Vodka, lingerie and baby penguins

Some fairly impressive sea ice encountered soon after departing from Rothera

As a good friend once told me, stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason.  Admittedly this gross generalisation doesn't always stand up to scrutiny, and will undoubtedly cause considerable offense to all sorts of different groups.  However, when you put sailors, Ukrainians who have just spent a year on remote Antarctic base and copious quantities of home-made vodka together, the outcome is pretty much as you would expect.  This was my second visit to Vernadsky and, just like the last time, we received an extremely warm welcome, some great food and shots of vodka (at around 11am).  The base is in a beautiful location and has a long history having opened in around 1947 when it was a British base called Faraday.  This explains why the bar area (interesting story there which I'm coming to) has a very English country pub feel to it.  Apparently carpenters were sent down one year with all the kit to build a jetty or a boat or something like that, but decided (I would assume after a couple of drinks) that what the place needed more than a that was a proper bar.  They therefore spent the season constructing a beautiful wooden bar from the wood meant for the other project and never quite got round to making what they were actually meant to.  I believe fairly soon after this they were told their services were no longer required as their employers back in the UK were (rather disappointingly, but not surprisingly) of the opinion that the jetty/boat was more vital to the base than the bar.  On the plus side, the bar is still standing, and I believe it may have been voted the best bar in Antarctica at some time or another.

A bemused Ukrainian and two very cheerful members of the crew

There are no women living on the Ukrainian base - apparently it was tried a few years ago, and to quote our guide 'it very bad, not done again.'  This probably explains how the tradition of collecting bras from women who visit the base came about and it's clearly been embraced by many visitors as they have a fairly extensive collection. Nowadays the base is visited relatively often in the summer months by cruise ships, and the awesome image of a rather mature and well-to-do female passenger whipping off her bra in the bar and adding it triumphantly to the pile did pop into my head at one point and made me smile.

A colourful and varied collection

After a rather unpleasant experience with vodka at the age of about 15/16 it really isn't something I particularly enjoy drinking these days.  I therefore had my one shot to be polite and made a swift exit to check out the Gentoo penguins.  Since these birds are living much further south than those we saw in the Falklands their breeding cycle is somewhat delayed.  This meant I actually got to see tiny little newborn chicks and some penguins still nursing their eggs.  They might smell a bit, but they are amazing to watch as they bury themselves in their parent's feathers to keep warm or shout petulantly for food!

Going for a little dip to catch some baby food

A slightly slow off the mark penguin

A little hungry I think

Very sleepy baby penguins and a doting mother or father

After some very enjoyable time ashore it was again time to head off to do some more science.  Some people required a little more encouragement than others to leave the base, but I think it would be reasonable to say that everyone had a really lovely day.  The science work we're doing at the moment basically involves collecting large amounts of mud from the sea bed with pieces of drainpipe.  Watching them deploy the equipment gives me something to do while I'm out on my verandah cycling, but generally I think I prefer the kind of science which requires interesting sea creatures to be caught, as opposed to the kind which results in large quantities of pungent mud being brought on board.  You can't have everything though.

Team orange about to launch the mud collecting device

Cleaning off the mud

As mentioned previously, it can be quite difficult to find ways to fill your time when at sea for long periods.  To help with this George (slightly stern Scottish Bosun) has been teaching me how to make bell ropes which has turned out to be a surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable way to pass the time.  He's also taught me how to make turk's heads and splice a 3 part rope which are possibly slightly more useful skills to have seeing as how I don't actually own a bell!

George looking decidedly unimpressed about the fact I'm taking yet more photos of him

My first attempt at a bell rope.  If anyone reading this has a bell that needs a new rope do let me know