Elephant seals are AWESOME!

This entire post is basically going to involve pictures of elephant seals as I have no pearls of wisdom to share right now but a few pictures which capture the ridiculousness of these creatures.  The last couple of days have been spent opening up the BAS base at Signy for the summer.  This means we are now south of 60 degrees latitude which I believe means we are in proper Antarctic territory.  From my point of view, opening up a base means sorting through a lot of medical kit and restocking the base supplies while ensconced in a nice warm room (it's starting to feel a bit like groundhog day with regards to the sorting of medical kit).  For many others, however, it involved a lot of shoveling of snow, whacking of ice with a pick-axe and shifting of heavy boxes of food and other stuff through the snow.  One lucky person got to drive the skidoo.  That lucky person was not me.  I have therefore made a mental note that this is something I will have to learn to do at some point as I am fairly sure I would quite like it.  However, I'm certainly not complaining as I did get a trip ashore, and was thus able to witness the seals close hand (extremely close hand in fact as they really have no fear of humans).  It seems they just lie around all day in their own waste smelling and making various unpleasant noises from different orifices and then, when required to move so that supplies could be shifted up the jetty, they move with the level of grace you would expect from a several tonne creature who is probably about 75% fat.  Nice.  Admittedly they do have very cute faces and I have decided that I approve of these seals.  I have no doubt they will be extremely relieved to know this.

He was trying to look angry......fail.

Ha ha! Ice, ice everywhere!!!

What can I say?!  One minute we are rocking and rolling around, struggling to shower and put trousers on without sitting down first, and the next it is flat calm and we are surrounded by massive chunks of ice and icebergs you could land a plane on!

I can't put into words just how incredible yesterday was so I will just put some pictures up.  Needless to say I did not remain outwardly cool, calm or professional and there was a fair amount of hopping and skipping around the decks with my camera and a stupid grin.

Me on a ship in sea ice

Unusually, I thought I would include a picture of myself this time, just to prove that I really am here and to show off how well my new down vest matches my eyes!

I now have A LOT of pictures of icebergs and some major editing to do!

Disappointingly, I learnt today that the way I thought the ship broke through ice is not, in fact, the actual way it breaks through ice.  Either I just made it up or dreamt it, but I was sure that the bow somehow rose out of the water to smash down on the ice like a WWF wrestler elbow-dropping his/her opponent.  I have been fairly reliably informed this is not the case.  Luckily, to ease the disappointment, there was lots of lovely wildlife hanging out on the ice which distracted me somewhat from ice breaking.

Chinstrap penguins

Another non-cute seal species - Leopard seals have heads rather like snakes and I don't think I approve of them

This is a proper seal looking all friendly and nice (though probably not if you happen to be a crab)

Boats, cranes and unhappy seals

“For general information the ship is about to change course, I would suggest everyone holds on.  I repeat the ship is about to change course, please hold on.”

Ha, I love living in a moving house!  Admittedly I’m less keen when the sill under my window fills with water and then discharges dirty salt/rain water with bits of cracked off paint in it all over my bed.  Some might say it was my own damn fault for not closing the window properly after pretending to be a ninja, but I’m only a girl, so how could I possibly know it would be a problem….

Anyway, it has been a busy few days since we left Stanley as we have been restocking the bases on Bird Island and South Georgia.  Whilst it was pretty awesome watching the cargo being shifted from ship to boat and then to land using big cranes (who doesn’t love cranes?!), I did spend a lot of time worrying that I may be called upon to actually do my job at some point.  Moving boats, moving sea, heavy loads and a tight schedule make a slightly concerning combination.  However, the deck crew have clearly done this more than a couple of times before and all went well – lots of aching shoulders and bruises but nothing for me to deal with.  On the other hand, a professional masseur would have been far more useful!  Sadly the cranes can’t do everything and lots of man-handling of fuel drums and boxes is still required – lots of work for everyone on board and very long days, especially for the deck crew.  On the plus side, hard hats and orange boiler suits were required which always makes me a bit happy (simple pleasures etc!)

Boat, crane and Bird Island

Bird Island is an amazing place – like some kind of lost world, with wildlife absolutely everywhere!  Now I’m rather fond of seals, with their lovely big eyes and flippers, so I will admit that I had ignored all warnings about the ferocious fur seals on Bird Island, and instead assumed it was all exaggerated nonsense.  How can seals be scary?  Big eyes.  Flippers.  Cute noises.  Oh how wrong I was.  It turns out that fur seals are NOTHING like your average UK seal and they really, really don’t like people invading their patch of beach or rolling oil drums down the jetty.  And they’re big.  And they move FAST!  After a rather close call with a particularly grumpy male (embarrassingly squealing like a girl and running to take cover behind someone with a stick was involved), I have developed a healthy respect for them and am slightly regretting offering to help with the pup-weighing on South Georgia.  I may have to find myself some important medical stuff to do on those days!  Luckily, and to be honest rather surprisingly, no one was bitten.  This also made me happy.

This guy REALLY did not appreciate a digger invading his beach

Penguins and seals and a white bird whose name I've forgotten

After completing relief at Bird Island it was off to South Georgia for more fun and frolics involving boats and cranes.  The weather was not kind to us and the island was shrouded in cloud for the first day with intermittent drizzle meaning that everything in cardboard boxes got wet – for information Becks boxes do pretty well in the rain (German engineering and all that) whereas St Miguel are RUBBISH!  I had a brief look at the surgery, which is ridiculously massive and scared me a bit.  However, it will be nice to have everything out and ready to go, rather than lashed down and packed away.  Also, opening cupboards without having the entire contents pour out onto my head will no doubt be quite a novelty after 4 months at sea and will probably take some getting used to.  My time on the island was mostly spent unpacking food and drink so the boxes could be loaded back onto the ship, but I did have a quick wander around the base and it looks most wonderful.  However, whilst it was good to see my future home, I’m not ready to leave the ship just yet, so there were no tears when the time came to get back on the boat.  Also, I’m not going to be provided with puddings twice daily on the base, unless I make them myself, and this is something that will take some time to adjust to – I may go into mourning some time in January in preparation.  A little annoyingly the weather on the second day was absolutely fantastic, but sadly there was no time for shore leave so we just had to admire the mountains, turquoise water and elephants seals lounging around on the beach from the comfort of the ship.  In my head I was bouncing around ecstatically (like a small child on Christmas day) at the thought of spending a year there, but I reckon I managed to look outwardly cool, calm and professional.  Maybe. 

South Georgia - looks alright I suppose...

Home for a year from Jan 2013

I suspect I will probably quite like living here

I'm too excited to think of a title

It is possible that this post may turn out to be a disjointed stream of consciousness due to my current level of excitement and need to explain just how wonderful the Falkland Islands have been and how lucky I am to have this job and how much I like penguins and beaches and sitting in the sun and apple pie and early morning sunlight and having an afternoon doze in sand dunes.   For anyone expecting my usual level of high quality factual information about my adventures, I apologise.

Gypsy Cove in the morning sun

This is actually taken at Surf bay but I am too excited to order the pictures sensibly

It would be impossible to imagine how the last four days could have been any better as the weather has been perfect every day and, since there is a hospital in Stanley, my services have not been required on the ship (not that my medical skills are required very often here anyway) so I have been off exploring.  Every day has started with a 6am run to Gypsy Cove for a penguin pick-me-up and to enjoy the fantastic light which made everything look stunning and caused me to skip a little bit every now and again.  Admittedly each morning when my alarm clock went off at 5.45 and I contorted myself in bed so I could see the small triangle of sky, which is just visible above the lifeboat if I press my cheek to the glass, a little bit of me hoped that I would see grey sky and/or rain so I could justify going back to sleep.  However, once up, there were no regrets and it was more than a little disappointing that we lost our berth yesterday and have had to anchor out in the harbour meaning no run today.  Rather surprisingly I managed to recruit company for the early morning activities which meant Rich (the ship's purser) was there to witness my totally uncontrolled delight at the penguins, and the baby ducks, and the baby geese and the general loveliness of it all - bemused is probably a good description.  I was a little concerned that, after such a wonderful start to the day, things would only go downhill.  Not so, for there are many exciting things to do around Stanley, particularly if you are in possession of a bike.

Surf Bay

The cycling options available on the Falklands are rather limited as very few of the roads are properly tarmacked and my road bike would have been most unhappy if I had tried to explore too far afield.  However, from where we were moored it was possible to whizz along the road to Surf Bay and arrive at paradise (albeit a rather chilly paradise) in less than 10 minutes.  I then left the bike (tied to a post with a lock that was basically little better than a piece of string which I borrowed from the Chief Engineer - no crime here apparently) and walked along the coast to the lighthouse which I saw on the way in.  For anyone that has seen the Anne of Green Gables TV show that was on when I was little, the lighthouse was exactly like the one in that, and in my mind I was rapidly transported to New England and Gilbert Blythe.  Anyway, I digress.  Along the way my eye was caught by a small movement on the beach and a large white object that appeared to be waddling.  All I can say is thank god I was on my own!  Lone king penguin wandering around on the beach.  Clearly lost.  Clearly in need of someone to look after him or at least to give him a little stroke.  Luckily I managed to regain some composure after a small amount of hopping and squealing and settled for a couple of photos.  If my excitement level turns out to be directly proportional to number of penguins seen I may be in trouble when I get to South Georgia and the colonies

PENGUIN!!!!!!!!!!

Lying in the sand dunes I somehow summoned the energy to take a picture

I returned to Surf Bay the following day as several people told me there were often dolphins playing in the water there, so I thought I should maximise my chances of seeing them.  Sadly no dolphins, but I did manage a short afternoon nap in the sand dunes with the sea splashing up the beach - it is indeed a hard life! 

Remembrance Day in Stanley

Attack of the seagulls

Elland Road 7970 miles - useful to know

I have also wandered in to Stanley on a couple of occasions and managed to make it in for the Remembrance Day ceremony.  Since it is the 30 year anniversary of the Falkland conflict this year, the event was probably a bit bigger than usual and included royalty (rather lost on me admittedly).  The church service was standing room only and all the divisions of the forces had a marching party to accompany the veterans and marching band.  It really was quite special - particularly the bit when a currently serving officer was screaming out mildly amusing commands to the veterans to get them into rank ready for some marching (apparently at a reduced speed to ensure the young guys could keep up with them).  It seems you never forget how to march and the veterans looked equally as smart and organised as the serving troops but their presence was somewhat more poignant.  Out of respect I resisted all temptation to photograph young men in uniform, but I figured the band was fair game as they looked all bright and shiny.  I also spent a lot of time watching the world go by while sitting on the shore in the sunshine and am a little concerned that if I get much more relaxed I will never be able to return to normal life.

Painting and penguins

Well it's been a little while since the last bit of twittering - mostly because there are only so many pictures you can take of the sea and the ship in the sunshine with no land in sight and really only so much you can say about it.  I have therefore been saving it up for the extravaganza that I shall now launch into.  My non-medical endeavours have continued and I have a beautiful white cargo tender cabin to show for it - the 6 years of medical school did not prepare me well for such tasks but, luckily, my dad did.  Admittedly some paint did not end up where it should have, but it really is very challenging painting above head height in fairly high winds while bobbing around at sea.  I am still discovering paint in my hair nearly a week after completing the task and the windows required a bit of TLC with a scraping device, as rollers, gloss paint and high winds is a particularly tricky combination to manage.  Anyway, I enjoyed myself immensely - mainly because I got to hang out in the sunshine listening to my especially prepared 'music to paint to' playlist and eat desserts guilt free thanks to the calories burnt keeping upright.

Admire the shiny whiteness of the cabin

The wildlife sightings have been increasing  the closer we have been getting to land and, although I have been terrible at actually photographing it, I can report sightings of whales, dolphins, albatross and penguins.  The latter I shall come onto in a bit.  One of the main reasons for the lack of good photographs is that it has been getting a little more choppy and windy over the past few days which has coincided with the arrival of the birds.  I have managed several rather blurred pictures of an albatross but there is definitely room for improvement.  I think I will probably see them again - hopefully sitting on a nest staying nice and still.  I have also discovered that, while I appear to be fairly immune to sea sickness, sleeping when you're being rolled from one side of your bed to the other is a skill that I have yet to master.  Luckily we have arrived in the Falkland Islands today; the ship is moored up and therefore staying still and I plan to do a bit of sleeping.  Unless of course it is sunny tomorrow, in which case I will be hunting down the penguins at every opportunity.  Maybe even in the dark. 

A video clip would probably be better here

Yes it's blurred but it's the best I have for now

On the subject of penguins, I have managed to get my first sighting of the little fellows and thus the obsession has begun.  Before I launch into tales of treks to far off beaches, I think it is important to try to set the scene a little.  The following 3 pictures were taken as we dropped anchor and within the space of about 10 minutes  in the order shown.  The weather here is unpredictable to say the least.  Think Scottish islands and you will have a pretty good idea of what it's like.   

Nice!  I decided not to offer to help out on deck today. 

The site of penguins (or at least somewhere vaguely near the penguin burrows)

Anyway, despite the fact that the deck crew were battling with a storm of horizontal hail stones, all went smoothly when coming alongside, and the promise of solid ground for the first time in just under a month beckoned.  Two options for walks from the ship were suggested to me:

1) turn right, walk for about 10 minutes, arrive in town and have a cup of tea/pint

2) turn left and walk for an hour through intermittent hail stone flurries and some mighty strong winds but with the possibility of white sands, turquoise water and penguins at the end.

Obviously there was really no decision to be made and, although I did momentarily question my choice as the hail stones were flung against my legs so hard that they actually stung  through two pairs of trousers;  when the clouds cleared and the sun came out and two little penguins popped out of the sea and waddled up the beach, I was happy with my decision.  Less happy when I realised I would have to run back to avoid missing dinner whilst wearing a thermal, fleece, down jacket and full waterproofs.  Oh I looked good when I arrived back on the ship wind burnt and sweaty!