Monday 7th March; 8th day at sea
At about 4 a.m. this morning we sailed around Signy Island in the South Orkneys, home to a BAS base. This was a little confusing because I was expecting, given our planned course, not to be able to see land from our cabin window, but when I woke up there was an island off to starboard. Obviously we had changed course at some point.
After breakfast we anchored off Laurie Island, where there was an Argentinian base, Orcadas, and got into the zodiacs for a rough ride into the beach, straight into a force 7 wind with snow flurries in the air. We were met on the beach by the base commander, and Argentinian naval officer and the doctor. The base, which is the oldest continually operating station in the Antarctic, was originally set up as a meteorological station by a Scotsman, who miffed that the British Government didn’t want anything to do with in, handed it over to the Government of Argentina in 1904. It’s now operated by their Navy, both as a meteorological station and other work, notably seismological, but there’s a definite political element as well, as the Argentinian Government claims a large section of Antarctica. Not that we’re much better; I read recently that the money given to BAS from the Government went up by 3 or 4 times after the Falklands war, and we evicted an Argentinian base in the South Sandwich Islands in 1982 and apparently blew it up a few months later without bothering to clean up afterwards. Obviously the British military don’t do hoovering.
Anyway, because the South Orkneys are south of the 60th parallel, it counts as Antarctica, and all territorial claims have been frozen (sorry, couldn’t resist that) for a number of years. We were made really welcome, which was slightly surprising as the Polar Pioneer had been in the previous day, though we did trade some of our fresh eggs and vegetables for a case of Argentinian wine, which might have helped. They showed us around, let us into the small museum, which is the original hut, and is very well preserved – much better than Nordenskjöld’s hut on Snow Hill Island.
They also gave us the best cup of coffee we’d had since leaving Ushuaia. They do 14-month tours, so there’s a 2-month changeover period, which I wouldn’t really fancy much. The only way off the base is by ship and that’s only during the summer months, and whilst the British have a base a few miles away on Signy Island, they’re equally isolated. The base itself is situated on a small neck of land between two mountains, so the wind whistles though, and the beach to the north was crowded with lumps of ice.
The good news was that they seem to have good relations with the British. The officers’ mess had plaques from other ships that had visited, and I was pleased to see that HMS Endurance had been in at some point, and that the BAS base at Signy had given them a plaque. Even if they dated from before the war, then they hadn’t bothered to remove them. We added one as well; one of the expedition staff, Simon Cowell, thought that it was about time Bruce, the man who established the base, should get a mention, and had got a plaque made up in the UK, which he presented to the base commander.
The rest of the day was spent at sea en route for South Georgia. The snow that had been falling at Orcadas cleared, but the wind was still strong. On the subject of fresh vegetables, there was some speculation about how we were managing to get fresh lettuce after over a week at sea. The favourite theories were airdrops or teams of specially trained dolphins meeting up with the ship. Reality was more prosaic; apparently the ship has a very good fridge.
After breakfast we anchored off Laurie Island, where there was an Argentinian base, Orcadas, and got into the zodiacs for a rough ride into the beach, straight into a force 7 wind with snow flurries in the air. We were met on the beach by the base commander, and Argentinian naval officer and the doctor. The base, which is the oldest continually operating station in the Antarctic, was originally set up as a meteorological station by a Scotsman, who miffed that the British Government didn’t want anything to do with in, handed it over to the Government of Argentina in 1904. It’s now operated by their Navy, both as a meteorological station and other work, notably seismological, but there’s a definite political element as well, as the Argentinian Government claims a large section of Antarctica. Not that we’re much better; I read recently that the money given to BAS from the Government went up by 3 or 4 times after the Falklands war, and we evicted an Argentinian base in the South Sandwich Islands in 1982 and apparently blew it up a few months later without bothering to clean up afterwards. Obviously the British military don’t do hoovering.
Anyway, because the South Orkneys are south of the 60th parallel, it counts as Antarctica, and all territorial claims have been frozen (sorry, couldn’t resist that) for a number of years. We were made really welcome, which was slightly surprising as the Polar Pioneer had been in the previous day, though we did trade some of our fresh eggs and vegetables for a case of Argentinian wine, which might have helped. They showed us around, let us into the small museum, which is the original hut, and is very well preserved – much better than Nordenskjöld’s hut on Snow Hill Island.
They also gave us the best cup of coffee we’d had since leaving Ushuaia. They do 14-month tours, so there’s a 2-month changeover period, which I wouldn’t really fancy much. The only way off the base is by ship and that’s only during the summer months, and whilst the British have a base a few miles away on Signy Island, they’re equally isolated. The base itself is situated on a small neck of land between two mountains, so the wind whistles though, and the beach to the north was crowded with lumps of ice.
The good news was that they seem to have good relations with the British. The officers’ mess had plaques from other ships that had visited, and I was pleased to see that HMS Endurance had been in at some point, and that the BAS base at Signy had given them a plaque. Even if they dated from before the war, then they hadn’t bothered to remove them. We added one as well; one of the expedition staff, Simon Cowell, thought that it was about time Bruce, the man who established the base, should get a mention, and had got a plaque made up in the UK, which he presented to the base commander.
The rest of the day was spent at sea en route for South Georgia. The snow that had been falling at Orcadas cleared, but the wind was still strong. On the subject of fresh vegetables, there was some speculation about how we were managing to get fresh lettuce after over a week at sea. The favourite theories were airdrops or teams of specially trained dolphins meeting up with the ship. Reality was more prosaic; apparently the ship has a very good fridge.
posted by Iain Burke at 30.1.06
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