Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Skellig Rocks

A story dealing with a voyage around the Skelligs and a bit of their history. We sailed from Knightstown, Valentia to Derrynane Harbour on my cousins yacht Janus. It is thus named due to having two heads (toilets in maritime speak) and Janus was a Roman god of two heads. Quite a clever name I thought.

2011_07_29 SKM - Janus
Janus

We left Knightsown at 0900 and sailed out past Valentia Lighthouse and on to Bray Head.

2011_07_29 SKM - Valentia Lighthouse 02
Valentia Lighthouse

This lighthouse was established in 1841 and automated in 1947. It was built as a fortified lighthouse and you can still see the revetments for the cannon used to protect it and some of the old cannon on top of the wall facing across the inlet.

Heading out past the island and around Bray Head en-route to Derrynane Harbour. It was a beautiful day, albeit with little wind to keep the sails full. On seeing the Skelligs 12km offshore we decided that a trip around them would be worthwhile. For stories of the birdlife and wildlife see the previous entry. During the summers of 1991 and 1992 I had the enormous privilege of living on the Skelligs, 3 weeks on and 1 week off, working for the OPW as a tour guide. My father was the first person to run scheduled passenger boat trips to the Skelligs in the 1960s. I felt it was a natural follow on from his bringing people there to me, the next generation of Grimes, helping protect the site and educate people about it.

As we approached the larger of the two rocks, Skellig Michael, the modern landing, and the old East steps up to the monastery came into view. The monastery can just be seen on the left slope of the peak to the left in the following photo.

2011_07_29 SKM - Skellig Michael 03
Skellig Michael


The East Steps

The monastery was built sometime between the 5th and 7th Century and is mentioned in annals written by monks of the time which also mentions that it was sacked on numerous occasions by the vikings on their marauding cruises around Ireland looking for church gold and plunder. The idea behind setting up monasteries in such places as isolated as the Skelligs was borne of an ascetic lifestyle which was deemed to bring the monks closer to God the harder their lifestyle was. The Skelligs was probably occupied by 12 monks and an abbot following from Christ and his apostles.

The situation of the monastery is ideally protected from the elements and has its own micro-climate which can catch people unawares on windy and cold days, where they find they need to take off jackets and jumpers even though the crossing might have been wet and wild.

There are three sets of steps leading to the monastery. The east steps, as you can see above, lead from the modern landing. The bottom part of these steps was blasted away when the road to the lighthouses was built. Acces to these steps from the bottom is now extremely difficult. Back in the day there was a ladder. The steps themselves are quite treacherous in places, however I did climb them once myself when I had no fear, even though I was afraid at times.

Moving around the back of the island, a place not normally seen by those who go out on passenger boats, you can see the North Steps leading up to Christs Saddle where they meet the South Steps that people use nowadays to access the monastery.

The North Steps

The reason for the different steps is that it allowed access to the island in different weather and wind directions. I never went down the North Steps as they looked way too dodgy back then.

Moving around the island, the south peak and upper lighthouse below it come in to view.


The South Peak

The South Peak was a place of pilgrimage up one of the most dangerous climbs on the rock. You follow a path up to a narrow walkway. You then pass through a cleft in the rock known as The Eye of the Needle. From here on it gets even more perilous where you have to climb up steps cut into the side of the rock to the terraces of the oratory. It is not for the faint hearted. The oratory just below the peak is about what there has been a lot of debate. The OPW decided to do some restoration which resulted in reconstruction of the terrace and structure according to how it was thought it orignally was. You can see some of the restored terraces. Personally I don´t agree with this form of so-called archaeology. You can see a video about this here. I don´t know who made it but photos of the South Peak are very hard to come by. My own are all prints which I don´t have here to scan.




The first time I went up to the very top, my legs turned to jelly and I had to talk myself down out loud. I was a babbling mess. Afterwards however, on subsequent visits,  I found it easier and had no problems. It is frightening up there, as if you fall, you will die. There is no question about that. Nothing will catch you.

Below the South Peak is the Upper Lighthouse which is now abandoned since 1870. One of the reasons was it was too high at 121m and obscured during bad weather, but the main reason was because a new lighthouse was built on one of the Blaskets, Inistearaght.

2011_07_29 SKM - Skellig Michael Old Lighthouse 10
The Upper Lighthouse

At one stage there were three families living on the rock to tend the lighthouses. In those days the men were not rotated on a monthly basis but lived there for 9 months or more. Children were born and died out here. The names of many of the keepers are carved beautifully into the rocks as you walk along the road and also onto the slabs on top of the walls in front of the lighthouse. These carvings, some of them very artistic, are a wonderful reminder of the lighthouses past history. Another reminder is the sad grave of two lighthouse children in the monastery who died out here, of the same family, one shortly after the other.

A bit further around the Lower Lighthouse comes into view as you pass the Washerwoman Rocks. This stands at 53m.

2011_07_29 SKM - Skellig Michael Lighthouse 14
The Lower Lighthouse

This light was established at the same time as the Upper one but modernised in 1907 and rebuilt in 1966. I have had the pleasure of visiting the light and seeing its workings when the keeper came out to do maintenance from Valentia. It may have been automated in 1987, but it still needs a keeper to come out for a few weeks to keep it running smoothly, clean the lens and touch up the paint.

2011_07_29 SKM - Skellig Michael 17
Little and Great

We then sailed on past the second largest colony of gannets in the world on the Little Skellig and said goodbye to the rocks.

Bolus Head

After a most leisurely lunch we continued our cruise past Bolus Head at the entrance to Ballinskelligs and into Derrynane Harbour, our destination.

Derrynane Harbour

We took a mooring and after a brief sundowner drink were picked up for the short drive back to Valentia where I got the ferry back to the mainland and headed home. It´s always a delight, a thrill, a pleasure, and for me a very special experience visiting the Skelligs. It´s a place with so much history, so much wildlife and for my family, so many ties. Already I´m looking forward to the next trip.

Knightstown, Valentia



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A Deck Full of Feathers


Two nights ago a huge quantity of meadow pipits flew past the boat. All over the decks they were resting and bumping into windows all the while thousand upon thousands were swarming above in the dark.


With the pipits came bramblings and a pair of ciskins also. We had already a brambling on board along with a dozen or so chaffinches and a pair of blackcaps. These however had started to dwindle in numbers despite being fed by the whale watchers. Why you need whale watchers in 30m of water is another thing.
Eurasian Ciskin

Now we have perhaps a dozen each of chaffinches and bramblings, the pair of ciskins, the male blackcap (the female has been MIA a day or two now), a warbler, 4 starlings and a jackdaw. Two days ago there was a kestrel and a sparrowhawk, both of which I missed, two weeks ago a heron, an osprey and a golden plover. Last week there was a Northern Shrike dining on the first batch of chaffinches for a day or two.

To see migrating birds on their journey is quite a spectacle and also quite humbling that creatures so small take on such huge obstacles to get to where they are going. It's almost ironic that this trip I should see this. After 12 years at sea, I have decided to give it all up and place my feet firmly ashore for now. My last trip and one where the birds just don't stop coming. Mine is another type of journey but hopefully I won't slam into a window or fall into a hole full of kerosene and drown.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Looks Bad for Crew Change

Well, this was the weather on Monday. Not good a good omen for the Tuesday crew change. However it went down overnight and even though the first chopper couldn't land first time out it made it on deck 2 hours later. As the weather came down more everyone on the Tues CC made it off home to family and loved ones.

I am due to get off tomorrow, Thursday. Today the sea is all nice and calm, so good in fact I'm due to take out in our workboat to do some repairs on the cables. Tomorrow is a different story though with the swell due to come up to 3+ metres, followed by Friday 4+ and Saturday 4-6+. Not good, not good...

So all you worshipers of Poseidon and Neptune, make a few offerings and I'll place an egg on the helideck. If it's still there tomorrow morning the weather is good enough for choppers...

Thursday, June 03, 2010

End of the Storm?


2010-06-02 WN - Sunrise
Originally uploaded by Mike at Sea
Well it's been pretty bad weather here the past few days. Probably the worst we've seen since we got down here. High winds, rain and 4-5m swells have kept me watching movies and off the outer decks. This morning though there was a beautiful sunrise, however I fear the break in the weather is to be a short one and that it's going to get bad again soon. Just so long as it's ok for next Thursdays crew change, I couldn't care less what it's like for the next week. The poor MMOs (Marine Mammal Observers) had their crew change delayed by 3 days due to the bad spell. But who cares when it's not you getting off...?

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Great Shearwaters Circular Migration

This past week I have noticed large amounts of these fabulous flyers all heading in the same direction - North. The Great Shearwater follows a circular pattern during the year on its migration route. It flies north along the east coast of the southern and then northern continent of America and then makes its way across the North Atlantic in August to Ireland and Britain where it can be seen off the south-west coasts.

What's unusual about this migration is that it is one of only a few bird species to migrate from its breeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere whereas most other species do it the opposite way round. Eventually it makes it's way down south again along the eastern side of the Atlantic.

Watching them fly is really impressive. They "shear" from side to side following the contours of the waves and swells, every now and again popping up in the turns, before bringing the lower wing to within a hairs breadth of the water or even slightly dipping the tip.

They feed by plunge diving for fish and squid. An interesting note about this is I have seen Magnificent Frigatebirds chase them until they drop into the water This activity, according to a comment left on my Flickr site by Jorn Ake may be a tactic to chase the GS until it regurgitates its food which the MF (no pun intended) then can take. Perhaps it's fear on behalf of the GS or lightening the load in its belly.

It's great to see bird migrations to get a feel for the scope of nature. If you think about it, the straight line distances, which of course they would not necessarily take and so fly longer distances, are:

Rio de Janeiro to New York: 7757 km (4820 miles)
New York to Cork Ireland: 5003 km (3109 miles)
Cork to Cape Town: 9895 km (6149 miles)
Cape Town to Rio De Janeiro: 6062 km (3767) miles
TOTAL: 28717 km (17845 miles)

As I said, that's a straight line distance between these cities which are near their route, not taking in to account the big bulges of northern South America or the bulge of West Africa. You could probably add on another third of the distance again and maybe round it off at 38000 km or 24000 miles. Not quite enough to get a silver card for Air France but an impressive distance to do in a year, whilst also allowing some time out for breeding on the Tristan da Cunha archipelago.

Now that's some journey!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Contractual Racism

I found out just the other day that this could be my new boat. I just recently transferred out of Infield Data Processing to become a Field Geophysicist which meant moving 2 chairs down the bench but doing a job that is not so narrow in scope as processing. Field Geo takes all the information of the acquisition, navigation and makes sure all is good and acceptable for acceptance by the clients. It's a broader scope which fits in more with my general knowledge of seismic.

I had hoped to stay with my boss Steve and learn from his almost 30 years in the industry before crewing even thought of giving me my own boat. Now I find out, the last to know naturally, that after two and a half weeks in my new role I am possibly to be made the head honcho on this bulbous "beauty??", named after an explorer, Amundsen, who, whilst I admire his achievements (first through the NW Passage, first to the South Pole) I do not admire as a person. I never met the guy but can have an opinion right? I've read enough about him.Seems like he was a bit of a git.

The reason for the transfer is not due to my superb abilities, I know, I know, I'm brilliant, but legal aspects of our contract here in Brasil. To get work down in Brazil, the government insists that after a certain period of time we must have 30% Brazilians on the crew. After a year 60%!! This happened in Mexico also.

I remember well the day when a Mexicano official came on board and said what a great day for Mexico it was and how thrilled they were that we were there. Then he proceeded to say how they would be having 50% of the crew Mexican. We were aghast. What about us? So we got Mexicans. Trainees all of them. We trained them up and 2 years later when the ship left Mexico they all left the boat. So much time training them to a point where they were useful and then we go to Canada and they all bog off.

It's the same down here in Brazil. We get these trainees who speak poor English, so not only do we have to train them in the ways of seismic but also how to communicate. Most are here in a specific program lasting 3 years after which they will probably go in to the office on shore. 3 years of training them about seismic, the sea and English. Most don't even try to integrate into the crew. One in particular has no interest in being on the boat and can't wait to leave.

So back to me. Because the Amundsen is off to the North Sea and have a Brazilian Field Geo who is only there for percentages, the Neptune has two of the same grade and a new-hire Brazilian with a cocky attitude and airs and graces about himself that he's a brilliant geophysicist who can recite formulae but needs to cut and paste from Wikipedia for his training modules, I get shoved off. Shoved off the Neptune??? I have been on here for 8 years. I am one of three on this crew who have stayed since the beginning. I loaded gear, bolted monitors, ran network cables and overseen upgrades in dock. I have been through a lot on here. It is my second home, and now crewing behind my back are surreptitiously moving me to a smaller, uglier boat. I don't care if it's new. The Explorer class boats SUCK according to anyone who has been on them. And why? Because of my ethnicity? My 'misfortune' not to be Brazilian? Just Google "little brazil gort". I believe Brazilians were welcomed with open arms in Ireland. Well I'm up in arms in Brazil agus sin e.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Magdalena - One Year On

We've all heard about ships cats, pirates parrots and rats leaving a sinking ship. It's not always man who goes to sea. Ships cats and pirates parrots mostly had no choice, rats just wanted free food. Of course in the case of the cats it's bad luck to kick a cat off a boat, it should always leave by it's own free will.

When the boat was in the Gulf of Mexico, a pigeon joined the crew, and stayed on during the transit down to Brasil. It had two rings on it at the start, which lead me to believe it was a racing pigeon. One ring was yellow, which is now lost, and the other, metallic, has the markings "FCC 014685" and the year 2008. Research into what these markings mean has revealed that she is in fact from a Cuban pigeon racers flock.

It quickly became apparent "it" was a "she" after a small nest was found in the navigation frame with three wee eggs. Having settled in so well, and with the deck crew feeding her, the eggs hatched and three young chicks appeared. On arrival in Rio de Janeiro, the three left the vessel, but Mom declined the chance of a new life in the tropics and stayed aboard. She has been here ever since and become an accepted member of the crew,

Magdalena, in fact, takes an observatory role in all operations on the boat and loves to be around people. When there are crane ops she will strut about the shipments as though checking the slinging and address labels. When there is back deck work, she will walk about the work area, hop on cables and snooze on toolboxes. Her favourite perch is on the lee-side sill of the bridge windows.

Her diet consists of bread crumbs from buns, lentils and whatever seeds can be got from the galley stores. She always has a dish of water. When the deck crew hose down the deck she has a wash or in the cooling water pool on top of the paint store. She did pick up a limp at one point but appears to have recovered from that. It would seem that her weight dropped somehwat over the year, but not dangerously so. She stills flies about and will do the odd circuit of the vessel on calmer days.

Although not on the crew list, I think the captain has finally accepted the fact even though she craps all over the boat, she is a proper Neptunian.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Crash Landing on Neptune

At the start of the trip we were on the back deck deploying our streamers. Suddenly during the night something akin to a small aeroplane came careering in towards the back deck and rather inelegantly flopped down on to the deck where we were working. Realising that it was not about to take off anytime soon it settled in under the transom on a bit of plywood for the night. It really wasn't all that bothered by the fact we were passing it and moving chains, ropes and winches by it and only ever got to it's feet a few times when someone approached too close.


It was decided during the night that for it's own safety we would remove it to an upper deck where when the mood took it it could fly off. Of course it needs either wind or a drop to take off so we figured it would be for the best. Like Magdalena, our resident pigeon, it obviously felt like enjoying the break from flying and sat on deck for the rest of the day. When I went back the next day it was gone.

What was interesting about this bird was the way it has grooves down it's beak from the nostrils along which salt water flows. Seemingly this is how it removes salt from it's body. Whilst it was on the plywood board it gathered quite a pool under the tip of it's beak.

We see quite a few of these down here in Brasil but generally from a distance. It was great to get so close to one. It's plumage is exquisite around it's head and neck; soft and fluffy. It's beak is enormous. I was just sorry that it wasn't an adult with the fantastically bright yellow stripe down the centre-top of it's beak.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Rio to Macae - Crew Change Day

Crew change this week. Flew into Rio on Monday night and stayed at the Luxor Hotel in the airport. Sounds better than it is. Certainly no palace. For a start it has no windows, second it's in an airport and third has only 3 English speaking channels but a squillion Portuguese channels which are either football or crap talk shows.

The next day we left for Macae. The journey takes you near downtown.

Rio de Janeiro from the Rio–Niterói Bridge

They are working on the airport, road, everything for the forthcoming Olympics in 2016. One can't get the feeling that there is a bit of sweeping under the carpet though. As many are aware, Brasil is a country of huge contrasts between rich and poor. The poor live in favelas which, if they are at the side of the road, create a bad impression.


So what do you do? Why, you hide the slums behind sound barriers...


Of course some people live in the green belt way outside on the edges of Niteroi.


Some even have nice water views.


Meanwhile those with the cash can be the proud owner of one of these new cars. All they need are the windows to be tinted so the roadside hijackers can't see in.


Others can do their DIY shopping at Leroy Merlin or get all their food at Carrefour.



Oh well, there is still hope I guess for this beautiful, if somewhat disturbingly juxtaposed country.

Wow, Dec 2005 was my last post. Well, time to get back with it I think...later.