Tom McClean lecture

On Thursday I travelled to the Maritime Museum in Liverpool's Albert Dock to see a lecture by Tom McClean which was part of a series of talks sponsored by Old Pulteney whisky called 'Stories of the Sea'. It was great to meet Tom and he took time to talk to me about Rockall, his experiences, and my plans for 2011. Tom's lecture covered his whole life of adventures, but there was a section on Rockall which included some photos of his shelter which are not publically available. These are going to help in the design of my shelter and in addition, he still has the orginial 'wooden box' in a garage at his adventure centre which I hope to visit later in the year. All in all, it was great to meet the man who has the solo occupation record and to get some advice for my expedition from him.

British Geological Survey

Today I had a very interesting meeting with Ken Hitchen of the British Geological Survey, who is also leader of the BGS Rockall Continental Margin Project team. He, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me saying, is as much of a Rockall nerd as I'm rapidly becoming. Following my meeting with Ken, I have been able to update the timeline on the website and confirm that two of my proposed research tasks are yet to be completed: obtaining a rock sample from Hasselwood Rock and establishing the true orientation of Rockall.

Ken was also able to correct or update a number of the facts on the website, provided me with some new avenues of potential research, as well as giving me some reading material to keep me busy! He also confirmed that the BGS will be more than happy to process any rock samples I manage to obtain during my stay on the island.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Ken was able to say with absolute certainty that there is no oil or gas under Rockall (although there is significant potential in the adjacent Rockall and Hatton Basins), and that the island's ownership can not be disputed as it is within 200 nautical miles of the habitable British territory of St. Kilda.

Leica Sponsorship

I now have my first sponsor. Thanks to a recommendation from the OS, Leica Geosystems have kindly agreed to sponsor me with the loan of a survey-grade GNSS receiver for the duration of my occupation of Rockall, and to provide processing support in conjunction with the offer from Ordnance Survey. It is hoped that with the right weather conditions I should be able to locate Rockall to the millimetre via cross reference to land based fixed reference points.

This is a fantastic step towards the Rockall 2011 project, and I hope that from this point Leica's commitment will lead to other corporations coming on board.

Survey Marker

Well, a successful couple of days. First and foremost the survey marker from the Ordnance Survey has arrived (above).

Until now this endeavour has only been communicated and progressed via email, the Internet and the telephone. Finally, something physical has happened, albeit quite small, but its actually been quite a big mental step in the right direction.

Science and Research

I am finally getting somewhere with this aspect of the expedition. To a certain extent it has actually been easier to progress this than other aspects:

The Ordnance Survey have very kindly agreed to provide me with a brass survey marker to place on Rockall, and to process any GPS measurements I might take. All I have to do now is drill a 60mm deep hole in the granite to fix it!

The Natural History Museum in London has expressed serious interest in helping me to collect, preserve and identify any insect material I might be able to obtain, and I will hopefully be meeting with them later in the year.

Geoff Hancock (no relation), Curator of Entomology at the Huntarian Museum in Glasgow, who himself has undertaken studies of invertebrates on St Kilda, has also agreed to provide me with equipment and guidance for collecting any invertebrates on Rockall, to identify them and preserve them for future study.