pootling about on the black volcanic sand on the shore and literally tens of thousands of them further inland. They were starting to build their nests up on the slopes and even on rocky outcrops all the way around the naturally created basin. Once there they would mate, incubate the egg and not return to sea for approximately three weeks. Skuas patrolled the skies but the Chinstraps are pretty tough and shooed them away without too much of a problem!  The difficulties will come in the weeks ahead when the Skuas will prey on vulnerable nests for eggs and small chicks.

After lunch we passed through Neptunes Bellows, the half mile wide entrance into Deception Island.  From the outside, the island looks like solid land mass but actually there is a small passageway in. However, while half a mile may sound like a reasonable sized entrance, there are rocks lying under the water and it requires careful navigation by the captain to get the ships in safely. The washed up shipwreck on the rocks as you enter is a harsh reminder of how perilous these Antarctic harbours can be.  Once inside we landed at Pendulum Cove, which was once a whale processing base and later a British base. This was a great base from two points of view. For one, as well as a couple of Weddell seals who were having a snooze on the beach and were very cooperative with the photographers (!) we also saw a leopard seal at the far end of the beach.  Leopard seals are normally seen either patrolling the water in front of penguin colonies or else lazing around on ice floes in the water and they rarely even lift up their heads to say hi This guy however was just hauled out on the beach so it was quite an unexpected sight.

Today we’ve been spoiled by visiting what’s deemed by many as two of the prettiest points on the Antarctic Peninsula. The first stop was Neko Harbour where Gentoo penguins were just starting to build their nests. We climbed up high above the sea to get a view right out over the bay looking down on the small icebergs in the bay then made a much quicker return to shore by tobogganing part of the way back down on our bums.  I’ve now just returned  from a short zodiac cruise around Paradise Bay and it really is as stunning as it sounds. There are two entrances to the bay and the entire area is surrounded by huge glaciers. We didn’t see any calving while we were there but there were loads of intricately shaped small icebergs which had previously calved into sea and had been sculpted by the water as they have turned over and over again and been washed over by salty sea water. The National Geographic once again pulled out all the stops as we turned the corner of the bay as some of the expedition team cruised on over and passed us hot chocolate with a choice of whisky or Baileys… this really is the good life! Anyone wish they were here??

That said, I’m now back in my cabin and in a few minutes after I post this I’ll be taking a very long shower!!!  We’ll be dropped off at the base tonight and while we may get a ‘quick’ shower when the National Geographic returns to land passengers at Port Lockroy in a couple of days, the next ship after that won’t be until 17 November so between now and then it will be snow baths all the way!

I’ll sign off for now but once we’re up and running at the base, I hope to be able to send shorter, but fairly regular, updates.  Missing you all and wishing you were here.