The weather has not really improved since my last post and well, it is really starting to rain on my parade, quite literally. I amazed that Gough has survived as long as it because with the amount of rain we are having at the moment I would have thought that it would have disappeared into the sea long, long ago. To put it in context, the recent floods in the Eastern Cape were caused by about 80mm of rain in about twenty hours. We had 80mm in two hours the other day, which is not unusual and somehow the island is still here and not a muddy streak with some plants floating in it in the middle of the south Atlantic ocean.
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| The weather today for instance, Gough Island is the tiny dot just to the left of the "G" of "Gough" |
The mud is worse too, I've been doing some burrowscoping of Atlantic Petrel Burrows to recover GLS trackers deployed by the biologists last year and for every five minutes the burrowscope spends in a burrow, I spend about half an hour cleaning the lens. As you may have gathered, the burrowscope is not my favourite object and at the beginning of this week when it refused to operate, there was much celebration, I mean sadness. Unfortunately, it was just a loose connection and it recovered quickly and much to my disappointment it is now working perfectly again. Not that it really matters because the Atlantic Petrels are not back yet, even though according to the bird book they should be. I shall persevere with the burrowscoping next week and hope they turn up soon.
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| An Atlantic Petrel, the photo was taken by the '05-'06 Gough biologist team |
The incessant rain means that opportunities for getting out and further than an hour away from base are limited. Which means that I spend more and more time in base with everyone else. For Leonie, John, Prince, Mornay and Robyn (though to a lesser extent) the weather hasn't changed their behaviour that much. They have always spent most of their time in or very near to the Base, irrespective of the weather. However for Michelle and I, who have spent most of every nice day outside it is a major change and not a particularly nice one. There is only so much work that I can do inside and when that is done I am left with watching movies, series or reading books. I really wish Gough was more like Marion Island, where there are huts all over the island, or even if there was just one hut on the northern end of the island it would be great because I could spend some time away from the base and the increasing feelings of confinement and cabin fever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to haul off and start killing people with an axe but some time away would be wonderful. I could go camping but the thought of being trapped in a tent for days on end is worse than staying here so that is out. It also means that I don't have any new photos to post this week but the internet has provided.
I just want to say thanks to all of those people who email, Facebook or call me. It is great to speak or write to you and to hear your news, especially as it is something new and different. It is not that it is unpleasant to speak to the rest of the team here but we are deprived of much in the way of new stimuli and therefore most conversations are reruns of earlier ones and you have a really good idea of what anyone's opinion on almost any topic will be before they open their mouth. So it is you, my dear friends, who keep me sane and give me something to talk about and that is priceless!
The 21st of June is the winter solstice and we shall be having a big party to celebrate as is the tradition at all the Antarctic scientific bases. It will be good to unwind and party a bit.
Have a good week.
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