Reintegration into society

After leaving Rothera on the RRS Ernest Shackleton, we headed up the Antarctic Peninsula.

Thanks Joe Cox for the photo of me mooring up my ride home! 

On the way North we stopped at a few of the bases, our first stop after most of the new FIDs on board were sea sick was Green Island.

Here Ali, Daze and I completed the 5 year ASPA check.

As a protected island we were collecting soil, moss and lichen whilst checking the Island for any changes or damages.

We then went back on board the ship and went past Vernadsky which used to be an old FID (BAS) base called Faraday (the book by Len Aiery called On Antarctica is a pretty good read about wintering at the base).

I was definitely ready to leave Rothera after a long summer season and ready to start my journey home, I'm very excited so see everyone at home, but at the same time the journey North has been amazing so far so it makes the wait worth it! I've already found it weird looking at the sea and not seeing icebergs floating around! 

We continued up the Peninsula where we stopped at Port Lockroy and Palmer, it was great to visit places I've heard so much about and see a bit more of the continent.

Port Lockroy 

The last penguins I will see for a while?!

The famous post box

Hector pretending to be a bar man back in the day...Daze played along haa

Palmer Station where I met the lovely Sabrina, an ex-marine assistant!

To visit all of the islands we used a small zodiac to get us there, getting through the brash ice at green island was a fun challenge! 

We then started the epic journey across the Drakes passage, which was actually very calm and apparently a 2/10 on the scale of the Shack's roughness!

Whilst on the ship the big group of BAS people from Rothera finally had some time off (when not made to do gash (cleaning)! We then got to the Falkland Islands where our reintegration into society began. Kate and I got very excited about tarmac roads and clover leafs but got absolutely terrified by the choice in the supermarket, using money to pay for things and choosing what to have in a cafe/pub and restaurant! A few of us hired a car and drove around the Island, it was pretty exciting being allowed to 1. drive (a range rover) 2. go where you want 3. not sign out or tell anyone where you were going. Very simple but overwhelming things to get used to again! It was a lovely drive around the island, the best bit was learning more about the Falklands War, it's still very much at the forefront of everyone's mind.

Between attempting to reintegrate into society and go sightseeing whilst enjoying some well needed time off, I've been busy prepping the transport aquarium for the tropics. I've been freezing seawater into ice cream containers as sometimes the tank water goes over 2 0C, so the block of seawater keeps the tanks at the correct temperature. I've also had a few issues with the connections so I've been learning and refining my plumbing skills!




 The main thing I've been doing every day is checking the water temperature of each tank, checking all of the air compressors and also that all of the animals are healthy - so far so good! I complete water changes and cleaning every 3 days which is an epic mission of using the ships uncontaminated pump to pump water in, then this is pumped into a +4 reefer (container) where it cools down to +4, I then have to pump water from the +4 reefer into the transport aquarium where it cools down in the back tank to -1, I then siphon water out of each tank using an eductor system (creates a venturi effect) and then pump water from the back tank into each tank using a submersible pump; it's a pretty epic system!

 Now we are on our way to Uruguay, where we dock in Monte video for 2.5 weeks whilst there is a crew change over and people get interviewed for the new ship. I can't wait to get to Uruguay and go swimming in the sea as the Falklands in a swim suit was absolutely freezing!

Leaving Rothera on the RRS Ernest Shackleton!

Tomorrow we are leaving Rothera on the RRS Ernest Shackelton and making our journey North. First we are heading up the Peninsula and visiting various bases including; Palmer, Verdanksy and Green Island.

From there we are heading to the Falklands to drop a few of the Rothera summer and my wintering team off to catch an MOD flight back to the UK. A few of us are then heading to Monte Video where we are doing a crew change over, I get almost 3 weeks there so lots of beach time and a bit of time to reintegrate into society.... From there it's 3 weeks back to the UK!! So I will be home in mid June ready for the gliding season...if I can remember how to do it!

So excited to start my journey on the ship, but also very sad to be leaving this incredible continent...but who knows, I may return!?