The Heat of Winter

As I expected, the onset of winter has seen the onset of monotony. It's rather tragic!

I realised that once winter arrived and the weather turned there would be considerably less to keep occupied with. As it so happens I tend to be more inclined to an outdoor adventurous lifestyle. I guess it explains why I would come to a place like Gough. But, as with all things we have to take the good with the bad. And here is not to say that winter out here on the island is bad, but lets be perfectly honest. Nothing beats the summer sun. 

But now we settle in for the winter haul and dream of sunny days that are coming, and will be spent at home, where new adventures await.

So once again I skipped posting last week, which I'm sure is understandable. And likely it will continue at this rate, unless something significant happens on a week to week basis. I am working on it. Honestly I would love to sit writing every week, it's just tough when all you have been able to do is stare up at the clouds and eat. Lately it has been eat, sleep, gym, work. In no specific order.

Hardest part has been watching others head out whilst I'm once again left with my work responsibilities. But I said it before and I am confident in the fact that my turn will come soon enough, and I will be the one chattering my teeth as a lie down for the evening in Goneydale.

I guess one thing winter has brought with it-and its rather obvious- is a change in the weather patterns.

As the days have past so we have seen how the weather patterns on the island have changed.

The types of clouds have differed, the winds have picked up, the rainfall patterns have altered and so has the variation in temperature.

From walking around in shorts and a t-shirt I have now had to pull out the winter warmers and get the heater on and the rain jacket/windbreaker is also being put to excellent use.

There has been a noticeable change in the clouds. We are seeing constant presence of towering cumulus clouds. The significance of this is that they bring rain. But not continuous, just showers. And if we are really lucky and the conditions are just right, we get a bit of thunder and lightning. Much to everyone's surprise. When this happened on two occasions it was the talk of the base. We were told during our training that conditions out here are not conducive to thunderstorms. So it obviously came as quite a shock when we heard the crack and saw the sky light up. It also put into reinforced the fact that you can't always rely on theory. Just because the conditions aren't perfect for something to happen, it doesn't mean it won't.

We have also seen an increase in ocean activity over the past while. During summer we would have days pass where the ocean appeared as glass, whilst now it seems that has been shattered. This past week we experienced a pretty severe swell coming through from the south. Generating waves of around 5-7 meters. The significance of this is that there is no shallow reef that the waves can build up on to gain such height. As it is a volcanic island it pretty much drops straight off from the sea cliffs. So the waves that are forming have such a huge amount of water contained in them and move with such tremendous speed. As they crash into the sea cliffs the amount of power causes a huge crushing force against the rocks which sends the spray high enough to shower down on us where we stand at about 20-25meters up and has the ground shudder.

It has been remarkable to see the oceans sheer power on display and has left me with a feeling of such humility. How weak we are in comparison to all that makes up this beautiful planet. Yes, we may be able to harness it's power, but never will we control it. We will always be at the mercy of the elements. But what a great display they put on. What an amazing production this life is, and how epic the part played by planet earth is. 

I am left in awe!

Something that has cropped up as of late is me wrestling with the idea of heading further south to SANAE (South African National Antarctic Expedition) South Pole. The polls are open. Who thinks it's a good idea? 

It's rather cold...

I apologise for the pun!

Some Pictures of the large swell we experienced. They were taken from crane point.

The young sooty albatross was fortunately still around even after being soaked. Thankfully he was not washed away. It will also fledge very soon.

The swell was also considerably larger earlier during the day before I got down to take these photos. But hopefully this will give some idea of what an incredible display it was.

Hard Graft

I took a bit of a break last week. Mostly due to the fact that there was nothing going on.
Only thing of significance was the eventual arrival of the SA Agulhas II in Cape Town.
For those back home in South Africa, this would be a pretty big deal and surely heard something about it. As for the rest of the world, well the ship arrived. It's quite exciting and now we wait for it to come collect us. Really I can't say much more about it.

This week seemed to be going along the same lines as the previous. Plenty of rain, and night time temperatures seeing the mercury slowly dip below freezing. This has kept us all indoors and only sees us venturing out when the sun does sneak a peak from behind the gloomy clouds.

And we had one such day. But even if this wasn't the case we would have had to go out none the less.
We were out again weighing the seals. And It is now becoming seriously hard graft!

Fortunately, Nkoane and I were able to recruit Karen and Sylvain to give us a hand this time round. And it was hugely appreciated and desperately needed. I like to see it as them returning the favour for the times we assisted them with the birds. But we volunteered to help them and I was so grateful that they volunteered to help us.

The seals have really filled out since the end of March and have got a good fat reserve to keep them warm this winter. Makes me think I should do the same!
All went really well and there was no drama or any incidents.
We had Karen taking down all the weights whilst the rest of us hauled out seals ranging from sub 10kg's all the way to the beast which tipped the scales at over 20kg's. Not sure what that one has been eating but it did make for plenty of amusement as we chased him down and hoisted him up. It was much to everyone's amusement as I struggled with all my might to read the mass off the scale as this monster merrily dangled about and tried to take chunks out of my gumboots. It didn't seem to end there! In the hassle of holding him up I forgot to check the sex and was reminded after I had already turned him loose. This saw Nkoane and myself bounding along over the slippery rocks amongst the scattered seals trying to catch the one we had just released, before he could get to the ocean. Fortunately we have become rather skilled at chasing seals over the rocks and were able to grab hold of him. Only issue was we had to hoist him up one more time. Needless to saw, my back was not entirely thrilled by the ridiculous amount of strain it was being subjected to through the course of the day. And I can say with certainty that Sylvain and Nkoane shared my sentiments and welcomed the call from Karen to say that we had got all one hundred pups.
What a pleasure it was to have the extra set of hands, and I hope they enjoyed the seals as much as I enjoy assisting them with the birds.

Lets hope next month they are just as eager to help.