Noon position : 64* 54’S 63* 42’W Sea temperature - 2.2C Air temperature - 5.0C
We motored through the night until anchoring at 0330 hrs in Port Lockrey, Wiencke Island. I.had the 0600 to 0800 anchor watch and when starting the watch I saw that the sea had frozen over during the night. The sun was quite bright however and in a couple of hours it was warm enough to have melted most of the ice. Having the sea frozen over meant that icebergs did not move very easily so it made the watch much easier
.
At 0930 hrs we all went ashore to the Port Lockrey Station, established in 1944 by the British Forces to keep an eye on any German Forces that may have been down here during thee war. The station was in use until 1962, deteriorated, then restored by the British Antarctic Heritage Trust in 1996 so that it is now a museum, gift shop and British post office where items postcards can be posted. Our postcards would be in the UK quite quickly as a ship was due in two days that would take the mail to Port Stanley in the Falklands (the only way from here) and then flown to the UK for distribution. In all a quick six weeks delivery time.
The station was staffed by four volunteers for a four month period during the summer. This summer it has four women there (a dentist, artist, Canadian dog sleigh driver and a travel guide) and they all live on the island with no zodiac or any other means of travelling around. They rely on company from the passengers and crew of touring yachts and cruise ships of which there are many during the summer season and some take them to other heritage sites where they carry out maintenance on the buildings.
The buildings were surrounded by Gentoo penguins, very noisy in the morning as I heard this morning, and one of the other thing the volunteers do here is to carry out research to show if there is any adverse effect of tourists on part of the penguin population, keeping a section of the penguin colony as a no go area for comparison purposes.
The Nissen hut was built in 1944 but that was not able to be entered. On our return to the ship it was warm enough for us to have lunch on the deck.
With people sunbathing all over the ship we left to go whale sighting and sampling again then returned to Port Lockrey to anchor for the night as it was the nearest safe anchorage after finishing chasing whales. A beautiful nasi goreng was served for dinner.
We motored through the night until anchoring at 0330 hrs in Port Lockrey, Wiencke Island. I.had the 0600 to 0800 anchor watch and when starting the watch I saw that the sea had frozen over during the night. The sun was quite bright however and in a couple of hours it was warm enough to have melted most of the ice. Having the sea frozen over meant that icebergs did not move very easily so it made the watch much easier
.
At 0930 hrs we all went ashore to the Port Lockrey Station, established in 1944 by the British Forces to keep an eye on any German Forces that may have been down here during thee war. The station was in use until 1962, deteriorated, then restored by the British Antarctic Heritage Trust in 1996 so that it is now a museum, gift shop and British post office where items postcards can be posted. Our postcards would be in the UK quite quickly as a ship was due in two days that would take the mail to Port Stanley in the Falklands (the only way from here) and then flown to the UK for distribution. In all a quick six weeks delivery time.
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| The penguin guards |
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| Chains round the rocks so the whaling boats could tie up to |
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| Wooden sledges |
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| The hut repainted in the original colours |
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| Bath time |
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| Kitchen, with Aga. |
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| Bed with painted pin-up |
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| Doris Day |
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| Seal skin trousers? |
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| The insides of an old radio |
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| Unapproachable hut with the seals and penguins living there |
The station was staffed by four volunteers for a four month period during the summer. This summer it has four women there (a dentist, artist, Canadian dog sleigh driver and a travel guide) and they all live on the island with no zodiac or any other means of travelling around. They rely on company from the passengers and crew of touring yachts and cruise ships of which there are many during the summer season and some take them to other heritage sites where they carry out maintenance on the buildings.
The buildings were surrounded by Gentoo penguins, very noisy in the morning as I heard this morning, and one of the other thing the volunteers do here is to carry out research to show if there is any adverse effect of tourists on part of the penguin population, keeping a section of the penguin colony as a no go area for comparison purposes.
 |
| The Nissen Hut |
The Nissen hut was built in 1944 but that was not able to be entered. On our return to the ship it was warm enough for us to have lunch on the deck.
With people sunbathing all over the ship we left to go whale sighting and sampling again then returned to Port Lockrey to anchor for the night as it was the nearest safe anchorage after finishing chasing whales. A beautiful nasi goreng was served for dinner.
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