Next stop Signy! After completing relief at Bird Island we headed off to Signy to open up the base for the summer and drop off provisions. This year there were only a few small bits of ice in the bay so relief was much easier than last year as the tender could actually get alongside the jetty. A large group of scientists, Signy base staff and a couple of other hangers on (including myself and Hugh, the Postmaster) were set ashore so we could get the base ready for supplies to be unloaded. This basically involved bashing away at thick ice and shoveling it out the way so the barrows and trolleys could make it through. I somehow found myself working with Hugh who is pretty much part man, part machine and ridiculously strong. He bashed the ice with a heavy metal pole and I shoveled. It seemed he took great delight in breaking off larger and larger blocks of ice for me to lift. All complaints were met with an encouraging "ah you can lift it, get on with it," and between us we had soon cleared a sizable area of decking. Tea was drunk at some point which rejuvenated everyone and then it was time to unload boxes from the cargo tender - it is incredible how much stuff it takes to set up a base! A highly enjoyable lunch of fishfingers and chips was sent ashore for us from the ship's galley and then I spent a small amount of time sorting medical kit - really not my favourite job it must be said. After a long and relatively tiring day most of us headed back to the ship on the tender in the early evening, leaving just a few of the technical services team ashore to sort out things like generators and running water etc.
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| Cargo tender coming in to drop of provisions |
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| This might be Signy or it might be Coronation Island |
Most people woke up the following morning feeling a little achy, but a few went back ashore to carry on sorting stuff. I stayed on the ship, partly because I didn't have anything to do ashore, but also because there was a vague rumour that a boat might be going to Gorlay, and if there was, I kind of wanted to be on it. It was starting to look like this probably wouldn't happen as there was talk of taking RIBs over with just a couple of people on board. Luckily plans changed suddenly and I got a phonecall saying the tender was leaving in 5 minutes so I should get my stuff ready and head down ASAP. At the time of the call I was doing yoga on my verandah and wasn't really dressed for land based adventures. Some swift changing, organising of camera gear, finding of hat etc. was required and then it was time to go. Gorlay is where the Signey scientists do some of their work and I had only ever heard rave reviews about the place - thousands of Chinstrap and Adelie penguins in a beautiful location is not really something I wanted to miss!
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| Arriving at Gorlay |
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| Never will I get bored of them! |
All I can say is I'm fairly glad I made it onto the boat! I have been lucky enough to see a lot of fairly awesome things over the last year, but I can safely say that I have yet to start taking it all for granted. Gorlay was an absolutely incredible place, with penguins on nests, penguins courting, penguins going for little penguin adventures and penguins sliding around on their tummies and leaping in and out of the sea. We did a little bit of work moving some bricks around, but mostly we just watched the penguins and in my case, fell in love with them all over again!
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| Penguin mating behaviour |
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| A LOT of penguins! |
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| Adelie colony |
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| A rather majestic looking skua |
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| More courtship antics |
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| Not looking hugely impressed at having a camera put near him while he's trying to do his thing! |
Eventually it was time to return to the ship and head off for the next
adventure (or at least for the next few days of floating around doing
science work). It still feels incredibly strange to not be at KEP, but trips like this do help to take my mind off it somewhat!
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| Just waiting in the cargo tender to get craned back on board |
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