November often marks the busiest month of the season for us, and this year was no exception with a bumper 23 ships and 3416 passengers visiting us here at Grytviken over the last four weeks.
One of our November cruise ships neatly framed by GSGSSI’s Fisheries Patrol Vessel Pharos and wrecks of the Dias and Albatros.
We often find that our visitors are very interested in the more mundane parts of life on the island, like where we live, how we get our food or whether we have a chef. Regarding that last question – we don’t! We actually all have to take it in turns to cook. In the museum accommodation, Drukken Villa, we have a rota and you normally cook once or twice a week. As well as making dinner, the person ‘on cook’, is responsible for making sure there is enough milk (we make this up from milk powder) and bread. The latter we make in a breadmaker, which you think would be fairly fool proof. However, one of my attempts this month proved otherwise – apparently adding 2 grams too much yeast can have catastrophic outcomes!
A less-then-successful attempt at breadmaking by myself!
Fetching our food can also be a bit of an adventure as the main food store is 1km away, at the research station of King Edward Point, and involves dodging fur seals, elephant seals and penguins! However, thanks to some top-class bike maintenance from our team of Operations Assistants, we now have three functioning bikes which are perfect for last-minute ‘I forgot an ingredient for dinner’ runs to the food store!
Livvie undertaking some vital bike maintenance this month.
Despite the business, November is also my favourite month of the season as it heralds the arrival of the best* thing on South Georgia: fur seal pups! These tiny little balls of fluff arrive in the world with an attitude which far exceeds their diminutive size and most people fall in love with them instantly – despite their somewhat intimidating parents.
*(This might be subjective. Other people’s ‘best South Georgia thing’ may differ!)
One of our first fur seal pups on the track this year. It’s the little black blob of fluff next to the female on the left!
One of the ‘unofficial’ duties of my role is to complete a daily ‘fur seal pup count’ on the track between Grytviken and King Edward Point throughout the fur seal breeding period. This was something my predecessor used to do and I have enjoyed carrying on the tradition. Last year, we maxed out at 358 pups in a single day and we look forward to seeing how many we get this year – at the end of November the numbers were looking neck-and-neck with last season!
Each rivet on the key table represents 50 whales killed during the whaling era on South Georgia.
We also had some exciting, albeit temporary, new additions to the SGHT team on island this month. November saw the arrival of the installation team for part one of the whale memorial artwork, which SGHT have commissioned. Michael, Stewart, Chris and Jayne had their work cut out to install the impressive ‘key table’ in a 3 week window, but they managed it with time to spare! The key table is part of a larger artwork, titled ‘Commensalis’, and uses rivets arranged in a nightingale chart to show the huge numbers of whales that were hunted during South Georgia’s whaling era. Our whaling station tour now finishes at the key table and our visitors have found it an amazing way to connect with the sheer scale of the industry here.
November was also a significant month for me personally, as it marks my final full month working at the South Georgia Museum! I have been very lucky to get to call Grytviken home every summer for just over three years and I know I will miss having the best office view in the world! However, I am excited for my next adventure and look forward to seeing what the team get up to for the rest of the season! Farewell South Georgia – but only for a little while!
Saying farewell to the South Georgia Museum!