Port Lockroy Diary - November 2006
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It seems to be little more than a
blink of an eye since the team was leaving Lockroy at
the end of March. The summer has gone by in a flash and
the team has headed back south. The intervening months
have been witness to considerable behind the scenes
activity related to the operation of Port Lockroy.
For the last ten years the
operation and staffing have been managed by the British
Antarctic Survey using BAS ships. But under a new
memorandum of Understanding it was agreed that the
management of Port Lockroy should be handed over to
UKAHT. Rick Atkinson and Rachel Morgan went out to
Washington DC in May to attend the IAATO conference. All
the IAATO members were wonderfully supportive of the
Port Lockroy project and between them have offered to
provide the logistical support in order for us to
operate this season. |
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So Port Lockroy has entered a new chapter
in its operation and is now being run independently of the
British Antarctic Survey. Rick Atkinson has been appointed as
project leader and heads up this year’s team at Lockroy. In
practice there will not be so many obvious changes, just a
continuation of the way Lockroy has been evolving over the past
ten years. There has been lots to think about and achieve
through the past summer months to keep the show on the road.
These included operating permits to acquire, personnel to select
to run the shop and post office, merchandise to order, insurances
to sort out, flights to book, and shipping of goods to arrange.
Somehow, mostly due to Rachel Morgan’s
tenacity, all the above came together in time and Rick Atkinson
took all the merchandise and base requirements in a lorry across
the English Channel to Cherbourg . Here the 2½ tons of cargo
consisting of 176 boxes were loaded onto the Norwegian MV
Nordnorge which had agreed to transport the cargo and two of
this year’s team to Port Lockroy.
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On the 15th October, Rick Atkinson flew to
Buenos Aires to join the Nordnorge. The trip down to the
Antarctic included the Falkland Islands in its itinerary where
Sally Owen, the second member of this year’s Lockroy team lives.
Sally had been busy collecting together the Post Office
materials, fuel and other essential requirements for Lockroy and
was waiting at the dock in Stanley when Nordnorge arrived. The
trip to Antarctica went via South Georgia and Rick and Sally
enjoyed a couple of days there looking round the old whaling
stations and king penguin rookeries. The sea crossing from South
Georgia to the Antarctic Peninsula was quite rough but this is
to be expected so early in the season. A few more landings were
made in the South Shetland Islands and on the Peninsula in wild
really marginal weather conditions before we arrived at Port
Lockroy.
The remarkable thing about our
journey south was how little ice we encountered for this
time of year. At Port Lockroy there was none, - not even
any fast ice in the bay behind Goudier Island .
Serendipity has to be the word I would choose to explain
how things have worked out this summer and during our
journey to Port Lockroy. |
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We seem to have had a
guardian angel looking out for us. All through the summer during
our preparations things just seemed to work out. Any problems
that did arise seemed to solve themselves or an answer would
present it self out of the blue. We just have to believe that
good things happen to people who believe they should.
This was how it was as we headed down to
Port Lockroy from Neko Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula . The
weather had been just about as wild as it gets the
previous 24 hours, fierce winds, heavy snow and huge
rough seas. Giving little prospect of making a landing
at Goudier Island and next to no chance of unloading
cargo, Nordnorge was working to a very tight schedule
and would not be able to hang around waiting for a break
in the weather. |
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This meant that if we did not make the
landing that afternoon we would have to stay on the ship for
another week and head up to Ushuaia and return on their next
trip south.
This in turn would mean not having any time to
prepare for what promises to be a very busy season. Almost as if
by magic as we headed south through the Neumeyer Channel the
weather started to calm down. By the time we rounded Damoy Point
the sea had become smooth and the sun was breaking through the
clouds.
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The tide was high so we were able to land
at the boat shed and as already mentioned there was no sea ice
to be seen. The snow on Goudier Island was hard which made it
easy to walk on. The next couple of hours had to be seen to be
believed. All the cargo came ashore in the Polar Cirkle landing
boats and the ship’s tender, along with a rotation of
the 260 passengers on board Nordnorge. Some of the
expedition staff helped with unloading cargo while
others supervised the passengers. I am sure every one
felt that they were contributing to a meaningful and
worthwhile exercise. In what seemed like no time at all
the cargo was stacked high and dry in the boat shed. |
Everyone congratulated each other on a job well done with a
photograph outside the base. Fond farewells were made and Sally
and Rick found themselves alone at Port Lockroy with another
summer season stretching out ahead of them. Last season it
was well into December before we made it to Lockroy and numerous
ships had visited the station before we got here. This year we
were definitely the first to arrive. There were no foot prints
in the snow. Every thing was exactly as Rick had left it at the
end of last season.
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It was a wonderful
feeling being back, Rick opened the front door that is not
locked and stepped into Bransfield house. All the evocative
smells from this home from home have a strong emotional effect;
hundreds of happy thoughts rush through his mind triggered by
the smell of this old building. All within was in perfect shape,
dry and free from any damage from what the winter had thrown at
it.
Going back outside we took a
longer look at what was going on. The penguins were here
already, busy pulling out stones from the ice and snow
for their nest. The sheathbills were strutting about as
if they own the place. All the breeding pairs already
well established on their territorial ground. The pair
that nests just under the front door welcomed us back.
There seem to be even more sheathbills around this
season and there are a few stories to tell about them
already.
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It has been remarkably easy to settle back
into the routine of life at Lockroy. We both enjoyed our first
night in the cosy bunk room and by the end of the second day
here we pretty well organised. We had a rude reminder that we
were in Antarctica though and that winter was not quite
finished. For most of this first two weeks of the season the
weather has been really cold and there has been heaps of snow
and wind. Luckily though each time a ship has come to visit
there has been a brief lull in the weather and the sun came out.
Most of our efforts since we arrived have been in the shop. At
the end of last season we started a major revamp of the counter
and shelving. This has now been completed with the introduction
of lots more shelving units from Ikea to display our T shirts
and the construction of a really nifty book case and display
unit built over one of the old concrete engine bases (the shop
is in what was there generator shed). We are well impressed with
how well the shop seems to work.
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There are a few more improvements to make
but all the basics are now in place. The other significant
project that we have undertaken since arriving is the
installation of quite a high tech communications station in the
bunk room. In addition to the excellent HF radio which we have
had for a couple of years now, we have installed a VHF radio
base station with a powerful aerial which now allows us to
communicate with the visiting ships from a considerable distance
away. In the past we were only able to speak to them in the bay
at Lockroy which often caused considerable frustration.
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The most remarkable part of our new
communication system is the introduction of email, sent over our
iridium phone. This is an amazing development which we are still
getting use to. Of course all this technology is only as good as
the people that operate it and it is taking a while for us
technophobes to get used to how it is meant to work. Also there
is the question of how much time should we spend on the
computer. We are here to get away from all that stuff right? On
a practical note one snag with all modern technology and that is
the necessary batteries do not like to be charged or used when
the temperature drops below +5 C. Most of the time since
arriving at Lockroy it has been considerably colder than this.
Since operating Port Lockroy as a museum there has not been much
in the way of weather monitoring until now. We have with us this
year an electronic weather station which is set up in the bunk
room. So now we know just how cold it is which we are not sure
is a good thing. It has been very interesting to watch just how
low the air pressure has been falling lately. In the biggest of
the storms to go through since we arrived the pressure fell to
940mb! One of the station’s other useful functions it tells us
the humidity in the bunk room. Even when we are cooking it seems
to stay much lower than the humidity would be in a house back in
the UK.
The Port Lockroy sheathbills have
always made a considerable contribution to these news letters
and this trend is likely to continue. What is behind it I am not
sure but the population of these pugnacious birds is definitely
on the increase. May be it is warmer winter temperatures, may be
their food supply has improved, I am not sure what the reason is
but they are taking over! One of their endearing habits is to
walk or run loudly across the bunk room roof in the middle of
the night. We had learnt to get used to this and accept it as
part of the joy of being here. The trouble is things have
changed this season; these birds’ hooligan tendencies have
attained new heights.
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All the delinquent sheathbills in
the area have taken to chasing each other round the roof
for hours on end through the night and the noise they
generate in the bunkroom below defies imagination.
Another unfortunate development is two
individual birds seem to derive pleasure from tapping with their
beak on the window for hours on end (perhaps seeing a relection
of a 'rival'). What a noise they make. A
few days ago this was going on at around six in the morning and had
got particularly loud, - sufficiently loud to cause Rick to
prise himself out of his sleeping bag and ask them to desist.
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He
discovered to his embarrassment when he opened the front door to
see where all the noise was coming from that it was one of the
expedition leaders knocking on the door to ask if we would open
up early for a ship visit. Rick was wearing his best convict
style pyjamas and must have looked quite the spectacle.
One other terrific improvement this season is the clothing we
have been given from a company called Tog 24. This gear is
proving to be so comfortable, stylish and warm we are reluctant
to take it off. It has also been attracting quite a bit of
attention in the shop because it has the Lockroy logo on it and
looks so good. Thanks again Tog 24.
Just to reassure anyone who might be
concerned life at Lockroy is all work and no play. We have
already enjoyed a few fine walks round the island at low tide
which takes considerably longer than you might imagine for such
a small island. Last night we discovered a new sport. We have
some old dog sledges for display. The rack we built for them is
still buried under the snow.
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So they are waiting down by the boat shed to be put
back on there when the snow goes. We had been talking about dog
sledging with lots of the customers off the cruise ships
yesterday and so when we went for a walk last night we ended up
down by the dog sledges talking some more. Unusually at the
moment the island is so well covered in hard packed snow. It is
possible to slide a sledge from the top of the island down to
the sea in quite a few directions. So for some considerable time
Rick and Sally took it in turns to ride and push the smaller of
the dog sledges down the hill at some significant speed
experiencing a taste of what dog sledging was all about. |
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One of our other pastimes has been savouring some fine
recordings of Scottish folk music of which we are both big fans.
So tomorrow is the start of a new phase in this year’s season at
Lockroy when Jo Hardy our new team member arrives on the Quark
ship Shokalsky, one of the cruise ships to visit us.
Rick Atkinson, Sally Owen, Jo Hardy |
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