HMS Ocean (L12) (IMO: 9079456, Port of Registry: Portsmouth, UK) of the Royal Navy is an Amphibious assault ship (or Landing Platform Helicopter) or Helicopter carrier), the sole member of her class. She is designed to support amphibious landing operations and to support the staff of Commander UK Amphibious Force and Commander UK Landing Force. She is currently the largest ship in the Royal Navy. She can deploy an Embarked Military Force (EMF) of a Royal Marines Commando Group from 3 Commando Brigade supported by aviation and landing craft assets. The ships company includes 9 Assault Squadron from 1 Assault Group Royal Marines. Ocean is also capable of limited Anti Submarine Warfare activities, supporting afloat training and acting as a base facility for other embarked forces including Counter-terrorism units.
She was constructed in the mid 1990s by Kvaerner Govan Ltd on the Clyde and fitted out at Barrow-in-Furness prior to first of class trials and subsequent acceptance in service. She was commissioned in September 1998 at her home port Devonport, Plymouth, Devon. In her sea trial she managed to reach a top speed of 20.6 knots, however her usual top speed is 18 knots now totally fitted out and with the addition of new equipment (Source: Wikipedia).
The air group of up to 12 Sea King HC-4 medium-lift helicopters, six Lynx AH-7 light-lift/anti-Tank helicopters, and four Mk5 landing craft is provided by the Commando Helicopter Force. However, she can also support the Westland WAH-64 Apache operated by the Army Air Corps and helicopters of the Royal Air Force including the Chinook.
Ocean can transport up to 15 fixed wing Harrier[14] aircraft of Joint Force Harrier in the ferry role, but is unable to operate as a fixed wing aircraft carrier.
The HMS Ocean is expected to arrive later this afternoon at the Holland Amerikakade Rotterdam.
The end of season is approaching fast. In less than three weeks I will be on the RRS Shackleton heading north on a 14 day cruise stopping at all the BAS stations doing last call or closing them up for the winter. In some ways I am looking forward to the cruise as it is something I have wanted to do for years but I am going to miss a few things about this place.
Last night at 11:30pm the last two twin otters headed North to Punta and today the two otters that left last week got into Calgary where the BAS planes live for the southern winter. It was an amazing site to see the apron, hanger and the runway all lit up for them to take off. However, as it was a night take off they didn’t do the traditional low fly by. Danny was on SAR so he has the boat on the crane down at the wharf.
This morning the Dash 7 left with 9 people onboard for Punta and north onto Canada. She will be back October 16th when the first summer people come back onto base. Their fly by was pretty low but not the lowest I have experienced – I was out on SAR at South Cove on the boat to wave them off and said good by on the Aero VHF to the pilots Alan and Mark.
We are moving to winter work hours starting this weekend which means no working saturday or sunday and 9-5 monday thru friday. So more time to head out into the hills and bag some more peaks.
I didn’t really write a lot about my week at Fossil Bluff and seeing as at the moment we have had a few days of bad weather on base and I have only been doing paperwork I thought I would write a little about what you do at Fossil Bluff. The place is a fueling stop for the twin otters taking field parties south into the deep field. We make sure the runway is clearly marked and the flags and drums are maintained. When a plane comes in we man a fire sledge and give them the latest wind speed and direction and after landing we fill them up with fuel from the drums.
So basically you are a fuelling attendant and also a met observer when you are there. Every hour we do met observations for the airplanes and call Rothera on the HF radio with the information which includes – wind speed, direction, dew point, temperature, cloud cover and height, contrast and horizontal definition, pressure etc.
This is the met office at Fossil Bluff! The file folders have reports going back to the early 60’s when the base was used as a base for geological studies. They had a few dog teams at the hut to get field parties further south and across to the antarctic peninsula.
This picture shows how anything that is left on the snow eventually melts in and then freezes in so it is a daily job to hack away at the ice with an ice axe and make sure that drums of fuel stay on wooden pallets so they can be used and then the empties removed back to Rothera. In previous decades the drums were emptied and then left but now BAS is being responsible and all dunnage is taken out. We spent a few days digging out dunnage from the ice from many years ago.
Some days planes don’t come in but we still have to do the met obs but we can do them on the satellite phone allowing us to go for climbs and walks in the local area.
The Clipper Race is on the Pacific leg from Qindao to San Francisco and facing the toughest conditions to date. Below is an excerpt from their regular email update.
The last 24 hours have brought another reminder that the ocean gives no quarter to the crews taking part in the Clipper Race - this is serious racing, through towering seas and gales, extremes of heat and cold and, as is forecast in the next 24 to 36 hours, periods of little or no wind at all.
Describing the conditions he and his crew have just come through, Spirit of Australia’s skipper, Brendan Hall, says, “Last night was black as the ace of spades and windy enough to blow the hair off a wet dog. The waves were large and very powerful and their white, foaming crests loomed up ominously over our stern. Several of them broke over the transom, filling the cockpit up with white water. Our bowman, Andy (Rose, a journalist) found smug pleasure in observing that the back of the boat was, for once, wetter than the front.
“We’ve had very testing sailing conditions and the critical decision for me was saying when to back off and slow down, so as not to over-stress the sails, rig and deck gear. After one particularly vicious 45-knot gust, we dropped all sails except one and slipped along cautiously until the wind had eased.
“As always, we are thinking long term victory, not short term glory and, after sustaining bad sail damage in similar conditions on Leg 2, we have learned this lesson the hard way. I am proud to say that Spirit of Australia and her crew survived the first of many testing gales the North Pacific undamaged, undaunted and now back to racing 100 percent.”
“Last night we experienced the strongest winds and biggest seas we have seen since leaving Hull on September 13 last year,” confirms Jamaica Lightning Bolt’s skipper, Pete Stirling. “After dropping the mainsail to make some essential repairs we ran with just the staysail through the night until first light this morning. Before hoisting the staysail we were making 7 knots with no sails at all then after it was hoisted were averaging over 10 knots. In the middle of the night the on watch recorded a speed of 19.6 knots whilst surfing down the face of a big wave. Given how far offshore we are it is surprising how confused the sea state is as by now we should be seeing more regular ocean rollers. Because of this confused sea state we had a few big waves side sweep us in the middle of the night knocking the boat on her side and filling the cockpit with water. Undeterred the boat picked herself up every time, as did the crew, and carried on with the chase to catch the leading boats. Despite a sizeable gap between us and the leading three boats there is still every chance of getting a point or two at the scoring gate. “
This reminded me of Brian Luster’s account of the race during the same leg. Tough, tough sailing. You can read more about Brian’s account with this post and the subsequent daily logs.
I am not sure if I am the first but I certainly won’t be the last to welcome a new nautical blogger to our midst, Captain Black’s Sea Chronicles. From what I can ascertain, Captain Black is a 24 year old sailor who is lucky enough to live in Annapolis, sails a Catalina 30 in Chesapeake Bay (lucky bugger!), races a lot and has taught sailing. He is also reading the best sailing book ever, a A Voyage For madmen. Top Man!
Here is a bit about his blog in his own words:
What You’re Going to Get: This is basically going to be about me and my sailing adventures.
That includes my continuing work towards my captain’s license, my weekend outings out on the Chesapeake and connected waterways, possibly some Wednesday & Sunday night races (if I can work out some type of deal at work to leave early on Wednesdays), repair/general work notes, maybe a bit about shipping, sailing related thoughts and musings, my inevitable attempts to buy a boat, prep work for my circumnavigation and eventually the log entries of my circumnavigation.
Today’s SotD is the CMA CGM Parsifal (Flag: Liberia, IMO: 9318060). The ship is capable of transporting about 8,200 teu and has a capacity for 700 reefers. She is 335 meters long, 43 meters wide and has a deadweight tonnage of 100,800. The vessel was built in 2006 by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Korea and is managed by E.R. Schiffahrtsgesellschafts MBH, Germanyand is currently sailing on CMA-CGM’s Far East - North-Western Europe line (FAL3).
The Parsifal is scheduled to enter the port of Rotterdam later this evening with destination ECT Delta terminal.
Today’s ship of the day is the recently delivered MSC Danit (IMO: 9404649, Port of Registry: Panama). This container vessel is 365 meters long and 51 meters wide. Due to her design with the superstructure midships, she is capable of transporting about 14,000 TEU, more than Maersk PS-class (amongst which is the Emma Maersk). One can argue about the looks of this vessel, however the design ensures for better stability and lower trim for higher speed, when the ship is fully loaded. The main engine of the container ship is MAN B&W 12K98MC-C with full output power of 72,240 kW. This power is enough for the ship to reach maximum speed of 25 knots. The MSC Danit is operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company on their Far-East to Europe loop.
The MSC Danit will arrive later tonight at the ECT Delta terminal, Rotterdam from Felixstowe and will depart within 36 hours.
Raritan Yacht Club in Perth Amboy NJ is having an open house:
The RYC Open House is coming on March 20 from 1 to 4. If you ever wanted to learn more about RYC, now is your chance. We will be hosting club tours, there will be live entertainment, some munchies, and members who can talk about the cruising, racing and entertainment opportunities that come with RYC membership. Come on down!
Details about how to get there can be found on RYC.org or by downloading this file
When the Gould came in for calibration of our CDT and Gould night we also did an oil spills excercise. The ship had according to the scenario got a hole in the port side tank and was leaking fuel out. So the people on base that had been trained in oil spill response went to work. We slipped launched the boat in North Cove and came around to assist in putting the boom around the stern of the boat.
The fast tank was assembled and the skimmers by the guys on land and we then pretended to skim the fuel off the surface into the tank.
A month ago or so we walked Reptile Ridge past Repeater Buttress but then it was late in the day so we came off about half way to Vals. On Saturday we made it one little bump before Vals and then abseiled down off the ridge. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.
The Eleonora Maersk (IMO: 9321500, Port of Registry: Svendborg, Denmark) is, together with her sisters (amongst others) ‘Emma Maersk‘, ‘Estelle Maersk‘, ‘Evelyn Maersk‘ and ‘Ebba Maersk‘, the largest containership ever with a total teu capacity 11,000 teu (of which 1,000 forty foot reefer containers) according to the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group. A total capacity of 13,500 teu is also possible when containers are not fully loaded. This capacity is possible by stacking the containers in 22 rows wide. Maersk calculates the teu capacity with loaded containers. The vessel is 397 meters long, 56 meters wide, has a depth of 30 meters and a deadweight of 156,907 tons. Amazingly, all this size and capacity requires a crew of only 13. The specially designed Wärtsilä diesel engine delivers 80,000 kW. A waste heat recovery system is installed to optimize the use of the energy produced, so that the engine can deliver up to 90,000 kW. The vessels in this series will also establish new standards for safety and environmental responsibility. Environmentally-safe silicone paint, for example, is used on the hull, below the water line, reducing water resistance, and thereby fuel consumption, by 1,200 tons per year. The ship was built by Odense Steel Shipyard Ltd in 2006. The new MSC vessels, amongst which is the MSC Danit are smaller in dimensions, but can transport more TEU than the PS-class vessels of Maersk, due to their smart design (which doesn’t give the vessels the best looks).
The Eleonora Maersk is expected to arrive later this afternoon at the APM terminal, Rotterdam from Algeciras. Tomorrow, the vessel will set sail for Bremerhaven.
The Eleonora Maersk seen arriving at Rotterdam at January 24, 2007. Many thanks to Rene Nicolaes of Sea-Ships.com for the photo!
Yesterday evening I was lucky enough to attend “Sir Robin Knox-Johnston - a Life in Sailing” at NYYC. Sir Robin is in New York to receive an award from the Cruising Club of America and was able to be a guest speaker at NYYC while he was here. Not surprisingly the place was packed.
As readers of this blog will know, I am in awe of the man and his accomplishments. I have never seen him in person and he did not disappoint. As expected, he is down-to-earth, humble and very engaging - funny in a dry British way. He told his sailing life story and he had some wonderful anecdotes. His single-handed non-stop circumnavigation and victory in the Golden Globe Race in 1968-69 was only the start of a great life in sailing and in fact the rest of his life is just as interesting.
For much of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, Sir Robin had been given up for lost. His radio transmitter died in the Indian Ocean and after a mail drop off Australia he was not heard from for months. His family feared for his life. He finally was able to make contact in the last few weeks of his 312 day voyage when he encountered a British ship on Easter Saturday who relayed that he was safe and heading for home.
The next day, the priest in his church back home was delivering the Easter Sunday service and inserted into his sermon that it was only appropriate that although given up for dead, Robin Knox-Johnston would reappear on the day of the resurrection.
A few days later, he made the Lizard and was within reach of Falmouth and the finish line. After 312 days at sea, he was craving “a pint of beer, a steak and a bath in that order”. He was asked by the race committee what his ETA was . He said that he thought he would make Falmouth at 9 am. “Er, would you mind delaying?”, came back the response. “Why?” “The Mayor of Falmouth will be welcoming you with his wife and she has a hair appointment later in the morning so could you sail around for a few hours while she prepares.” Sir Robin did just that and finished obligingly at 3 pm.
The rest of his life has been filled with challenges of equal magnitude to the Golden Globe. Most notably he became president of the Sail Training association,a British organization that teaches young people about life at sea and more importantly about life - period. He talked powerfully about the impact that the two week voyages had on teenagers from blighted urban parts of Britain. In his words “This is what made life worthwhile.”
At the end of his presentation he was asked why he loved sailing. He was a little stumped by this. It’s a simple question that requires a big answer. For Sir Robin Knox-Johnston it was about two things. Firstly, it is because it offers so many different aspects. Whether it’s the thrill of competition (and make no mistake, he is very competitive) or it’s the relaxed joy of cruising with family. Secondly and more profoundly, it’s about freedom and the ability to be in charge of your own destiny.
At the end of the evening, and at the heavy coaxing of the party I was with, I went up and introduced myself. I felt a little like a teenage girl meeting the Jonas Brothers but he could not have not have put me more at my ease. Hearing my accent he asked me where I was from and we talked about the Clipper Race. He then went off and had a cigarette.
Waiting for the wave on the ramp in my boatsuit as I had come straight from SAR.
Evacuated to the traverse waiting…
At 6am on Saturday morning the fire alarm went off so we dragged ourselves out of bed (only half hour early in my case) to the tagging board all thinking bad thoughts about the person who had burnt the toast. Well it wasn’t toast… The Base Commander had been called by BAS as due to the Chilean earthquake the USCG had put out a tsunami watch for the Antarctic Peninsula including where Rothera is! We were told originally that it was meant to hit at 7am and we were given the option to make our own choice as to what we wanted to do. However, the watch was changed to a warning that we could see this wave hit Rothera at 10am so John made the decision to require a full evacuation of station.
All the airplanes were to take to the skies and head towards the Falklands. Everyone involved in the air unit went to work to get all the planes in the air by 9:30am and that meant that I had to provide SAR cover with the boat until they were in the air before retreating with the rest of the base up the ramp to the high ground of the traverse. The heavy machinery was taken to as high ground as possible. Survival and SAR equipment was taken up to the caboose including tents set up and extra food. So it was all go on base. In the end there was a 20cm rise in sea level for a short period of time. So lots of excitement at Rothera.
Learn to sail in Ventura County at Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor this Spring. There has never been a better time. We are celebrating five years of operation here by offering the lowest sailing lesson prices ever! That’s right…you can get private sailing lessons at our award winning sailing school and earn American Sailing Association certifications at nearly half off our 2009 prices and at even less cost than when we began our sailing school in 2006.
In addition to our lower lesson rates, for a limited time, we are also offering $1000 off our joining fee to become a Member. When you add this all up, our new pricing saves you thousands of dollars. We want you to keep as much money in your pocket as you can – and – enjoy the SailTime sailing lifestyle at the same time. You can have it all!
The SailTime sailing lifestyle is unlike anything ever before. You sail a new, fully loaded Hunter yacht,
as little or as much as you like each month for a tiny fraction of the actual cost of owning a boat. You pay one monthly fee. No loan payment. No insurance payment. No dock or storage fees. No maintenance fees! When you come down to “your” boat, it is clean and waiting for you. It just doesnt get any better than this! SailTime is perfect as a family pastime on the water. It’s great for couples and it provides an invigorating way for friends to get together and enjoy our remarkable coastal waters.
Sailing lessons are more than just a convenience at our SailTime base. We require that our members be trained to at least the ASA103 level before they are allowed to sail their boat without a Captain on board. Ocean sailing demands a variety of skills and confidence which our private sailing lessons are designed to teach you.
ASA 101 is also known as Basic Keelboat Sailing. In this group of lessons you will spend about 15 hours on the water with your instructor sailing your SailTime boat. In this comprehensive module you will learn all the parts of your boat, rules of the road and basic navigation. You will sail on all points of sail and practice leaving and returning to the dock properly. See the complete course standard here. There is a written test and practical on-water test to earn certification.
ASA 103 is also known as Basic Coastal Cruising. It picks up where 101 leaves off and we like to teach them concurrently so that you are immersed in sailing. This module also consists of about 15 hours of one on one sailing time with your instructor. Time spent deals a lot with safety and seamanship skills designed to create a competent sailor capable of commanding a 33-36 foot yacht in light to moderate conditions. See the complete course standard here. There is a written test and practical on-water test to earn certification.
The great part about SailTime is the end of these first lessons is not the end.
It can be just the beginning. Sailing is the kind of sport that requires you practice it to stay competent. In the “old days” that meant your next step would be to buy a boat. With SailTime that just isn’t necessary any more. Sure, your goal may be to buy a boat. In fact, about 30% of the people who join our program go on to buy their own boat after they gain experience with us. But for about 50% of the people who join, SailTime fulfills their sailing experience entirely. The other 20% were just passing through, which happens too.
Right now, you can pick your dates for lessons. The sooner you get started the looser the schedule is. But there are only so many days available so why not get started now? With our new, highly competitive lesson pricing it’s going to fill up fast.
The CMA CGM Norma (IMO: 9299812, Port of Registry: Marseille) is an in 2006, by Hyundai Heavy Industries built, Post-Panamax container vessel, capable of transporting 9415 teu. She is 350 metres long, almost 43 metres wide, has a maximum draught of about 14.5 metres and a deadweight tonnage of 107,200. The CMA CGM Norma was the first of eight super mega container vessels deployed in the new European (FAL2) service jointly operated by CMA CGM and China Shipping. Her sisters are the CMA CGM Rigoletto, CMA CGM Medea and CMA CGM Fidelio.
The CMA CGM Norma is scheduled to arrive later tonight at the ECT Delta Terminal, Rotterdam with the last port of call at Le Havre. She is scheduled to depart within 36 hours.
The runway is slightly uphill so took some effort as the slight downhill was upwind so that didn’t give me any relief. At 1.45km it was many many times around. I ended up carrying some pebbles and leaving them at the end so that I knew how many times I had gone around!
The shadows got longer as I got to the end of the 21.9km half marathon on skis.
Tired at the end at 9pm at night after 4 1/2 hours on the skis.
It was a rainy morning which is strange in its own right around here when news reports began to make the rounds that a tsunami of some sort might find its way to Southern California. NOAA even set a time of about 12:30 here. So, I set about getting my chores done so I could be ready (to do what I’m not sure) at the boats. At the very least I wanted to see the docks move. The time came and passed and there was nothing that I could see. So after about 15 minutes I drove back home.
As I rounded the corner the water at the harbor mouth looked more like a river than a bay and I dashed up to my room to grab the camera. Any camera. All batteries were dead. Ack. Ran for the VHF. Yup. Dead battery. I plugged everything in and ran onto the deck to watch the show that had at this point subsided.
You can see why the Powers that Be got excited about this Chile Tsunami with this animation of the 1960 Chilean tsunami
The phone rang and it was Mike, a Member of Bodacious who was down at the docks reporting they had just moved significantly. I got enough juice in the VHF to turn it on and hear a “imminent threat by tsunami of 6-8 feet” pan-pan on it. Apparently the peak of the waves was about a half hour away. Soon after, the commercial fishing fleet tore out of the harbor en masse, as did the oil rig tenders and the big CIA looking ship that’s been hanging out at Hueneme lately. I looked down at my truck with a heavy heart and seriously considered getting in and driving away.
Finally, I had enough juice in one camera to catch the “big one” at about 1:45 pm. The water receded about 3 feet from the harbor. That meant over at kidee beach, the swimming area floats, were dry. There was a huge beach below the Jetty and a steep ledge was created where the dredged channel was. The channel itself was full of whirlpools and looked like a running river as the water receded out of the harbor. By now, Mike had come out here and was down on the “beach” in front of my house catching the action as the harbor drained and then in short order, began to fill up again. I think my video will be hard to tell. But I think Mike got some of the dynamics because he was up close on it.
All in all, this was not your average day at the harbor! As soon as I have a charge I will download the video. My heart goes out to the poor people of Chile suffering the consequences of such a massive earthquake.
When I first got to the coast, I had fled from a lifetime of what I referred to as “snow farming”, aka working in the snow skiing industry. I wasn’t going to have to worry much about weather anymore I thought wistfully…after all if there was going to be any weather it was going to be coming from out across that ocean and we would know everything we needed to know about it, right? I really couldn’t have been much more wrong. Weather here. along the upper reaches of the Southern California coast is pretty unpredictable sometimes.
We lie in the lee of North America’s “Cape Horn”, known as Point Conception. It’s interaction with the sea helps create a layer of unknown. To our East lies a mountain range that reaches high alpine altitudes which then spill out onto the Western edge of the Great Basin Desert. To our Southeast are the Santa Monica mountains. They help guarantee our weather will be different than on the other side!
When storms approach from the Northwest as they often do, the location of the low can determine what the outcome may be. It can stay offshore or run down the East side of the Sierra’s creating entirely different storm situations.
Today, the “Dock Commodore” and I had to make the tough decision to cancel our monthly Full Moon Frolic. It’s a popular Member-run fun event that everyone enjoys a lot. Mind you, the general forecast for our impending storm has been revised three times in three days. When the prognostication was that the system had slowed it seemed like it would occur during the Frolic itself so that was the signal to call it off. I like to caveat any of my predictions by saying, “now it can be nice”.
I’ve been running my amateur weather station here for some years now and continue to find new tools to help. The original NOAA graphical is still good to use for comparison against the hybrid SailFlow. Lately I’ve also been using WindMapper and WindFinder. They are good to get to know because in many cases, if you travel to sail they will be what you use. Over on the weather page I also have a variety of jetstream and surface pressure maps as well as radar and hybrid aggregators like StormPulse. Not only are there forecasting tools, you can find out what the weather is like here right now without leaving home.
I’m all set for it to be a beautiful clearing evening tomorrow now that we’ve made our predictions. But I feel better making the call to give people coming from near and far a decision in time for them to be able to change their plans.
The day winter decided to come to Rothera with large amounts of snowfall.Terri and I managed to beat the season record with a dive time of 30 seconds shy of an hour. We had air left to complete the hour but had collected the Latties we needed to so headed to the surface.
This is a picture of us getting in the water which was covered in a mix of Shuga ice and Brash Ice as well as Icebergs. We were in collecting Laternula elliptica which are molluscs that have to be dug out of the sediment very carefully so as not to break their delicate shell. Patience is needed.
Last week when I was on my way back from Fossil Bluff Tris (comms guy) came up on the HF to ask me about my sailing experience as Skip Novak was sailing by base on Pelagic. Due to swine flu we are not allowing any private vessels or cruise ships stop at base this year. After landing I took a dive out to Rose Garden and also we stopped by a boat that was anchored between Donnelley and Anchorage. It turned out to be Isabelle Autissier on her boat Ada II. Isabelle is a legendary french singlehanded Open 60 sailor. We ended up having tea and biscuits on the boat and provided weather information for them for two days while they stayed at anchor and weathered the 35 knot northerly before heading south for some climbing.
Justin the chef does not like making puddings. Last week he asked me to come in an make them if I had the time. So as well as making the smoko treats I did the puddings – this week I did crunchy chocolate cornflake balls, cheese straws, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate chip muffins and some savoury scones.
On Monday I was on Gash so I made profiteroles which means piping 320 balls of chough pastry and then filling each one with cream after cooking them. I made a chocolate sauce of chocolate, milk, butter, honey and a dash of coffee. On tuesday I didn’t have time as there was so much going on at the boatshed but on wednesday I was back in with a steamed lemon sponge cake and custard. Thursday was a sticky chocolate marbled cake with a chocolate sauce. I had friday off as I was busy with Clive doing a second night in the crevasse. So many people wanted to go on the crevasse trip on thursday we had to do two nights in a row.
For Saturday night dinner which I ended up missing as I was up the hill staying in the caboose I made chocolate mousse in individual ramekins with rasberries and a bit of icing sugar on top. So a week of cooking in the kitchen I think I will have the week off this coming one!
Winter is coming here on base with two days of snowfall making the skiing at Vals beautiful and making the base look less like a quarry! The nights are drawing in and it is getting dark at 10pm now and not light until around 5:00am so gone are the days of 24 hour sunlight.
On Saturday we had Folk Night which is when people can get up an do an act everything from showing a slide show to reciting a poem and of course singing, dancing and playing an instrument. People put a lot of effort into their acts and many of them were very funny. The field assistants who had just returned from a project on the Rutford Ice Stream did a brilliant rap act all about their time on the ice dressed in field clothing with chains of carribeaners and compasses around their necks. I guess you had to have been there! Matt Doc did a video for the winters going back into society about how to act in the real world. The BBC Frozen Planet team did a great 10 minute video with footage of the Wilkens Ice Stream and the dive team at Rothera.
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A month ago or so we walked Reptile Ridge past Repeater Buttress but then it was late in the day so we came off about half way to Vals. On Saturday we made it one little bump before Vals and then abseiled down off the ridge. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.
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Last week when I was on my way back from Fossil Bluff Tris (comms guy) came up on the HF to ask me about my sailing experience as Skip Novak was sailing by base on Pelagic. Due to swine flu we are not allowing any private vessels or cruise ships stop at base this year. After landing I took a dive out to Rose Garden and also we stopped by a boat that was anchored between Donnelley and Anchorage. It turned out to be Isabelle Autissier on her boat Ada II. Isabelle is a legendary french singlehanded Open 60 sailor. We ended up having tea and biscuits on the boat and provided weather information for them for two days while they stayed at anchor and weathered the 35 knot northerly before heading south for some climbing.
