18 November 2001 - Signy, then back to Stanley
RRS James Clark Ross Diary
Position at 1200: Stanley, Falkland Islands
Distance Travelled since Grimsby: 13841 Nautical Miles
Air temperature: 19.2°C; Sea temperature: 11.2°C
The past week....
Last Sunday Signy Research Station, in the
South Orkney Islands, was
once again opened up for the summer season. The day was spent ferrying the
personnel and cargo ashore and very successful it was too, managing to complete
the job in a single day. This was helped this year by beautiful weather and a
total lack of sea ice in front of the station as shown in previous updates. The
picture here shows the station in the sunshine and an almost complete lack of snow. Click on the image to
get a larger view.
As the station is now only a summer base it was decided that a way had
to be found to continue the observations of sea ice in Borge Bay during the
winter that had been kept by the people who once lived here twelve months of
the year. To do this a very cunning device was developed to take pictures of
the bay when the base is empty. The picture below shows the camera in the left
hand box looking down in the bay and it's associated solar panels on the right to
keep the batteries topped up when the sun shines.
As Signy is being opened up after being shutdown during the winter
the ship stays at the station until the main vital services have been
established and maintained for a period in case of problems. This year
everything appeared to go like clockwork and the Captain and Station Manager
decided that the ship could head for Stanley by Monday lunchtime. This gave
time on Monday morning for a few people to get ashore and stretch their legs
with one group going over the island on a guided walk to a large penguin
colony. Others however, opted for a potter around the base area to enjoy the
beautiful views the weather and surroundings offered us. The picture here shows the ship lying at anchor in
Borge Bay, with Coronation Island in the background and the aptly named Sunshine Glacier.
With all this energy and activity going on the locals' view on the
proceedings was captured by Jeremy Robst in this picture of a seal
yawning - it obviously finds things all a bit too much!
As the ship was at anchor it was necessary to run boats for people to
"jolly" ashore and the heroes on the day who undertook to spend the morning
messing about in boats are shown below; that of John McGown (left) and Marc
Blaby (right), our "taxi drivers", on the way back to the ship.
The Falklands once more ...
Thursday morning saw us in the Falklands once more, but this time it was first to Mare harbour, the military port in the islands. This was to collect the extra cargo for Rothera Station brought down by RRS Ernest Shackleton, BAS's other vessel. We'd seen her the day before as she was heading for Signy with more personnel, where of course we'd just come from.
Friday afternoon then
saw us move round to Stanley to collect containers we'd left there last call
and mobilise the science cruise equipment. So rather than show you more cargo
pictures at this time we thought we'd bring up the scene on Saturday evening as
seen from the ship, that of a mirror calm Stanley harbour. It was a beautifully
still evening in the harbour- a very rare sight!
This time in Stanley we had our own reminder of summer approaching fast
as the Explorer came in to collect her first passengers of the season and
headed off for a tour of the Falklands and on to South Georgia. It was good to
see her as one of our colleagues is now sailing on her as Chief Officer. The picture here shows Explorer
leaving Stanley. Click on the image to enlarge.
As with any port call, in addition to the cargo and science requirements
there are the maintenance duties to perform and these can have unexpected
bonuses. One of these was had by Scott Baker (3rd Officer) and Derek Jenkins (AB)
while out testing the rescue boat. Hopefully you'll be able to see it when you
click on the picture - the Commerson's Dolphin riding the boat's bow wave.
In fact there was a whole family of them, but unfortunately this was the only
picture obtained.
Man Of The Week
Man of the week had to go to Dave Cutting, our Chief Engineer, who on
Monday reached the grand old age of fifty and had quite a bit of fun taken out
of him during the day. His present from the engineers had to be the best when he
was presented with his own walking frame because he is "getting old".
However, the rest of us could be forgiven for not noticing by the time he
spends in the gym whenever he can!
