The Antarctic Chef's Blog: A good Start To A New Year

I have been out in the field at Fossil Bluff for the last 7 days with no communication, so there is a bit to catch up on!

New Years Eve

This was quite an eventful day, with everyone on base in good spirits prepping for and looking forward to the New Year's Eve celebrations. However, our focus soon shifted to a more urgent matter, when we heard that the research vessel Nathanial B. Palmer was on it's way in to Rothera with a member of their team needing to be flown north on the Dash 7 in need of medical attention. This was going to be interesting as the JCR could not get through the Ice earlier in the month to bring our Relief, so we were all keen to see how the Palmer would fair!
The Ice although still there was melting and with our mooring team in position the palmer was able to get through and dock at the wharf.

The Nathanial B. Palmer is a research vessel with Icebreaking capability operated by the United States Antarctic Programme, to support science in Antarctica.

With the Palmer safely tied alongside, it was an ideal opportunity for us chefs to try and get on board to see if we could beg, steal or borrow any fresh ingredients that they could spare. With the New Year's Eve celebrations being the main focus of the evening, together with band night in the garage, the Saturday night three course meal and dress for dinner was knocked on the head in favour of a one pot meal of chili con carne with rice. This gave all three of us plenty of time to visit the ship and see if we could intimidate the chef on board into releasing and parting with a few choice ingredients.
we didn't have to worry as both the Captain and the chef were very accommodating and after a personal tour of the ship and a chat with the chef, we came away with a very nice quantity of freshies, including peanut butter and tomato ketchup.

Waiting patiently to board

With 2 Gators we drove to the Wharf

Both myself and Lewis on the Bridge looking out

at Rothera Station

The tour of the ship continues as we are shown

the water sampling unit

In the crew mess Lewis tries to nick American

condiments

The Chef gives us lots of fresh goodies

A good days work and to top it off, the Chef gave us

A magnum each. But don't let any one know!

With Gators full of food and the promise of a British Antarctic Hat for the Chef on board, we went back to the kitchen to fill the fridge and stir the Chilli Con Carne. The Palmer was only at Rothera for about 4 and a half hours and in the end whatever the incident was on board, could not have been too bad as no one was taken off to fly north and by 18:00 hrs the ship had left Rothera with a full complement of crew and science.

They did however, have time for a few of the crew to enjoy Rothera's hospitality with a tour of the base and a few joining in with the Rothera Annual New Year's Eve 10km run.

A good time was had by all.

This ended the day nicely, with our visitors gone and dinner done it was time for me to get changed and make my way over to the garage in time for a quick practice before the night's entertainment.