Signy Island

Said goodbye to Shajeda, the diatom scientist as we left her at Signy Island British Antarctica Society Research Station. Hopefully this will be for the planned for 2 months and she will not get iced in and overwinter. The scientist we picked up was supposed to be at Signy for 3 weeks but instead ended up there for 3 months
The 5 folk at Signy Research base include scientists, a base manager, a medic , a field safety guide, and a tech guy. They have a rota for cooking (which includes baking fresh bread each day) and the rest of their food is either tinned or frozen. I hope MS Fram is generous to them in leaving some fresh food. The folks in the research station were very generous of their time - doing their spiel to a total of 12 groups. It's not everyday that 160 folk descend upon you. The base is only open in the summer November to April. It used to be open all year round and had a much bigger workforce. They can also go to a couple of huts for a night if they need to escape one another. They have a direct line to the ED Derreford Hospital in Plymouth for any medical problems. On looking at their medical store and living room I saw that the BNF and Baileys get everywhere in the world. Enjoyed our circular walk past fur seals and chinstrap penguins and the views over the domed ice cap.
Good craic in the explorers lounge later that night trying out our long distance semaphore to Gerome, our bar man to signal for more Pernod, Drambuie or hot chocolate. The sign for please help Judy off the groundwas more difficult .Weiterlesen