We went through our two weeks of no cruise ships really quickly and now we are paying the price! They are coming in thick and fast, and to be truthful, it is really good to be busy with them, as that is why we are down here! There was still a lot to do in the Museum, but we all got in to a good slow steady rhythm, normal working hours, and lots of catching up with things.
Now the place is alive again with vast numbers of ships' passengers all in matching polar jackets. The shop is full when a ship is in, and when they leave there is all the restocking of the shop, cleaning the Museum floors, generally tidying up, and cleaning the loos, ready for the next ship. There is never more than one ship in at a time - because South Georgia is in such a remote location the cruise companies all agree amongst themselves not to go to a place when another ship is already there, which certainly heightens the sense of isolation for the passengers. So we had one ship, Fram, in this morning, and as soon as she had gone, another, Bremen, in for the afternoon - they are all in the whalers' church now for a short service, having drunk gluhwein in the cold outside, and once they go back on board and sail out of Cumberland Bay, her sister ship, Hanseatic, will come in - gluhwein and nibbles in a small marquee outside the Museum, and then a service at 10pm tonight to which we are all invited.
One passenger from Bremen in the Museum just now, asked Lynsey if he could buy something in one of the glass cabinets in the Museum ... Ernest Shackleton's walking stick!!
This morning I had to go on Fram and give a presentation about the South Georgia Heritage Trust's (SGHT) Habitat Restoration Project, whereby a team are going to drop rat bait from helicopters in a large area around Grytviken to kill the rats that predate on ground-nesting birds, the South Georgia pipit in particular. No more rats will be able to come back into the area because it is surrounded by big glaciers, and they do not cross these. Once this trial has been completed and fully monitored, the rest of the island which is infested with rats, will be baited. Rats live on about one fifth of the land area of South Georgia, around 80,000 hectares, and we are trying to persuade people to donate £90 towards clearing one hectare of rats ... "Sponsor a Hectare" - so I had to try and persuade them to part with their money.
I did one presentation on the Akademik Sergey Vavilov yesterday and 'sold' 9 hectares, but my presentation wasn't very good. Rather than read out what was on each Powerpoint slide - "death by Powerpoint" - I had written copious notes and read these, but I felt it was very stilted. Today I had cue cards with a couple of hints, so that I had to make it up as I went along and it came out much more naturally. But lots of the passengers were either having their lunch on the ship, or were still ashore, and I only had an audience of about 20, and I reckon two of them were asleep, so we only got 2 people signed up. I did get lots of questions from the audience though, and that is always a good sign that they have been paying attention! The expedition leader told me before I went that they would get more donations from the passengers (280 in total) and would send them on.
The ship, Fram, was amazing ... huge, but not one of those big white monsters. Lynsey went on board and walked about with our mouths open, gazing at the opulence. They offered us lunch, a HUGE buffet, and we piled our plates with salads and fish - wonderful! For pudding I just wanted fruit salad but there wasn't any so I gathered up all the fruity decoration from around a chocolate terrine and ate that instead.
During the presentation I had Stefan, a very handsome young tall German man who works most of the time on Svalbard, beside me translating whatever I said into German. The big lounge was really bright so you could hardly see the slides; but I've done it, and that is two presentations under my belt, with goodness knows how many more! And I'm feeling much happier about doing them.
Tonight we have been invited across to the base from our new home in the little Villa next to the Museum for drinks at 8pm, then back to the church at Grytviken for the service, then bed. I am so tired after all the extra work I've had organising these talks, learning all the stuff, then doing them. But it has been fun as well as adrenalin-filled! Two more big ships in tomorrow - Christmas Day, then Hanseatic again on Sunday, then two days off ... yippee!!!! Then it starts all over again!
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