Living on an Antarctic Island

The British Antarctic Survey have five permanent bases; Halley on the continent, Rothera on the Peninsula, King Edward Point on South Georgia and neighbouring Bird Island on - you guessed it - Bird Island. The fifth and smallest of the stations, Signy on Signy Island in the South Orkneys, is my home this austral summer and whilst I recommend taking a virtual tour of the station I'll do my best to describe it, and what life is like in it, as well.

Signy Station

Signy is home to a maximum of 8 people each summer - this year we have 7 in total - and the team is typically made up of 4 regular positions and up to 4 alternating roles depending on the works going on each particular season. The four regular roles are: Station Leader, Facilities Technician, Field Assistant and Zoological Field Assistant; and this year we have two Carpenters and one Visiting Scientist with us as well. There is plenty happening at Signy this year; the fieldwork is as busy as ever monitoring the penguins, seals, shags and giant petrels whilst at base there is plenty to do with the station undergoing a refurbishment with new doors, floors and paintwork and the field huts are being modified as well - Busy Times!

Back L-R: Me (Zoological Field Assiatnt), Fabrizio (Scientist studying Chinstraps), Matt (Station Leader/Carpenter), Ali (Field Assistant), Iain (Facilities Engineer), Elephant Seal (local layabout)
Front L-R: Tom (Carpenter) and Jim (Carpenter); (photo courtesy of Iain)

The base itself has changed somewhat since it was originally built in the mid-1940's. With the change from a wintering station to that of a summer only one in the late 1990's the profile of Signy has changed considerably.

Photos of the old stations in our corridor

The base itself is comfortable but smaller than my previous home of Bird Island. The main building houses our labs, offices, living room, kitchen, bootroom, bathroom and toilets, medical room, boilers and the bedrooms (invariably called bunkrooms or pit rooms).

The main building, Sørlle House, with a remnant from a, fortunately, bygone era out front - a boiler from a whaling ship dating from around the 1920's, the cetacean populations are still very much struggling and barely beginning to recover in most cases

The pit rooms are rather small but enough for us to store all our stuff. There is something strange about still using bunk beds for a team of people in their 30's to 50's but it becomes quite a usual thing when working on small, remote islands to save space.

Bunk beds - the grown-up way to sleep

Of course the wildlife is never far away, with penguins and seals often coming ashore and making it known they are here early in the morning outside the bedroom windows!

Noisy neighbours, a couple of elephant seals under my bedroom window

The kitchen is ideal for cooking the meals for a small team and there is a pantry to store some foodstuffs so that we just restock this room when needed from the main food stores in another building. This means we don't have to go outside every time we need an extra couple of eggs!

The kitchen and pantry at the end

The living room is comfortable for 7-8 people and is great for setting up the projector and watching a movie in the evenings, playing darts and generally chilling out. It also serves as our dining room with tables wheeled in and out each evening for our meal. Of course at this time of year the living room gets a seasonal upgrade!

Iiiiiiiiit's Chriiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaaaas!!

The other rooms all serve the purpose for which they were built very well, with refurbishment going on this year there are quite a lot of building materials about which isn't usual. But the labs, offices, bootroom and bathrooms are all very much like Bird Island, just that bit smaller but very familiar.

Bootroom, heated to dry out all our field clothing each day

Shower - looking like some sort of metal bunker!

My lab/office, and temporary home to some of the seasons building supplies

The other buildings on station are: the generator shed and RO plant room (reverse osmosis for water collection); the fuel farm (storage of our fuel for the season); haz-store (safe storage of hazardous substances, such as chemicals for scientific sampling, paints and cleaning products); and top-store where waste management is sorted, tools and equipment are stored, chippy work can be carried out and next-door all the food is stored.

The combined workshop, field equipment store and waste management area

Our store of dried food, with three large freezers and one large fridge in the next room for all our meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese, ice cream and other bits and pieces

Although quite isolated here at Signy we do get visitors! Cruise ships can schedule visits here and we have four set-up for this season, the first of which came back on the 8th December.

Our usual visitors, the elephant seals, aren't bothered about the new visitors

The Barque Europa is a very interesting way to travel the Southern Ocean with it's three masts it looks more like something out of history than current Antarctic sailing. But this is the experience the visitors pay for, and quite an experience they get! not just a tour of Antarctica but also required to help out on the ship, keeping it clean and learning the ropes - quite literally!

Barque Europa

Sometimes the best ways to travel and explore are to get fully involved with the entire experience.

For the visitors, learning to help sail means learning some of the rope systems on deck!

Of course. the highlight for the visiting ships are to come ashore, see what life is like on base, talk to our staff about what we do, how we do it and what experiences we have had; plus the inevitable shopping for souvenirs!

Visitors enjoy their shopping

It is not just the occasional visit of a cruise ship that keeps the isolated feeling to a minimum here. Communications with the outside world are very good by phone (we have a British landline!) and decent enough by the internet. But we are also in regular contact with the other stations, particularly the islands for whom the similar living conditions mean we have a lot in common. We have annual competitions with the other bases, in particular darts matches. This year we have already played, and lost to, Bird Island, a fact they will not let us forget anytime soon!

Oooone-hundreeed and eeeeiighty!! (If only!)

Life on an Antarctic Research Station can feel isolated and extreme. But when you have a great team, comfortable surroundings and incredible wildlife it very quickly feels like home! This year all 7 of us have worked on at least one BAS station before at least once, so it is all very familiar and yet very different at the same time. It is this mixture of the familiar and the new that keeps us all excited and interested to work here again!

For more great photos and information on what it is like here at Signy then check out Ali's blog as well, he is a much better photographer than I am!