We have our full complement of four scientists and two film makers on board now and what a busy little ship we are. All the guys are super cool, relaxed, fun to be with and come with a full set of entertaining American accents. Oh and Thomas with his German American accent. This is going to be a fun couple of weeks.

Yesterday we were up at six thirty and dropping mooring lines by eight with a Pelagic coffee inside us. That's kind of a latte and kind of a mug of hot milk with a hint of coffee. May be that's the same thing.....

Any road we left all our anchor points in place around their various rocks and pulled all the lines ashore and up above the high tide mark and exercise that has left cameraman Eric and my myself with hands that are smoother than babies bums. The ropes are pretty course themselves but once you drag them up a beach of pumice sand they become positively aggressive on the fingers. We each dealt with nearly 400 meters of rope. No calluses for us for a while then!

Motoring out of Deception lagoon somebody produced a plate of eggs for all of us and skipper Chris and I relaxed and drove the boat while the science crew readied themselves for the day. As an onlooker it was pretty amusing. A bunch of men wearing a lot of brightly coloured cold weather gear squeezing past and around each other, all looking for something and all interrupting each other's searches to ask if they needed the so and so, or if they'd seen the wotsit or if they were taking the thingy today. It was pretty chaotic but to attempt to help would be like herding cats so we stayed well out of it only providing hints as to where the things maybe hidden.

There was a bit of ice to push to get out though Neptune's Bellows and a surprising amount of swell from the west outside in the Bransfield Strait, the remnants of the preceding days of westerly winds. Enough swell to make it clear that we were dreaming if we thought we were making beach landings at Bailey Head today despite it's 'sheltered' location on the eastern side of the island. The surf was dumping hard and running a long way up the beach. Time for plan B. Back in through the Bellows, turn right and into Whaler's Bay which was the home of Deception sealing and whaling back in the day and is still home to the ruins of their houses, whale oil processing plant and enormous oil tanks that with time have sunk crookedly into the beach. Looks like a giant placed a load of bean cans in the sand and stumbled drunkenly knocking them all askew.

Whaler's was perfectly calm and the sun even had his hat on for a bit as we ferried the guys ashore in the zode for the hike over to Bailey Head. Science/film posse safely on the beach Chris and I motored back out to the Bellows with the idea we would go back out and up to the north east corner of Deception and have a look at Macaroni Point to see if a shore landing at the Chinstrap colony is possible. Neptune had other ideas though and we found the Bellows channel choked with ice. A good thing we had come back in when we did. Just half an hour meant the difference between nudging a couple of bergy bits and no way through. Time for plan C. Back up the lagoon to Telefon Bay to drop the hook in the outer bay to knock off some chores. Cooking, cleaning and engine maintenance dealt with we realised we had just enough time to build another anchor on the beach forming the northwest side of inner Telelphon. (In fact this bay is called Stancomb cove and was only formed some time in the late 60's.) Every ship's anchor we had laid, either in the normal fashion dropped off the front of Pelagic or taken ashore in the zode and set by hand had dragged as soon a a serious gust came along. With another biggish blow forecast for early next week it was time to get serious. Armed with the big angle iron stakes we made in Stanley and shackles and plywood and rope and picks and shovels and our huge sledge hammer we set to at low tide, digging a pit behind the largest rock on the beach, hammering plywood in behind it and stakes behind that and burying the whole lot under rocks and sand with a heavy rope strop to tie into. The system is designed such that if it does give way all the components will stay together attached to the mooring line for convenient retrieval. Well pleased with our efforts we headed back to Pelagic just in time to get under way, back across the lagoon to Whaler's to collect the guys at the appointed time.

We tried our new anchor point last night in some moderate winds. With +/- 50 meters of rope so tight it was out of the water ('barred up' as we say) it all held so we are cautiously optimistic for the coming blow. Fingers crossed.

This morning we again attempted to go out through the Bellows but to no avail, we couldn't get within a two miles of it, all the ice in the lagoon having blown down that end over night and blocked our way. It is doubtful that even cruise ships will be able to come in and so far we have seen none today. (three yesterday!) As I write science posse is hiking over Vapour Col to try and count the colony there and we are anchored further up Fumerole Bay tucked in behind Wensleydale Beacon. We dropped the anchor in three meters of water and let out 60 meters of chain but it's that damn lightweight granola again and we've already dragged once and expect to do so again at any minute......