TVB op vakansie na Gough Eiland

[Zanie]

I disappeared off this thread for a while and then slowly caught up with everything over a week or two (or three!). Your photos are amazing! The difference between your first photos and the later ones is stark. I love it that you don't only post pictures of the wildlife, but also of the landscape. We then get to see a place that looks "out of this world". It puts it into perspective as to where these birds live. I'm really glad that your new team seems like such a lekker crowd.

[Tom van Brits]

I disappeared off this thread for a while and then slowly caught up with everything over a week or two (or three!). Your photos are amazing! The difference between your first photos and the later ones is stark. I love it that you don't only post pictures of the wildlife, but also of the landscape. We then get to see a place that looks "out of this world". It puts it into perspective as to where these birds live. I'm really glad that your new team seems like such a lekker crowd.

Thanks Zanie, I really do love sharing about this amazingly beautiful island, seabirds and seals as well as our lifestyle. Who knows; someone may stumble upon this thread and experience it a bit through my eyes and decides to give it a go as well. They are busy recruiting for G64 now, and the ship is leaving soon (first week of April) to Marion Island again.

I did braai that snoek for brunch and it was basically a first come first serve. Made it the way I was introduced to 'snoek braai' with the appricot jam and butter with lemon juice. Was good and the Ausies loved it as well - they are from Tasmania and love there fish. Come from a town called Hobard which is very similar to Gough wrt Weather.

Herewith just a few pics of how I like to braai it:

[woody1]

Lekker eet my maat.  Niks so lekker soos 'n vars snoek op die kole nie 

[ChrisL - DUSTRIDERS]

 I do not eat bread often

Jy moet dadelik by die medic uitkom, jy is ernstig siek!!

[Tom van Brits]

Lekker eet my maat.  Niks so lekker soos 'n vars snoek op die kole nie 

Agree baas Kobus, and tonight I was on cooking skivvi and we had a birthday. It was a request to make 'spare rib' and chips  and I was under pressure to perform.
I still recall your spare rib recipe from 11 years back on Marion Island where you have cooked the ribs in the fruit juice till soft and then grill in the oven. Instead of grilling I did it over the braai - real hot coal fire while brushing it with the basting sauce. To my surprise it came out beautifully, and everyone loved it and asked for the recipe and I got told to do it again some time. Still after all these years I find it hard to cook for people, maybe because I am always worried I will disappoint someone. 

I do not eat bread often

Jy moet dadelik by die medic uitkom, jy is ernstig siek!!

Chris I love bread and bake often without eating it myself reason being: Bread is like sunrise and sunset, it goes from the 'Yeast to the Waist' 

[Rodlau]

One of my favorites.  The crust of whole wheat bread, still warm from the baking with a nice thick healthy spreading of butter and then topped off with an equally thick smearing of honey.

[Tom van Brits]

One of my favorites.  The crust of whole wheat bread, still warm from the baking with a nice thick healthy spreading of butter and then topped off with an equally thick smearing of honey.

I am with you on that one, but we can always replace the honey with home-made apricot yam! 

[Tom van Brits]

We had Peters Birthday party last night and he loves cookies.....to the 'theme was Cookies and Jaimie baked this massive delicious cookie.
I am a bit of a party pooper and not into this kind of thing much, but I know how important birthdays are to people and therefore I do respect and participate in it.
Mine is next though and I have asked the team to also respect my view and not to give me any party of sort. Yes a cake is cool, and since it is a tradition to make birthday presents by hand for each it is also cool but that is where it ends.

Back to Peters Birthday, been a great day for him and I did make supper - spare ribs and chips and then there was cup cakes, the giant cookie and even another cake for 'Errol' - he shares his birthday with Peter and Fabrice made a cake as well. So now after all the office work (stocktaking) I need to get my ass up that mountain before I pick up weight again 

Herewith just a few pics - not good quality but it tells the story

[Ri]

Whoaaaaa that topographical map of Gough Island is amazing!!! Love the guitar too haha!

Who made Peter the Cookie Monster headdress, it is absolutely awesome hahaha! And everyone wearing Zoo Cookies! 

I love this team's inventiveness and creativeness, they really go all out

Is that Errol at DEA's cake?

[Tom van Brits]

Whoaaaaa that topographical map of Gough Island is amazing!!! Love the guitar too haha!

Who made Peter the Cookie Monster headdress, it is absolutely awesome hahaha! And everyone wearing Zoo Cookies! 

I love this team's inventiveness and creativeness, they really go all out

Is that Errol at DEA's cake?

Hello Ri!

Yes Erool at the DEA' shared his birthday with Peter Saturday the 24th of March, and that is why Fabrice baked a cake since Errol helped this team a lot in the beginning and even later on through the year (shipping of personal items)

Santjie made the Cookie monster costume for Peter and Jaimie (blond girl from Tasmania) made the huge 'cookie' - pok that was rather delicious and I need to hit that mountain head on soon to get rid of the extra sugar intake this weekend!

The 'map' was made by Fabrice, the Guitar by Vukile and there were many more 'home made' presents like painted coffee mug, a hand knitted beanie, Guitar stand and so on.

Tonight is the 'half way' dinner - It sounds like we are just partying and having a joll but on the contrary I am not sure where we do get the time for all of this right now as it seems everyone's schedule is rather tight with stocktaking, orders and other work. Come to think of it; March and April are the 2 most hectic months on Gough for most of us other than takeover. Still there will be plenty of good times before we come home in six month's time and I am currently planning on my next 'big' hike. I am still hopeful to summit Edinburgh peak before it is really full on Winter here. The days are getting shorter now, and we are getting more frequent low pressures and lots of rain.

Herewith more pictures of the home made presents (I made the dusky dolphin wooden book-holder) and I hope to bring more nice bird and landscape pictures soon again to the thread! 

[Sam]

I saw the Le Lyrial leaving Cape Town on Sunday evening. Quite a larney looking thing - smaller that I expected.

Was this not the same ship that "saved" your "team leader" last year? (the one that didn't dig drinking the island water.....) What ever happened to him when he got back to CT? Get the boot?

[Sam]

Jeez - that snoek looks lekker.

The Aussies and Kiwis have the same fish down under (they call it something else). Woolworths seems to prefer importing the Aussie / Kiwi one than supporting our local fishermen.....for whatever reason.

[Sam]

Thanks for all the great pics again! Island life must agree with you - it might be my imagination, but you actually look younger than you did when you got there in 2016.....!

[Tom van Brits]

I saw the Le Lyrial leaving Cape Town on Sunday evening. Quite a larney looking thing - smaller that I expected.

Was this not the same ship that "saved" your "team leader" last year? (the one that didn't dig drinking the island water.....) What ever happened to him when he got back to CT? Get the boot?

Hello buddy

The Le Lyrial is rather impressive and I know they should be in our water again soon on yet another Southern Ocean voyage. I can't recall how many passengers they said were onboard but it was more than double as on the 'Silver Explorer' and the ex Team leader of Gough 62 did leave last year on the Silver Explorer. It was a rather sensitive matter and we were advised not to talk about it anymore. I honestly however do not know what the outcome was but nothing has changed on the island. There was a lady on the last take over that did come and tested the water - she was taken to the field to the water source and inspected everything and took numerous samples. Her lab test results in short: water is clean and safe for human consumption.

The Silver Explorer told us last week that they had 60 passengers onboard, and I can recall that the Le Lyrial had 120 staff onboard! So yes they are not massively big and I did see on the website they refer to the Le Lyrial as a 'Yacht' but then again probably just a fancy name because the Edinburgh for example is half the size but class as a ship. I always thought that a 'Yacht' must be some sort of a sailing vessel but I was wrong about that. I also thought that 5 star was the ultimate in luxury catering/accommodation but also wrong since many of these ships have 7 Star status!

Yes I am getting younger on the island and think they should just forget to replace me!! 

Herewith pictures that I took last year of both the Le Lyrial and the Silver Explorer

[Tom van Brits]

Morning WD's

All good on Gough albeit unexpected showers (hard showers which can last up to 15 minutes) which is common to Winter on Gough.
We had a good South swell with a moderate Southern wind which cooled us down and was absolutely ideal for fishing. Out of experience; that is when the big fish come close to the shore and in the same waters I have managed to catch the biggest fish. The Mechanic and Sparkey did follow my advise and did go down and fish and they caught the biggest five finger (reef fish) I have ever seen here. Unfortunately I did not take pictures, I was too late since they were already halfway through the filleting process. Soon I will go as well and last night after dinner the 4 of us (Radio tech included) made plans for a big full day of fishing on Gough. We just need to get the orders and other priorities sorted and then we will have more time for ourselves and the heading of this thread may be applicable for some days at least - touch wood they say!

This morning I baked a couple of croissants and now I really really feel like putting everything down since I started work rather early and just grab the camera and storm up the mountain to catch some fresh air.
Attached 2 pictures of my baking, and not the best of pics but bear with me since I am experimenting a lot of recent with the camera. I want to take the tripot with me and do some bracketing shots up the mountain and see what results I can get out of that. It seems to be rather popular under landscape photographers to do a bit of bracketing and then merge the pics in lightroom as HDR. Will share whatever I got, just want to see if the weather will give me a break.

Cheers

[woody1]

Hoop julle het extra botter vir daai..  al is daar baie botter in die deeg gaan hy net lekkerder af met nog so 'n bietjie regte botter 

[Xpat]

Tom, if you are going to try bracketing, i would also recommend to try focus stacking for very sharp landscapes.

[Tom van Brits]

Hoop julle het extra botter vir daai..  al is daar baie botter in die deeg gaan hy net lekkerder af met nog so 'n bietjie regte botter 

Hello baas Kobus! Pok no unfortunately the tax payers did not get us enough 'real butter' 
Unfortunately not enough so I have to use normal margarine and not even 'baking' margarine but it still taste great!
I went up the mountain and delivered to the fieldworkers some as well!

[Tom van Brits]

Tom, if you are going to try bracketing, i would also recommend to try focus stacking for very sharp landscapes.

Hello Martin! I did recall 'focus stacking' since there was some discussion somewhere about it (probably on the 'learn photography' thread) with a beautiful illustration - some misty mountain peaks. I went through a lot of trouble to take everything with me today and even googled bracketing and tried it out this morning. However; I can kick my own bud for not getting a sturdy tripod when I had the opportunity. Now it is too late and I need to make due with what I have. The wind was not even pumping but there was the occasional gust and it always happens just when the shutter (which is set on auto) release  I cannot say it was all in vain since I did what I could to steady it and to take more shots, sometimes by dialing in the settings manually (eg 1 stop over and so on)  just to complete the shoot or scene rather. Once again I was lucky to get excellent (in my opinion) shots from the Tristan Albatross up on Goney-dale with the wide angle lens. I often say that the 16/50 Tamron F2.8 Is my favorite lens but everytime I put the WA lens on I get (on my level) good to excellent results. I did read and learn a lot about landscape photography now and become aware of some mistakes I am making. However, what I also forgot is that 'setting up' for a landscape scene takes time and yes I was 'on the clock'. In the end I failed to find those 'leading lines' and so on which makes landscape photography stand out so regardless I did learn 2 x valuable lessons today wrt time and equipment. I will see what I can do to make the tripot a bit more sturdy - hanging some weight under it did help a bit but I will look into it and make a plan.
I did not process the pics yeat, I just need to cach up on some work to make the month end deadlines but I will probably get time sometime tomorrow to put it through lightroom and then post here! 

[Tom van Brits]

Great News

My son, Chris has qualified today as Millwright! He was doing his trade test prep and then finally the exams in Kempton Park.

A month before he had to go for his prep & tests the company he was an apprentice let him go. So I payed for everything and supported him all the way. He then volunteered at a company in Brits and although he just ask them to allow him to work for one month before he goes for the test (he just wanted to learn more) they still paid him regardless. Well now the original company wants him back and made him an offer, but he has decided to rather go with the company in Brits not only because it is close to home (his mom) but because they were kind to him. He reason that even though they pay less he does not need to re-locate to Randburg and he is in a better environment with a couple of old tradesman who learns him a lot. His work is also more relevant at this company wrt his trade.

I am so happy that I baked a cake for the team to celebrate this!
Don't think he is on WD's anymore but in anyway: Welldone Chris, you made me proud!