Blogs

A hot weekend here on South Georgia. Saturday was calm and still - perfect for cooking with the kitchen door open. I've been trying to perfect recipes here for the base members who, in the normal run of work, cook each day for one another. So, having useful bread recipes which work given their kitchen/oven/tins etc is a bonus. There has been a good deal of interest with almost all of the base members attending bread classes with me since I have been here. It's enjoyable - teaching people the few bits and bobs that really make a difference.

bloody rain! today of all days, rain was not required here - for this was the day that we planned to weigh and sex a hundred fur seal pups and 50 penguin chicks. The activity, coordinated by base member Alastair, was part of a regular monitoring programme over at Maiviken - an hour or so's walk over the hill to the west. Torrential rain, thankfully not much wind, greeted the ten or so of us ass we set off on our task - armed with flasks, hugh's brownies and full of high spirits....

As I sit by the window, I can see a stream of low cloud rushing into Cumberland Bay. Just above sea level, it is well below the lower mountains of the Banff Peninsula to the east. Cumberland Bay is in fact a large series of bays and inlets fed by glaciers on the central north coast of South Georgia. The two largest sections of the bay are known as Cumberland Bay West and East - I am tucked into the western coast of the latter, at a place called King Edward point - a kilometre, maybe less, from the whaling station at Grytviken. More about that in a minute.

This is the first time I have had the chance to sit down and write since arriving last night from Stanley. The journey across has taken us six days in total - and it was absolutely fabulous. We sailed on a fishing trawler based out of Stanley - the New Polar - a 75 metre boat that fishes in the South Georgia and Falkland zones. The boat is home to 50 or 60 Spanish, Peruvian and Chilean blokes - an amazing group. There were five of us on board travelling as scientists and observers - taking the chance to see how the fishery works in practice.

So, here I find myself with a mild sunburn. Sitting, out of the sun now, life is good. Cold, iced water and the promise of more to come in a few days, quite literally when I jump aboard the Sil, a Spanish fishing boat to sail to South Georgia. The boat is carrying out a sample survey for the Falklands' Government, so I will be working on the fish survey - factory setting, lots of tooth fish, smelly, cold, wobbly - should be quite an adventure.