02 Sep - The International Festival of the Sea 1
RRS James Clark Ross Diary
Position at 1200:Alongside at the East Side, Royal Docks, Grimsby.
Air temperature: 18.6°C; Sea temperature: 18.4°C
The final one!
It was International Festival of the Sea (IFOS) week here on the James Clark Ross.......
Sorry there was no update last week because of being at IFOS, so here it is....
We arrived in Portsmouth for the IFOS on Wednesday August 22, picking up the pilot at 0915 and proceeding straight to our berth which was in one of the most prominent places of the festival. As soon as we were alongside a tug delivered some pontoon fenders and HMS Endurance came alongside us. She is the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship which works closely with BAS down in the Antarctic, not so much with us on the James Clark Ross, but quite often they link up with the Shackleton to create field depots and support small scienctific parties by taking them to and from small islands which can be difficult to access by boat. Endurance has two Lynx helicopters on board which they use for this. (See the Shackleton's weekly diary for more).
Then it was down to business cleaning the ship and setting up all of the displays that had arrived from BAS HQ. The ship opened to the public at 1000 on Friday and stayed open until 1800. Saturday was our busiest day with us also being open from 0900 until 2130. It was also the hottest, with Southampton (which is just along the road), being the hottest place in the UK that day!
Sunday it rained.......it was a bank holiday afterall!..... and we hosted a VIP lunch on the bridge. We had a Royal visit later at 1630; HRH Princess Anne, in her role as patron of the Festival of the Sea and also the Antarctic Heritage Trust, popped on board for a look around.
Monday was a great day again and we were busy once more. We had a total number of visitors to the JCR of just under 10,000 over the four days. These included many ex-FIDS and ex-ship's staff from years gone by. James Clark Ross's great, great, great granddaughter and family, scientists from previous cruises, mad penguins, Scott of the Antarctic and of course friends and family of the crew and helpers on board, many of whom would never get to see the ship normally. Not forgetting all the rest of the general public who had to queue in either sweltering heat or pouring rain to get on board!
It was great to have you all on board and asking loads of questions, we hope you all enjoyed your visit and will check out what we are up to sometimes via this website. It has to be said that if everybody that got one of our badges has a look then we will be very popular!
We did get a lot of good feedback from a lot of people who said how much they enjoyed their visit and we did notice quite a lot of people coming back for a second look so we must have done something right!
The IFOS photo gallery....
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Rod Arnold explaining the finer points of 'doo' driving to a potential GA in years to come! |
Alex Gaffikin at the 'field camp' display on the aft deck. |
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Hamish Gibson, the ships catering officer, and Nick McWilliam selling souveniers in the shop. |
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Amanda Lynnes our resident bird expert and the stuffed albatross in the UIC room. |
Angus (motorman) and Rag Macaskill (3/E) the ships doormen?....."yur names not daan...yur not comin" in!' |
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Looking towards the aft end from behind the queue. |
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Paul Clarke (3/O) Beki Korb (mad scientist) and Ian Heffernan (2/O) taking BAS to the public! |
Some of the parade characters dressed as Antarctic explorers coming on board. |
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We were also visited by some penguins..... |
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The Royal Navy float at the parade. |
Some more of the parade. |
| Click on images to enlarge. | |
The IFOS Team Photo
Click to enlarge (large photo so you can see us!!)
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So here are all - or nearly all - of us....missing were Ian 'Innocent' Heffernan (2/O), Keith Rowe (ETO), Gerry Armour (4/E), Kelvin Chappell (AB), Luke Trussler (AB), Frank Hardacre (2nd Cook) and some of the BAS staff who had already left.
Starting at the back left corner then;
Lee Jones (Snr Stwd), Keith Dickson (AB), Steve Mee (R/O), Dave Peck (Bosuns mate), Angus Macaskill (MM), Martin Bowen (AB)
Next row;
Danny McManamy (Chief Cook), Graham Raworth (Asst. Cook), Colin Smith (2/E), Colin Lang (Bosun), George Dale (AB),
Rag Macaskill (3/E), Graham Chapman (C/O), Duncan Anderson (C/E)
Next row in front of the tent;
Chris Hindley (BAS), Paul Clarke (3/O), Doug Trevett (Deck Eng), Sharon Grant (BAS), Hamish Gibson (Cat Off), Amanda
Lynnes (BAS), Tracey Macaskill (2nd Cook), John Summers (DOSciOps)
Around the skidoo;
Matt Davies (BAS), Alex Gaffikin (BAS), Carol Pudsey (BAS), Steve Marshall (BAS), Adrian Fox (BAS),
Nick McWilliam (BAS), Roger Kidd (BAS), Alison Martin (BAS)
Lying down......(no change there then!);
Rachael Shreeve (BAS) and Beki Korb (BAS)
On the front of the skidoo;
Linda Capper (BAS), Jerry Burgan (Master), Athena Dinar (BAS)
Thanks for taking some of the photos to Steve Mee, Athena Dinar and the photographer from HMS Endurance.
A few words from Jerry Burgan:
"We are now in Grimsby, having loaded AVCAT (aviation fuel) in Portsmouth before departing
on August 30. Over the next week we will be loading all the stores and equipment
required for the voyage south, and cargo for the Bases for the coming season.
IFOS was a great success for all of us, and as Master I would like to pass
on my thanks to all of those involved from BAS and on the James Clark Ross herself for
the considerable efforts put into the organisation of the event.
Thanks too to all of you who visited the ship - it is refreshing to see the huge
amount of interest shown in the Antarctic, in BAS and in the tools we use
for the work carried out "down there". Long may it continue!
This is to be the final web page from this work period, and my thanks to Paul Clarke
for his valued contribution in running the page for the last few months. Well
done! And thanks to you all for reading it."
Coming up.........
As the Captain says this will be the last update from us as we are off on leave this Friday. After this it will be back to the capable hands of Dave and Simon for the next four months. We will be back again around New Year in Montevideo. So from all of us, byeeeeeeeeee!
