Fluffy Kittens and Embroidery: Big birds and tiny seals

Quite a few photos with this one! By some massive stroke of luck, the first thing the JCR did after I joined it was go back to Bird Island to finish off the base relief there. This was all meant to have been completed before I boarded, but relief at BI is a tricky affair as it all has to be done by cargo tender (absolutely no possibility for the ship to come alongside) and is very weather dependent. It had been abandoned when the swell and wave combination meant the tender was rising and falling several metres next to the ship - not the best conditions for operating cranes and shifting heavy loads around. As far as I was concerned this was excellent news as it meant I would get an unexpected trip back to the island. The last time I went ashore I spent the whole time sorting through medical kit and didn’t make it up to see the albatrosses - I assumed I’d see plenty on South Georgia. This was just one of many occasions when I wish I’d done a little more research before heading south. Almost as soon as I returned to the ship I was informed there were no Wanderer nests on South Georgia (or certainly not in the bits we could go to), and that I may have just missed my only chance to see them. A little unfortunate!

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, and this time Julie (new KEP doc) had already done the medical bits so there was plenty of time between tender loads to quickly run up the hill with Steph (albatross scientist) to see them. Even though I’ve seen plenty of them wheeling round the ship, and even a couple of stuffed ones in the museum at Grytviken, I still hadn’t fully appreciated just how huge they are when they’re right in front of you, wandering around and spreading their wings. I could probably have spent hours, if not days watching them. However, the twenty or so minutes I got was absolutely incredible, particularly as it just wasn’t an opportunity I was expecting to get.

Just to give a sense of scale

A rather late moulter with awesome monk-style hairdo

After that it was back to the beach for more loading of fuel drums. Since there was a brand new, less than a day old fur seal pup next to the jetty, I mostly just took pictures of him and let other people do all the work. It really wasn’t the worst first day I could have had back on the JCR!