With krill, other arthropods and jellyfish on board for scientific study, the ship has set off for Rothera on the final leg of my voyage aboard her. The JCR will drop off food, equipment and supplies at the Rothera base, and from there I will fly back home.

This is one of the most beautiful parts of Antarctica with mountains, islands, volcanos and ice. The ship stopped on Deception Island the other day. This volcanic island was the site of the former British "Base B", which was evacuated by BAS for the third and final time in the 70s. Some buildings and memorials remain, together with volcanic hot springs.

We are going through several channels now with towering mountains on all sides of us and Orcas swimming off to the side of the ship. Photos will go up soon!

Most of the science work on this cruise revolves around krill, with the long term science looking at how the krill population alters in the area year on year and the PhD students looking at their health, effects of plastic in the ocean and how they live.

Unfortunately, until last night, the fishing hadn't turned up much krill, but that all changed when we came across hundreds of seals and several whales all feeding in the ocean. Once we got the nets off the back we brought up a prize haul of live krill which the scientists excitedly sorted through, counted and carried away to investigate and collect eggs from. Since then our luck has been much better with good hauls on a few occasions. This has resulted in buckets of krill on the floor in the cold room because we have no tank space left.

With bad weather limiting the fishing operations of the ship, it was decided that finding some shelter and calibrating instruments was the order of the day. The shelter in question was Stromness, South Georgia, a large calm bay with an old whaling station (pictured) at one end. I've never seen South Georgia before but I see why it's spoken of so highly, with towering snow covered peaks on all sides of the ship and thousands of seals sitting on the beaches at their feet making an unbelievable amount of noise.

Most of the day (for me) was spent fixing and testing equipment in the calm waters of the bay. Meanwhile, others calibrated the ship's echo sounders and planned for the up-coming nights, that plan being to go fishing and catch some krill.

Having recovered the mooring at P3 the ship is starting to travel along its main transect, the Western Core Box. This involves using echo sounders over an area covered every year as well as taking measurements using the CDT twice a day and fishing for krill along the way. The CDT is my main responsibility on the ship. This huge system is lowered on a cable to the bottom of the ocean taking temperature, conductivity, current, oxygen and other readings on the way down. Once it's at the bottom the water sampling system can be fired, collecting up to 24 x 12 litre samples at any depths chosen by the scientists.

As I write this South Georgia is outside the window looming on the horizon with banks of clouds hovering over its peaks. At some point we will stop in one of its natural harbours to calibrate instruments out of the wind and the waves.

Having left the Falkland Islands with all the cargo we needed, the ship has been busy. Scientists are working hard to prepare their experimental setups and plan the upcoming work. We are ensuring that all the major instruments are working well and helping set up some of the more temperamental, broken or strange experiments.

Some science has started too with the first mooring being removed. A mooring is just that, a float with a long trailing cable under it. Experiments can then be deployed at selected depths. The mooring site is about 500m below the surface to avoid any shipping. When we need to recover it, the ship sends a signal out into the water and up it floats. With this now on board the main science stage has begun.

In order to pick up cargo left by the RRS Discovery, as well as some other science gear and a generous helping of fuel, the ship is currently moored in Mare Harbour, a military port southwest of Stanley on the Falkland Islands. This part of the Falklands isn't too dissimilar to the area near Stanley, with sandy beaches, wind swept moorland and weather that can't make up its mind.

We have managed to escape the confines of the military base a few times though, with walks down to Bertha's Beach where the wildlife flies around the coast (Pictures later this week). It took us three trips before we saw the real attraction though, Gentoo Penguins! Only a few more days here with fuel refills and a bit more cargo, then we go into the open ocean!
The image attached I called "Biologists in their native environment"

After the mammoth 32 hours of flights, finally I've arrived in Punta in Chile. The JCR was waiting in the port when we arrived and although we have been put in a hotel for the two nights we've been here, it's good to finally be ready to go. We board today at 10pm and set sail shortly after.

Punta is a nice little town, with some nice food, (if you like steak or seafood) and some nice history. You can drink in Shackleton's favourite bar, read about why Punta matters to Antarctic exploration and see historic bases for many national Antarctic Programmes.

As I write this, we are in open ocean heading towards the Falkland Islands.

Nearly a month ago I started back at BAS Cambridge as an Electronic Engineer in the Antarctic and Marine Engineering Group (AME). It’s good to be back and have my first trip to the icy bottom of the planet planned, although this time the trip will be a great deal shorter.

This trip is to complete my ship training. I will go on a 45ish day science cruise from Stanley in the Falkland Islands, to Punta Arenas Chile. So if I'm going south again I suppose I should start the blog back up. There’s loads of other BAS craziness in the works so I'll try to keep this up-to-date with all the goings on!