I go by many names on station, lucky for me the most regularly used one is my birth name. My name is Jack and I am the summer chef for Macca, I arrived on station a little over three weeks ago on the 9th of December along with six other new expeditioners for the summer. A lot has happened in this short space of time, but here is the shortened version of my season so far.
After a short delay and a leisurely cruise through the Southern Ocean, we arrived safely off the coast of Macquarie Island in the early hours of Saturday the 9th of December courtesy of the French Naval Ship, L’Astrolabe. All personnel and cargo were very efficiently and safely changed over and by the time we knew it, the seven new summer expeditioners had changed over with the outgoing winter crew. After conducting station inductions and meeting all the people and wildlife we could, it was time to get to work. There was some trial and error at first, however I quickly figured out how to best cater for the 25 expeditioners now stationed on Macca and before I knew it, I was off to conduct my survival training around the island. Our resident FTO got more than he bargained for during the training as I needed to use ALL of the training I had been provided (if you know, you know). Three days had quickly gone by and it was back to station to get ready for Christmas and New Year celebrations.
We had beautiful weather on Christmas Eve, so we headed down to the mechanics workshop for a BBQ and drinks. The weather was perfect so we stayed outside all night and never ended up watching the movie we had chosen for the evening. Christmas Day was then upon us and it was time for more food and festive fun. Lucky for us, Santa braved the conditions and made the long journey down south to meet us and hand out some presents. Christmas Day was a great day, everyone on station did their part to make it as memorable as possible. Although I am the “Chef” here on station, I had a lot of help to make the day go as smoothly as it did, thank you. After a shortened work week, it was time for New Year's Eve celebrations. It was quickly discovered that we had no live entertainment for the evening, and everyone we could find was booked out on NYE. After searching high and low over the internet, we managed to find a male duet who had their gig cancelled last minute back on the mainland at a highly prestigious, yet unconfirmed venue. They have been likened to Simon and Garfunkle, but also Savage Garden, they are the Bungy Chords. Their privately chartered flight was 20 minutes late arriving on Macquarie Island (we won’t mention that) but we didn’t mind, the NYE celebrations on Macca where made better due to their sheer presence and a great night was had by all.
So that is my season so far and thank you for reading, however I can smell something burning in the kitchen and since I’m the only one cooking, it’s probably dinner so I gotta run.
Regards,
Jack
Macca Summer Chef 23/24
