MS Bremen

The MS Bremen is a German expedition cruise ship that can accommodate 155 passengers along with a qualified team of naturalists who travel ashore with the guests and also provide informative talks onboard in the comfort of the panoramic lounge. BAS allow 2 cruise ships per year to come to Rothera, where the guests are escorted around base by anyone of us who wishes to be a tour guide for the day. Each tour guide takes a small group and shows them our facilities including the chance to purchase Items from our shop. Bremen staff repay the favour by giving any one interested tours of the ship, plus full use of their hot tub bar and swimming pool. Which a lot of our guys jump at the chance.

For me it was a chance to jump the queues and make my way to the kitchen to see if i could get some nice German fayre.  

MS Bremen nestled nicely against the wharf

With Rob having done lunch, myself, Lewis and Jim who was on gash were well ahead for dinner so we decided that all 4 of us would go to the ship and see if we could cadge  any goods from the chef. The problem we had, was the chef was not in control of food stocks, it was the Hotel Manager we had to speak with. We got down to the wharf and waited to board the vessel, it was quite a wait as the purser had to check their passengers off and our people on. Everyone was designated a tour guide and all had to split into small groups.

Once we were on board, we asked for the Hotel Manager, only to be told that she was working and would meet us at reception at 4:00pm but we were more than welcome to have a tour while we waited. We decided not to have the tour but instead make our way to the bar and have a drink, this turned into our own tour as it took us a while to find the bar! We eventually made it and had a very pleasant drink in pleasant surroundings served by a very friendly member of staff called Titiana, who happened to be the Hotel Manager.  Bonus!  We had a nice chat and at 4:00pm made our way to the reception.

Time was getting on and dinner had to be started, so Lewis went back to the kitchen insisting that i waited until i got at least a German Bratwurst. When i eventually got to speak with Titiana about an exchange of food, it was mentioned to me that she would like to go to our shop to buy some T-shirts, but thought she had no time to get to the shop and back before all passengers had to be back on board. I offered to take her in the gator, get her to the front of the Queue, served and back on board ahead of all the passengers. This was a done deal and the chef came up from the kitchen with a big box of German goodies, i was very pleased with the outcome and kept my side of the bargain.

Our Tour Guides waiting for their groups

Rob waiting patiently to get on board

The groups eventually get off the ship

Dressed all in the same outdoor gear they start their 

tour

Everyone off then we go on

 Rob, Lewis, Me and Jim having found the bar

 Rob and Shoba enjoying a drink

 The Panoramic lounge was very comfortable,

They even had a pianist playing, very civilised 

 View of Jenny Island through the window of the ship

 Success, a happy chef emerges from the ship having

loaded my stock into a gator

 Waiting to take Titiana to our shop

With all the ships coming in and out and tours going on, we are still a very active Research Station and work continues in spite of all the distractions. The Dash 7 landed that evening with 600kg of freshies from Punta, it was a case of bad timing because we had just started to serve dinner. With everyone in the queue to be fed, the message over the radio was, "all hands to help carry boxes to the kitchen". That was my cue to stand by the fridges and direct where i wanted things put, All boxes were soon stacked neatly outside the fridges, we then decided to put it all away after we had dinner.

The Dash 7 lands and gets unloaded, but we had 

to go a different way round as the Elephant seals

had taken the bridge.

All freshies stacked ready for packing in the fridge

Rob re-organising the freezer

Nice to have some fresh ingredients to work with

And the smell is unbelievable when you first open

the boxes

Fridge stocked with a few nice freshies

The wild life has been slow coming this season, the Elephant seals are gradually making their way in but not in any great numbers. Only in the last few days have whales been seen, although not by me! A Minke Whale was spotted a few days ago, Humpbacks have been seen and a pod of Orca was seen yesterday. As for penguins, what i have seen can be counted on one hand! The cheeky chappie below is one of them. This is an Adelie Penguin and has been seen wandering around base