Arrival at Bird Island, South Georgia

I am writing this blog a month after arriving on Bird Island, South Georgia, where I am living and working until April 2017. It has been a full-on, but very enjoyable first exposure to the island and it’s wildlife. Bear with me whilst I try to remember what happened before my sudden and awe-inspiring introduction to this little grassy and boggy rock and it’s angry inhabitants (the animals, not the previous winterers!). We arrived on the JCR several days later than scheduled due to the thick sea ice spreading north of Signy. We came to Bird Island first before King Edward Point (KEP – the base on mainland South Georgia) to see if the weather would allow us to land. We arrived to heavy winds whipping water off the surface of the ocean, and driving snow.

 

We waited throughout the day for a weather window, which we thought had materialized before dinner so we gathered our bags and cleaned our rooms, only to be told that we would be staying another night. In the few hours I had been waiting on deck, my room had become occupied by a cruise scientist, so I spent the night sharing with Ian, the tech joining us for a year on BI. We woke up at 4am the next day, donned dry suits and life jackets, and went ashore.

The view of base with La Roche behind, taken from the jetty.

We were greeted warmly by the winterers, and had a few hours to orientate ourselves whilst the ship decided whether the weather was good enough to send a cargo tender out to us with cargo. After a quick tour of base, we were taken on a walk around the area near base. We went over the hill to SSB (Special Study Beach – where I spend the majority of my time in the summer, working with the seals from a raised gantry), across landing beach where gentoos were nesting, and up to wanderer ridge to see the wandering albatross chicks that were about to fledge.



A sleek wanderer chick, almost ready to fledge.

A downy wanderer chick, with a bit longer to wait.

The tender made it in for a few runs that evening, bringing the cruise scientists ashore to help unpack and to see the island, and our personal gear. We finished the days landing operations at 11.30pm, just in-time for a quick gin and tonic (with ice from an iceberg, crackling as it melts) on the jetty with our summer team before a late dinner and a much needed sleep.

 

The JCR went around to KEP for several days, and returned to give us some fresh and frozen food. In the days in-between, I started to learn my job from Sian, and got to see a bit more of the island. It took a while to get used to the fur seals, which are a lot more aggressive and faster than the elephant seals which I worked with on the farallones. Once you get used to how much space they like, and how they behave in different situations, they are really quite nice! They do have a tendency to be exactly where you need to go though, such as this male sitting at the top of the rope that we use to climb down to SSB.

The beach in-front of base, back when there were less seals.

The base isn't immune to becoming the territory of seals.

The next blog will cover my first impressions of the island, and a few more photos of it’s inhabitants!

A giant petrel and its chick.

 

"Welcome to the Ice"

We left harbour on the 12^th of November, and on the 14^th began to see small chunks of ice floating past. These days saw varied weather, from calm to fairly choppy. Life on board was not boring though, with film nights, a lot of darts games on a rocking ship, and a fire alarm and stowaway drill.

On the 15^th we woke up to huge icebergs, and were promised sea ice before lunch. We went up on deck straight after breakfast, and watched as bergs floated past, whales blew in the distance, and a slither of sea ice on the horizon came closer.

Everyone watched as we entered the sea ice for the first time

We finally reached the ice edge, and the JCR ploughed through. Everyone gathered on the bow to watch as ice shattered and was shunted out of the way. One of the experienced field assistants who I shared a cabin with turned to me, shook my hand and said “Welcome to the Ice”.

The ship was repainted a few months ago, and we watched as flakes of red were scoured off. The noise and vibration of hitting ice with a 100m ship is hard to describe. Later that evening we were watching a film in the dark whilst ramming thicker pieces of ice, and the closest thing I can think of, is when bombs are exploding near a bunker in a film, the noise and shaking scenery is very similar to that of ice breaking. Lying in bed whilst the ship rocks up onto an ice floe, reverses and then rams again is an interesting sensation, slowly angling backwards in bed until a sudden drop as the ice breaks.

Adelie penguins diving off the ice floe

Chinstrap penguins

As we moved forward, we started to see different species emerging, including adelie, and chinstrap penguins, snow petrels, weddell and crabeater seals, and Antarctic terns. We passed Inaccessible Island, and Coronation Island before finally catching a glimpse of Signy and the South Orkney Islands through the snow on the morning of the 16^th. I was eating breakfast as two cruise scientists came to find me, explaining that there was an elephant seal on the ice. I ran outside in a t-shirt and jeans into the snow, pulling myself up icy stairs to see the Southern species that shares a name and shape with double the weight of those that I worked with on the Farallones. The ship had become quite different overnight, not only was the ground covered in ice, but periodically ice fell from the masts.

Crabeater seal, with a scar possibly caused by orca.

Chinstrap penguin

After pushing through more ice, we came to a section of open water leading to Signy. We anchored outside of the bay, and two RIBs were deployed to investigate the state of the landing site. A few experienced people were dropped off on the ice for reconnaissance, and the RIBs returned later into a 30 knot blizzard to re-join the ship.

The next day, half of the ship’s personnel landed on Signy. We left at 7am in the cargo tender, and walked the short distance to base, which was the first experience of land in the Antarctic for many of us. It was nice to get ashore after a week on-board, do some work, and see my first BAS base (which has been running since the 40s). The priority for the morning was for the techs to get generators and boilers started after a long winter of being unmanned. Everyone else separated into work teams. I was in the food stores, breaking ice that had accumulated across the floor. Every tool possible was used, from pickaxes to crowbars. After a few hours this was clear, and cargo began to be stacked. Next door in the freezer store, there was another 3 inches of ice covered by 2 inches of water, which got tackled with a vengeance. We had a break for lunch, sitting on the end of the jetty with our feet resting on the sea ice, watching southern elephant seals fidget on the ice.

 

Next up was re-digging skidoo tracks and digging out snow drifts to make paths around the buildings. After a hard day’s work, we were quickly taken back to the JCR as sea ice was being blown into the bay. The occupants of Signy stayed behind, and rode out a 100 knot storm overnight in their newly warmed base.



 

The next day, another group went ashore to finish base relief, and said goodbye to the summer residents as we headed back North, through the sea ice towards South Georgia, and my new home on Bird Island. On the way, we were lucky enough to be joined by several humpback whales, which spent several hours close to the stationary ship as science devices (CTDs and nets) were deployed into the deep sea.

 

 

The start of the journey South: The Falkland Islands

The flights from Heathrow, San Paulo, Santiago and Punto aries ending at Mount Pleasance in the Falklands went rather smoothly, with the journey taking two days. We stayed the night in Santiago, which resulted in an hour and a bit in a taxi into town whilst fearing for our lives due to fairly crazy driving, which was worth it for an amazing steak and roasted sweet potato. The airport check-in started at 5.30am the next morning, so everyone set early alarms. This was unnecessary as we woke to the hotel shaking violently at 4.30am. It was my first earthquake, lasting about half a minute, the epicentre was several hundred miles away, although it measured at 6.8!

Once in the Falklands, we boarded the awaiting bus which took us outside of the military base, and through barren rocky landscapes until we finally made it to Stanley. We had a day and a half here, so walked to Gypsy Cove past several wrecks.

 

Back on the ship, we listened to several safety briefs, and had a muster and lifeboat drill, we organised all the fresh produce (‘freshies’) in the hold, ready to be delivered to the islands. After seeing food, I decided to go into town one last time, and buy some food for the last time in 18 months. We left the harbour at sunset, with everyone standing on the monkey island (above the bridge) watching birds flying past.

 

There were several Gentoo penguins porpoising towards land, making that two penguin species in as many days. That was soon to be broken though. We moved to a different harbour to refuel for a couple of days, so we made the four hour round-trip to Bertha’s Beach, having heard that there is a Gentoo colony at the end. We were greeted by a few hundred penguins calling to each other, with some on eggs and passing pebbles around, with sheep wandering past the colony.

We sat and watched them for a time, until the sun started to disappear. As we were making our way back to the ship, I saw something near the surf. It turned out to be the 3^rd penguin species in as many days, a King. Now I just need to see some seals!

Watching a sleeping king

We returned to the beach the next morning to try and remedy the lack of pinniped sightings, and were not disappointed. The king penguin was still present, as were South-American terns, a Southern sea lion, and about 8 commerson dolphins. We watched the dolphins for half an hour or so as they were surfing the waves and coming into the shallows.