Penguin Pete's Latest Diary Entry
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18/3/01 - Polar Bird - Heard Island
We finished operations here at Heard Island today. We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon (13th) to find good weather and calm seas. The job here is to remove the two field camps from the island, and pick up the expeditioners. There is no longer a permanent base here, just ruins of old huts, and even some leftovers from the sealing days. The voyage leader was optimistic that we would get lots done, but that was not to be. The weather didn't hold out long enough for any serious work to be done, so the ship anchored in the lee of the island to wait for good weather (a rarity here). During the night, the winds came up, and the ship started dragging its anchor. The captain had to get the crew up and get the ship ready to move away from the shore.
Wednesday was a bad day. It started out OK, and a party from the ship went on shore to help with operations, but the wind came up, and visibility was too poor for the helicopters. No chance of work today. During the night the winds really got up, gusting to over 90 knots. That's about 160 km/h or so. Apparently that's a force 12 gale. I think the highest rating. The ship was rocking quite violently. We had doors broken off their hinges, toilet bowls wrenched free of their moorings, crockery smashed all over the mess floor, and the contents of about every cupboard spread from one end of the ship to the other. Quite an event, and we were in the lee of the island. It would have been very unpleasant out on the open ocean.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to get onto the work party that was going on shore. The sun was shining, the wind mild, and no rain. It was a fantastic day. We were getting loads ready for the helicopters to fly over to the ship. Huts, fuel drums, and crates of equipment all had to go. We did more than 60 loads. In between there were some opportunities to look at the wild life, and even some spectacular views of the mountain when the cloud cleared for a few moments. A few of us were chased by a rather aggressive Fur Seal. There were plenty of Elephant Seals, Gentoo Penguins, and King Penguins. I was hoping to see some Macaronis so that I could compare it to the one we saw on Bechervaise, but we weren't that lucky.
There is a lot more variety of bird life up here. I have seen Cape Petrels, Giant Petrels, Wilson's Storm Petrels, White Chinned Petrel, Kelp Gulls, some sort of Tern, and the ubiquitous Skua. Lots of other birds also.
Full steam ahead for Hobart now. If we can maintain our present speed, then we will get there in about 10 days. It will be good to get home.