Season's End for The Team

We finally made it Stanley on 13th of Jan, a full week before our scheduled crew change.

The time was spent offloading the the ship and sampling the delights of Stanley when time allowed. During this period the vessel was sent out to anchor several times due to the lack of space on the loading quay.

Our sister ship the James Clark Ross arrived a few days later and by the time the crew change took place we were double berthed alongside her. She is busy with the annual Antarctic Science cruise. It was a great opportunity to catch up with folk we seldom see but here lots about.

With the new crew on board the vessel readied for sea and we bid farewell as we were taken up to the airport at NPA. We flew out via Chile this time and were extremely lucky to get some good visibility from the aircraft as we headed north along the Andes mountains, revealing some spectacular scenery.

A walk to Gypsy Cove

Stanley from the Anchorage

The Andes Mountain Range taken from the aircraft heading for Santiago

South Orkneys - Signy

Heading back to Stanley via the South Orkneys -
A stop off at Signy base to replenish the summer
team, undertake a few repairs to electrical equipment and
re-stock the field camps via our small boats.

We broke out of the pack a half a days steaming from the Islands
and were soon greeted by the familiar motion of the open ocean.

That evening stood off Cape Gedes where a two person field party doing penguin studies
were due to uplifted and taken to another site. They were picked up
the following morning and taken to their new destination via a hot shower and
some good food, both rather necessary as they had been without the former
for several weeks.

They spent a few hours on site before we ferried them back to Cape Gedes
loaded with luxuries from the ship to make their lives a little easier.

We then headed off towards Signy base and were lucky enough to experience some
clear calm weather. The fading light of the sinking sun playing on the snowy peaks
afforded us some awesome Kodak moments.

We arrived off Signy quite late but the boat men were soon busy ferrying people to and fro.
Some of the base personnel came on board for a meal and some ships people visiting the Base.

The weather held overnight and our workboat was launched first thing to ferry more personnel and supplies to the base.

A few lucky people were given the opportunity to go for a guided hike around the Island and were picked up by the ships boats on the far side of the island later in day after a memorable experience.

With the re-supply of the huts completed the last boat of the day was sent to pick up the last pax of the day. The weather had by then picked up and the ride back was less than fun but over quickly enough.

Once all were onboard the ship headed out to open seas again. The weather continued to pick up and we had a very rough passage back to Stanley. News from Signy was that weather had changed completely since our visit and Heavy snow was blowing across the Island chasing the “base” elephant seals away which illustrated how lucky we had been whilst there.

We docked early in the morning of Friday the 13th at Stanley bringing to an end our tour down south for this year.










Glacier face



Gentoo Penguin



Elephant seals






















Skua

Reflections

On Passage from Halley to Signy in the South Orkneys
A windless calm sunny day, the almost frozen water
seems to flow like oil. Known as Grease Ice...