End of the beginning - 21 March to 27 March

 Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
-Winston Churchill


I hope no one thinks I am being pretentious by beginning with a quote, especially one from one of the most quoted men ever but it seemed apt as Monday the 21st marked six months until we stand on South African soil again and see family and friends face to face (and get to eat fresh fruit and vegetables - I'm not sure which I am looking forward to the most actually, sorry mom).


Anyway, back to the news and in the news this week, not much actually. So I thought that I might as well get around to answering some of the questions that I have been asked and most popular is:

Hungry Tristan chick

Describe a typical week - I thought that I had covered that but obviously some of you don't think so; so here goes. A typical week is well, typical of most weeks else where. I work fairly normal hours, roughly 0800 to 1600, Monday to Friday. Most of my time is spent out of doors except when I have data entry to do or the weather is too bad. This week for instance I had to check the penguin colonies near the base for oiled birds which took up Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was skivvy day, where we divide up into teams and clean the base; one team gets the bathrooms, another the kitchen and the other the lounge, bar and passages. We rotate duty each week and I'm sure you can guess skivvy is NOT everyone's favourite part of the week. Wednesday after skivvy was up Tafelkop for nest checks, Thursday, up Tafelkop again for the Moorhen call counts (and in the vain hope of logging the last outstanding albatross nest partner) and Friday was out to the penguins at Tumbledown to collect feathers for a population genetic study. 


Another routine but irregular part of live here on the Base is getting up at 0300 (usually) when the fire alarm goes off. It has always been a false alarm so far. We believe that the "miggies" fly into the smoke detectors and trigger them. This week was different as I woke at 2am on Wednesday morning to the sound of an alarm, which was not the fire alarm but sounded like a car alarm. Thinking that I must be dreaming I tried to go back to sleep but soon realised that I was not dreaming. So I found so clothes and staggered down the passage to John's room. He told me that the alarm was down at the generators. So after finding a torch I went down to the generator shack. I found Mornay there, staring forlornly at a lake of oil surrounding one of the diesel generators. An oil hose had failed and twenty liters of high pressure oil had sprayed out, covering everything. There was nothing more to be done that night and so we left. The next morning we discovered that we have no spare hoses for our make generators (we have spares for another make, go figure...) and we will have to wait until a spare can be brought to us on the next ship. Hopefully, the remaining generator will hold out until then.

The Glen, site of the old Base, from South Peak. The valley is called Sophora Glen because of the stand of Sophora  trees that grow there. The origin of the trees is a mystery as they only grow there and nowhere else on Gough or any of the neighbouring islands.

Michelle and Robyn came up Tafelkop with me on Thursday and we climbed South Peak. It was the most stunning day, except for the howling wind, the peak was clear of cloud and we were able to get a beautiful panoramic view of the island. It was the first time I have had a chance to do any recreational hiking on the island and it was simply wonderful, probably the best day I have had here to date.

Michelle on top of South Peak

Well, that is it for another week, just want to thank all of those of you who have taken the time to mail me or call me with your news (on that note, congrats to Stefan and Jorina who have now been married a week and a day), I really appreciate it and it is wonderful to have contact with the wider world. 

New nephew, shipwrecks and winter arrives - 14 March to 20 March

So first the big news, my sister has had a son. His name is Cameron Viet, he weighed 2.58 kgs at birth and was 49 cm long. He was born on Saturday last week, so this really should have been in the last post but I did not have any photo's to post so I waited until I did...

So after the momentous news the rest of the week has been fairly quiet with nothing really happening beyond the watch officer of a 250 m long merchant vessel, the M.S. Olivia, falling asleep and running aground on Nightingale Island near Tristan da Cunha. She is out of Brazil and bound for South Africa with a cargo of soya beans. She has broken up and is leaking fuel oil into the sea which will have terrible consequences for the sea- and bird life. You can see photos and read updates on the situation here: www.tristandc.com/newsmsoliva.php
What a complete and utter mess. I guess that officer will be looking for a new career, somewhere far, far away from ships and shipping. Four islands in 1000000 square kilometers and he hit one of them. I have been asked by my boss at the RSPB to check for oiled birds regularly, although we hope that the birds don't travel that far to feed and that the prevailing winds and currents will push the oil North and away from Gough.

Dawn and the Skua dawn patrol

I paid my many-ith visit to Gonydale yesterday, in order to do more nest checks and log the adult birds. I was up before dawn and was rewarded by the most stunning sunrise. When it is not raining here, the weather really rewards you for effort. Winter has definitely arrived because the wind is blowing straight from the Antarctic to us and daytime temperatures are in the region of 8 degrees now.
I was also lucky enough to get to watch a Tristan chick hatch, unfortunately I don't have any pictures because my camera was deep in my bag and I did not want to disturb the adult by getting it out, so you will have to make do with the photo below of another one starting to crack its egg. The whole process took about 20 minutes from start to finish and it is truly something special to behold. The chick is folded up inside the egg like a pretzel and is seemingly boneless because there is no way it could fit into the egg otherwise. Simply awesome!

Dad watching expectantly

The news from the island seems really small and insignificant in the light of the terrible and shocking events unfolding in Japan, first the earthquake and then the nuclear accident, what an awful series of events. We have all been following the events closely and have been overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the disaster. I don't know what to say but my heart goes out to all of them.

Skua waiting for returning night birds

Failures, a party and new arrivals - March 6 to March13

So our attempt to climb Edinburgh Peak ended in dismal failure. We arrived at Gonydale on Sunday evening and looked up into a clearing sky, covered in bright stars. We went to bed full of hope for the next morning only to awake to driving mist and rain. The next part of the hike to the next campsite at the base of the peak, Waterfall Camp, requires a traverse of a high, exposed ridge and we decided that the peak would still be there another day and beat a retreat to base. The worst part was waking up to a stunning day on Tuesday, windless and hot, a rare perfect day on Gough and knowing that it would have been a perfect summit day. Mornay and Robyn, neither of whom have hiked at all before Gough, took a lot of strain, particularly on the long (for Gough that is) descent to Base from Gonydale. So when Michelle and I decided to try again yesterday, neither of them was keen to join us. The second attempt ended much as the first with us again waking to worse weather than the day before. We were momentarily tempted to try push through by a gap in the clouds but it quickly closed and we trudged back to base. Current score: Edinburgh Peak 2, Gough 56 team 0.

At least the trips to Gonydale have given me a chance to get some nest checks and log lots of Tristan Albatross partners. It is also really nice to get out of Base, even if it is only for a couple of days. i think I would go crazy if I spent all day, every day there.

Tristan chick, deliberately not posing

The first Tristan chicks have started to hatch, they are the cutest, tiny little bundles of feathers sheltering under their parents down. Hopefully I will be able to log all the parents before they leave the chicks on their own, only returning to feed them intermittently.

This week was also Prince's birthday and a big party was held to celebrate. The theme was Hero/Villain and which one you were was chosen by random draw from a hat. It was a great evening with loads of pool, dancing, surfing and drinking; too much drinking. Way, way too much drinking. What happens on the island stays on the island so all I can say is that the hangover was a champion...

From left: Elastagirl (Michelle), Zorro (Leonie), Catwoman (Robyn), Jason (Me) and Mr Big (Prince)

A return to Seal Beach, blergh! - Monday 28 February to Saturday 5 March

This week has been a relatively quiet week of good weather, with no storms like last week and no more anniversaries. I have had to return to the hated Seal Beach, which is still over populated with large, aggressive, toothy and smelly seals. I have been weighing and measuring adult penguins prior to the moult which will happen later this month. Man, have the little buggers managed to put on weight! The largest of them are over five kilograms, which is massive for a forty centimeter high bird. Seal Beach is just as smelly and unpleasant as usual so I am glad to report that I managed to conclude the weighing and measuring this week, meaning that I will only have to make periodic visits this month to check for birds with loggers that need to be recovered and downloaded before being put out again at the beginning of April.

Other than the visit to Seal Beach, it has been a pleasant week, with a my first visit to Admirals, the bay just to the north east of the base. You have to abseil to access it and have to jumar up the rope to get out and thankfully Michelle was kind enough to volunteer to come with me, otherwise I would not have been allowed to go as we are not allowed to do that sort of thing on our own. Admirals (despite the presence of seals and penguins) is really, really spectacular. It is a small semi-circular bay surrounded by high cliffs and filled with sea stacks. It reminds me of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, where the movie "The Beach" was filmed but less tropical, sandy and warm of course. There is a wonderful, sheltered spot under a Phylica tree at the top of the cliffs from where you can watch the whole bay, it is a fantastic place to come and sit and unwind.

Admirals

This is being posted today, Saturday, rather than tomorrow because Michelle, Robyn, Mornay and I are leaving early tomorrow for Edinburgh Peak, via Tafelkoppie and Gonydale. Ostensibly the trip is so that I can complete part of the "round-island count" of nesting albatrosses and check nests at Tafelkoppie and Gonydale but really it is so that we can say we have been to the highest point on the island. Just don't tell my boss :-)

A rainbow this morning, hopefully a sign that the weather will be great for our trip