Life Beyond the Beaker

Anna and I decided that we couldn't have another lazy Sunday, so we had our brunch (an incredible fry up) which gave us the energy to grab some Nordic Skis and head up the flag line away from Base. Again we are spoilt by having all of this to use as we wish! So much cheaper than a resort. This was us before... Not in a negative way, but it was great to get off base away from the chaos of lots of people, we are currently have over 80 people at the base with people coming in from the field. So it was amazing to have all of this to ourselves today.... Our mission was to make it to the caboose for hot chocolate!  WE had to melt snow to make it!! haha WE had what would seem like a WI meeting in the caboose at the top of the ridge which is called Vals. Such a mission going downhill on Nordic skis!!!!! Us at the end still smiling :D 

I have the time to write this evening as there is snow flying in every direction, even a step outside will get you soaked head to foot. The theme of this blog is visitors... Penguins are always the most friendly and funny visitors to Rothera. We have had lots of visitors this week, including one of the most amazing experiences that not many people can have, but I feel so honored to have witnessed... Orca orca , one of the most incredible predatory species, especially in Antarctica. Whilst, we were out water sampling, the panda like whales were out hunting. I radioed the dive boat to tell them that they were hunting in the bay, this resulted in the divers having to get out of the water as we cannot dive when Orca are around. We paused our water sampling to watch the Orca who were very close to our boat, the Orca were spy hopping the icesheets for seals; such an incredible sight !! My second favorite was an american taildragger; a Basler BT - 67 ! We have been blesse...

Time to reflect.... Saturday nights are usually a formal dinner, this weekend there was a theme. The theme was 50's Americana! I obviously went so Grease, but unfortunately left my Pink Ladies jacket in Wales!! IT was a great night-  we even had a dance off between the men and woman to ''you're the one that I want.'' On the weekend I had the opportunity to go mountaineering up Stork ridge, I was glad that I had a lie in because it was an epic hike, that was worth it for the view of Sheldon glacier. Looking back at the photos I didn't realise at the time how dramatic the situation was. We were all attached to each other by a line, then we were walking along the peak of the mountain to the summit where either side of us was a very steep drop off. Having a field guide around means we can always do fun things like this! Looking out over the Sheldon Glacier.  The week started off with water sampling, so lots of lab work. In-between...

How many Leopard seals can you spot?     The past few days we have had incredible dingle weather where the sun is shinning and there is hardly any wind. We have, however, not been able to dive due to voldemort like seals called Leopard seals. They have big mouths that are intimidating and a very visual hump behind their head. They can also get absolutely massive. They are usually solitary animals, which is why we were so surprised to see so many floating on an ice flow in the above photo. They are obviously full from feeding as they didn't move and hunt when there was penguins and Weddel seals next to them, if they don't eat either of them then then eat fish. It's also dribbling. So when we see a leopard seal we can not dive for 4 hours, after that a 30 minute seal watch needs to be conducted. Everything has been made much better by seeing a Gentoo penguin which is rarely seen at Rothera!

Penguins are slowly starting to invade Rothera as the snow melts and we are left in a quarry.  This week has felt crazy busy and a bit stressful! After the JCR left we have been all stations back to work, the weather was variable all week changing from really sunny, to windy or low cloud. The weather is highly changeable here, and when I say that it can change within just a few minutes. WAVE...I got very excited, i really want to go gliding here, it would be incredible. I'm working on it.... One of my main jobs is to liaise with Sam and the other scientists to see when it is best for us to go out on the boat and water sample. We need to discuss the weeks weather and what's happening with the phytoplankton bloom to decide when it's best for us to sample. The wind direction dictates most of our limits, for example if it's blowing a strong southerly then all of the brash and pack ice blows towards the wharf where we take the boats in and out of the water, if...

Danger Penguin... we watched him for ages thinking he was going to fall down the hill, the little Adelie managed to keep upright for the whole mission - much to our amazement !  I feel like the past week has been an intense week of sit down amazing meals washed down with some lovely Rioja mixed with intense work as the ship arrived which meant that the base god evaded with lots of new people, along with lots of resupplies for us to unload and unpack! All of this has coupled together for me to loose my voice...much to the annoyance of the base (I joke). The JCR launched a glider and conducted some water samples in our long term sites whilst we waited to moor it up! We had Christmas a day early as the James Clark Ross (JCR) was meant to arrive on the 26th, however it was two days late due to some glider and water sampling work! The ship arrived early on Monday. I along with a few others including the boating officers were responsible for mooring up the vessel, it went ...