Last Week of the Summer Season

Only 1 day to go before the last of the summer staff and the remaining out going winterers depart on the Ernest Shackleton, leaving us to look after the base for the next 6 months. The summer season is finally over and to be honest I welcome the change and look forward to the drop in numbers, the winter hours of work and the general calm on base that winter usually brings.

The last 2 weeks have been somewhat of a challenge, with even more winter training, internet outage, lots of packing, closing down and winterising certain areas. The Shack came in on Monday, unloaded a couple of containers and took a few of our guys out to Horseshoe Island, which is a relatively unaltered and well equipped British scientific base of the late 1950s,  designated as a Historic site and monument. This was a digging and clean up operation that took a couple of overnight stays, they came back to Rothera on Wednesday where we all got involved with relief that went on into late evening. I had 2,000 kg of fresh root vegetables, oranges and apples which was my priority, while others seemed more keen on the bottles of beer, wine and spirits that we had to painstakingly hand ball up two flights of stairs into the bond. This took all hands on base 2 hours to complete, with a well deserved beer at the end of it.

Rotas have been put up for our winter trips which have now started,  Zac & Tom, Ben & Bradders, Denz & Blair already having had their first week off base, with my trip being the week of the 17th April. The cooks rota has been put up with my team mates signing up to cook on my days off and the night watch rota has also been done with my week on nights being in August. Now we more or less know what we are doing, we just need to see these last few guys off the premises and relax into our winter roles

                                                                                  

                                                                              

I have not seen as much wildlife around base this season as in previous years, although the Adelie penguins are here they are mainly round the point, along with the fur seals that are now on base in their hundreds. The divers are still busy and have to get into the water as often as they can, the problem they face at the moment is that the crane that puts the boats in and out of the water has been taken out to allow the drillers to do their jobs in readiness for the reconstruction of the new wharf. This means that the boat now has to be taken by tractor and launched from the slipway at North bay.

Whenever divers go into the water, we have someone 

on shore watching for Leopard Seals

  

The boat is put into the water from the slipway

Sea Ice in North Bay

Different Icebergs change the scenery constantly

The next few pictures are of the Fur seals we have on base at present so when going for a walk around the point you have to be very vigilant as they can be quite aggressive and will give chase. You definitely do not want to be bitten by one of them. They are lovely creatures and blend into the rock so well that when trying to avoid one you can walk straight into the path of another, as you can see from the pictures.

Here i came across Denzil in training for his winter trip

 

Looking at the wharf from the cross, with  work 

going on
 

The drillers in action, taking rock samples

Rothera with it's first covering of snow, this was
taken from the library

Jen Doc who is also our post master, sorting out 

mail that has just arrived on the Shack

The info board in the dining room keeping us all updated

The information screen giving the current weather.

The max temperature for March was + 6 degrees C

while the min temperature was - 4 degrees C

The Shackleton arrives at the wharf

The view of the Shack from Admirals 

An Impressive Iceberg floats in the background

Relief is underway

Everybody doing something

This will be my last delivery of freshies until November/December next season. I have prepared and frozen, pickled and cured a good selection of fresh ingredients to see me through the next 6 months, this delivery will be to use now as and when. There is 600 kg of potatoes which should be enough to see me through to October, if i can keep them in good enough condition. Below are a few pictures of the gang handballing the delivery into the kitchen for me to organise and put away.

After all the hard work everyone put in carrying the veg into the kitchen, then straight onto the bond move with all the booze being carried upstairs it was into the bar for a drink and to take stock of where we actually are.

There are not many bars in the world with a view like this

With a balcony, where the smokers can go

 

The main change so far is the weather and the nights. As the summer staff prepare to leave, the 24 hour daylight that we experience through the summer is gradually going, with the UK now 4 hours ahead of Rothera we are seeing proper nights and dark mornings. Here are a few pics of the changing light although some of the night shots are not too good as i am still learning my camera and need to get the night settings right. We have had some amazing moons lately and i can't wait to see the night sky through winter.

The weather outside at the moment is very overcast with the wind very blustery approx 25 knots and the temperature  is 0.8 degrees C,  but with the wind chill it feels like -6 degrees C.

I have 1 more meal to do for 62 people which is the lunch tomorrow, as i will be eating on the ship tomorrow evening with the winter team. This happens every year and is a treat for the guys going into a winter, then Sunday the ship leaves and we will be down to 22.

 

The winter starts here, happy days!