25th July 2009

It can be pretty boring at sea, especially during a 3 month voyage. But South Georgia is different in so many ways. Whales, Seals, Penguins, Orca sea birds and Icebergs are all common in these parts. The Icebergs do come and go depending on the southern ocean currents and weather patterns. We don’t see as many this season, but last season, there were hundreds scattered about the fishing grounds. We never seem to get tired of photo opportunities with an Iceberg in the background. This is a rare shot, not only because of the technicolor Jade-Berg in the background, but look who is leading the paparazzi..

Its Mr P (oops) Francois him self..

These Bergs are fascinating, and usually, if we see one in the distance, we will ease over and take a closer look. (Please don’t tell the boss, he thinks we never stop working J) The few we have seen before were totally green.. or Jade, but this one was regular on one side and Jade on the other.
When you get close, these Bergs appear more like glass, you can see right into them.

We don’t worry about the big Bergs, they are easy to see and track on the radar. It’s the growlers and Bergy bits we have to watch for. As the Icebergs drift onto warmer water they break up and become real dangers to navigation like the one in photo #2, if we ran into this at night we would certainly do some damage to the hull or worse.

For safety at night when growlers are about we use huge stadium lights to help spot them when we’re steaming between fishing lines.

Rgds: John B.

21st July 2009

Yesterday we had a visit from a Southern Right whale. It swam right up to, and around us twice, before spending ½ an hour at the stern watching our propeller go around, we think.

(One of the crew reckoned the whale probably wished he had a tail like our prop…I won’t say who said THAT !!).

From over the stern, Sue got some great photos and I had the video camera rolling for most of the time. At one stage, he or she, was actually rubbing its barnacle covered nose on the side of the ship.

What fascinated me most about this whale was the sound of its breathing, it was more like the roar from a bull than the gushing sound we hear from the Sperm whales when they come close.

We see Sperm whales almost every day, and it is not uncommon to see up to ten whales within a mile of the ship.

A Sperm whale cruising past.

A Southern Right whale wallowing off our stern while we slowly haul our long line.

A very large Sperm whale diving.

Rgds: John B.

20th July 2009

Adam (aka Sharp shooter) in the hauling room with an XXXL Patagonian Toothfish, (Dissostichus eleginoides if you happen to speak Latin).

Some of these fish grow to 150kg and bigger, this 85kg Toothfish was caught in 1,800m deep water where most of the big fish live.

In shallower water, between 800 and 1,000m, the average size fish is 7 to 9kg. We are not permitted to set lines or catch fish in water shallower than 500m within the South Georgia, South Sandwich fisheries management zone.

The main Toothfish spawning grounds are to the North West of South Georgia, around the shag rocks area between 200 and 400m.

Once Shooter has cut its throat, the fish is placed on a conveyor to the bleeding tank. From there it will be moved into the factory for processing, then weighed, labeled, packaged and into the blast freezers, usually within 2 hours of being caught.

The water temp ranges between -0.8 and +0.8 for most of the winter season so our product quality is as good as it gets.

Adam says Hi to his family back in NZ.. He’s a hard worker and always ready with his camera when something interesting is going down. (Unless he’s right in the middle of the action that is).

Rgds: John B.

PS: I did have a nice (proper photo) of Francois, but it seems to have gone missing from the photo files. Something fishy happening here.

19th July 2009

When it’s blowing a 45kts Sou’wester with 10m swell running and the hauling room bilge pump stop pumping, its time to stop fishing and close the hauling doors to keep the water out while the chief fixes the problem.

There are several pumps through out the factory, the hook room, line deck and the hauling room. The hauling room is the only working space open to the sea for long periods of time, (hauling lines occupies about 70% of the
day) and is designed to be a wet area.

When water comes in the hauling room, it comes in fast. Sandy is somewhere amongst that lot.

The hauling room pump is the biggest pump aboard, it can shift 4,100 liters a minute, and in bad weather with water pouring in every few minutes, we can’t operate without it. The vessels stability is not affected by having water in the hauling room.

These big pumps do not normally fail, for that reason we don’t carry a spare. We could use a smaller pump but that would limit the amount of weather we could work.

The chief will just have to repair that pump.

Greg with the repaired pump impellor, note the brazing work around the boss.

Greg tells me the cast iron impellor was shattered in two places around the boss or where it connects to the shaft. He was able to make a support ring and braze the shattered bits together around it, then fill the gaps with plastic steel, machine the impellor to fit the shaft and put it all back together with lock-tight. We have now removed the smaller standby pump and put the big feller in and we’re back in action.. thanks to some classic engineering skill from the Chief.

Rgds: John B.

18th July 2009

At the start of setting each line, first the floats and GPS beacon are thrown over, then around 2 kilometers of down line to reach the bottom. Each end of a line is held by two 40kg anchors and two 40kg chains. Usually we work between four lines in the area we choose to fish. That is around 1.3 ton of anchors and chains that have to be manhandled about the deck every day just to hold each line so it doesn’t move. When the weather gets foul we put extra chain on the down lines to be sure they stay in position.

On their shift: Chevy (right) and Aaron are responsible for connecting everything together as it goes over the stern while setting. They need their wits about them, a rope turned about a wrist or a foot in the bite of a line would have them over the side in a flash. For this reason that part of the setting operation is monitored by two closed circuit cameras and continuous voice communications monitored on the bridge. The skipper or 1st mate must watch and listen to every move while the stern doors are open for setting.

Note: The lead core back bone or main line is to make the line sink faster and stay out of reach of foraging seabirds. We are proud to report we have not caught a single seabird during 11 years of Toothfish operations. The CCAMLR and MFish observers monitor our activity very closely when it comes to seabird safe fishing practice.

15th July 2009

The Antarctic Pilot describes South Georgia well.

General description;

South Georgia is a barren, mountainous island laying about 700 miles ESE of Falkland Islands, and has an area of 1450 square miles. It is about 100 miles long between Cooper Island (54 48s 35 47w) off its SE end, and Willis Island, off its NW end, and 20 miles wide, is high and consists of very steep glacier-covered mountains. It presents the features of a deeply dissected upland. The snow line has a general elevation of about 460m but may be as low as 300m along the S coast of the island.

The island is said to have been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci, who possibly sighted it in 1502, and by Antonio de Roche when in command of a British expedition in 1675. It was not explored until Captain Cook made the first survey of the NE Coast between 14th and 23rd January 1775, taking formal possession on 17th January of that year in Possession Bay (54 07s 37 07w).

The coasts, especially the N, are deeply indented, reducing the island in places at the W end to a few hundred meters in width, but the large quantity of loose ice in the bays renders them inconvenient during a great part of the year for a vessel to lie in on account of the calving of large parts of the ice cliffs, which break off and float to sea. The second largest glacier in the land is the Nordenskjold Glacier, in Cumberland East Bay, the largest is the Esmark Glacier in Holmestrand. During summer the heat of the sun causes large pieces to break off the glaciers; the large icebergs, however, originate from Antarctica, but they are too great draught to penetrate far into the bays.

Sue and I at Shackleton’s grave stone with San Aspiring in back ground alongside the loading pier at King Edward Point in Grytviken Harbour. We must call in at KEP before the start of each season for our compliance inspection and receive our license for the new season.

Rgds: John B.

13th July 2009

It’s family photo time…..the weather is good and everyone was up for the 16:00hrs shift change. We are all assembled on the port frwd deck. Sam, our British observer, took the photo from the bridge looking forward. Unfortunately, Francois, our factory manager / office person, was still in his bunk. He keeps irregular hours and wasn’t due on deck for another 3…. we didn’t want to wake him. (besides that, he has just had a #1 hair cut and is a little camera shy right now….I’ll catch him when he’s not looking, you can judge how it looks.

From Port to Starboard, Chevy, Noel (cook), Juliet, Greg (chief engineer), Aaron, Masa, Adam, Ritchie (leading hand), Lassy, Jacob, Matt, Laurie, Jamie, Theo.

Front row main deck, Me, Sue, Face (2nd Mate ½ up ladder), Carl (1st Mate), Grant (Leading hand), Sandy (Leading hand), Dave (2nd engineer).

:Note the 2 large orange bins for rubbish that can’t be burnt in the incinerator.

7th July 2009

The photo shows Jacob and Adam working on the line deck. This area, at the stern of the ship, is where the down lines, grapnels and floats are stowed. Here they are hauling down line with about 1,500m to go.

Each of the blue drums holds 500m of 16mm rope. Usually each line will have 1,700m between the floats and the grapnels (anchors that hold the line on the sea floor). Each long line has two ends. On an average day we haul and set 3 lines.

Every day around 25,000m of rope, or 50 of those blue drums, is hauled and set from the line deck.

Setting the lines over the stern is a skilled job that must be done properly. Floats, rope, grapnels and chains must be connected in the right way at the right time. If its not, we can lose many hours hauling lines back aboard to start the set again.

Rgds: John B.

4th July 2009

It is without doubt the cook who has the most important job aboard any ship, large or small. Noel has been our cook for the last 8 years. He is responsible for, not only cooking, but ordering everything we need for trips lasting up to 3 months from any port. When we sail from Timaru the ship will be away from home port for about 7 months and it is important to store up with as many of the main brands, frozen and dry goods, to last that long. During port calls at Port Stanley (or wherever they may be) Noel will top up his supplies with fresh veges, poultry and fruit from places like, Santiago and Montevideo.

Dishing up 3 hot meals a day for 23 people is a demanding job even when the weather calm. The real test for any cook is to keep providing those meals during all conditions. When it’s been blowing 35 to 45kts South-West for days on end, dinner time and the chance to sit down and relax a little can be all there is to look forward to at the end of a cold wet shift.

Noel putting out breakfast for the 08:00hrs shift change. Juliet is just starting her shift, part of her cleaning duty is to help Noel clean up after mealtime. Once she has done that she heads below to join her team on the working deck for the next 8 hours.

Rgds: John B.

1st July 2009

South Georgia is notorious for its bad weather, particularly in winter. We have been fishing along the North and South West coasts of the island for the last 7 days and still haven’t laid eyes on its rugged mountain rangers. We can see the island on radar just 25nm to the north but fog, sleet and low cloud have kept it hidden from view. During the last 4 days have we have had classic bad weather conditions with 60kt SW storms bringing with it huge seas freezing and conditions about the ship. But life is relatively comfortable aboard with the hatchers well dodged down in these severe conditions. Only occasionally will the crew have to venture out on deck to bring fishing gear back aft to the shelter deck for setting.

Mat on deck taking floats back to the shelter deck ready for setting lines.

A few days before we arrived at the fishing grounds one of the other long liners, ( also licensed to fish in South Georgia waters ), accidentally caught fire. Eventually the fire was brought under control by the crew but too much damage had been done for them to make repairs or continue fishing. A large Korean trawler was diverted to tow the damaged vessel to Montevideo, while doing this they were caught in that same storm we were in a few days ago. By all accounts, the tow line broke, the fire took hold again, and the vessel eventually sank around 200nm North of South Georgia. We believe there was no loss of life, all crew are safe and well.

2nd Mate Shane on the left with the Chief Engineer Greg, checking BA gear and fire fighting equipment.

This was just another reminder to us that accidents do happen and the need for us to be self sufficient and deal with our own problems is vital, it is no use waiting for help to arrive out here.

Rgds: John B.