Category: Falkland Islands

We had another day anchored in the harbor. It was quite windy last night. Winds peaked at approximately 90 miles per hour. The captain and his crew were up all night, keeping the boat pointed into the wind and preventing it from dragging the anchor.

We did not get off the ship today. In the morning we had a lecture on the whales and dolphins that we might see and a lecture on the geology of the region. Two interesting points from the geology lecture.
1. The peninsula and the land are connected but the connection is under water. The land is pushed down under the weight of the ice. If the ice melted the land would rise above the current sea level. Of course if the ice melts sea level will rise too.
2. There are liquid lakes and rivers under the ice.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on Shackleton. That evening we saw part 2 of Seb’s Shackleton recreation adventure.

We were supposed to leave after lunch but we did not. Another ship left the harbor and found the seas so rough that they turned back. Our captain overheard their radio communication and decided to stay put a little longer. We left around 7 pm and it was clearly rougher than when we were sitting still but it was not too bad. They did have barf bag hanging off the railings. I have a half a patch on and am feeling just fine.

We were supposed to be at sea on our way to S. Georgia, however, we are staying in the Falklands’ protected harbor to wait until the storm passes. We were tied up at the dock but another ship is coming in and needs the dock so we need to move and anchor in the harbor.

The impromptu program for today is to go to Bertha’s Beach which lies on the east coast of East Falkland. We were on the bus before 8 as they need to move the ship by 8.  It took about an hour and a half to get to Bertha’s beach. Unfortunately our bus had an engine problem and we drove quite slowly. On the way, our guide told us about the islands. We passed the military base which houses about 2,500 military personnel.

Once at the beach it was very, very windy, probably 30-40 knot winds. I walked along the beach with Adam, our bird naturalist, and we saw some coastal birds. Rick found a king penguin and followed him around hoping the penguin would lead him to more penguins but unfortunately he only saw the one penguin. According to Adam, the penguin was about to start molting. They molt once a year and can not go in the water to feed during that time. The molting process takes 3-4 weeks so this penguin will probably get quite hungry. The orange feathers on the chest and head dull just before the molt.

Here are some pictures from the walk.

On our way back to the ship we saw some rock runs. These rock runs form in areas of permifrost. I believe that it is the result of freeze/thaw cycle. Over millions of years the frost melts and the water runs down the hill. Each time the water runs down the hill, it removes sediment and moves the rocks a little bit and eventually the rocks are moved to the water runoff path.  They look like rock pathways.  It’s hard to see but here’s a picture of the rock runs.

We had a lecture that afternoon.

Here are some pictures of Stanley, taken from the ship anchored in the harbor.

It got so windy that evening that we were not allowed on the deck.

Seb, the expedition staff specializing in history, was a member of the team that recreated Shackleton’s sailing trip from Elephant Island to S. Georgia and climb over S. Georgia. PBS made a three part documentary about the trip called Chasing Shackleton. They showed the first part that evening and then Seb answered questions.

Durning the night the ship moved to Stanley, the main town in the Falklands, and was tied up on a dock. The town has about 2,500 inhabitants. They recently had a referendum and decided to maintain their status as a British Overseas Territory. There seems to be a lot of resentment of Argentina. One person we talked to spoke about East Chile rather than say Argentina.

The Falklands are self-sufficient and do not relieve on England for monetary support. England pays for the military base which houses about 3,000 people. The Falklands’ economy is primarily based on fishing licenses. They “own” a circle of 200 miles beyond the islands which is very rich for fishing. The second component of their economy is tourism. They receive about 50,000 tourists a year. They generate about 40% of the power from wind. There are no trees so most of he houses are build from kits shipped in from England. There are quite a few areas that still have land mines from the war Falklands war in 1982. They are slowly but surely being removed.

The island used to be quite important during the whaling days. Ships would round Cape Horn which has very rough seas and then pull into the Falklands for repairs. With less traffic rounding the cape most of that business has dried up. There are quite a few shipwrecks in the harbor. I guess the boat owners couldn’t afford to fix the ships so they just abandoned them.

After breakfast we walked 4 km along the shore towards Gypsy Cove, spotting birds along the way. There were Magellanic penguins on the beach but we couldn’t get close because of potential land mines on the beach. Here are pictures from our walk.

After our walk we took the bus, went to town and had lunch at a pub with Forrest and Anna. There was no menu but there were three choices, fish and chips, chicken and chips, and curry chicken and chips. We had a nice lunch and then Rick played darts with a guy from Ireland. Rick won.

After lunch we walked to a souvenir shop because I think I left my hat at the last hotel so I now have a Falkland Islands hat. We returned to ship once our shopping was done.

We were supposed to leave the dock at 4:00. We were out on deck to watch them cast off. We waited and we waited and no action. There was a bird outside the guard shack who was waiting for some bread. After the guard threw some bread to him he tried to fly away and ended up flying backwards because it was so windy. When he tried to walk he ended up walking sideways because it was so windy.

Finally Hayley, our expedition leader, announced a meeting. There was a bad storm with winds over 50 knots headed for the Falklands. Therefore we were going to spend the night at the dock. It wasn’t clear when we would leave the Falklands and the captain would watch the weather and decide when it was safe to leave.

That night we had a speaker from the Falklands give a lecture about the Falklands and her research in the area. They have discovered oil within the territorial sea boundaries of Falklands. Her research is to establish a wildlife baseline and forecast the oil rig impact on wildlife.

This morning I removed my scopolamine patch and started to feel better quite quickly.

We arrived at West Point on West Falkland in the morning. Only seven people live on this island and they are primarily sheep herders. Most of our ship mates went onto the island to see the nesting albatrosses and rockhopper penguins as well as to have tea and cakes at a local house. Us kayakers had our first session. Rick and I were in a double and we kayaked for about 45 minutes leaving from the beach. We kayaked along the shore looking at the wildlife. Here are a couple of pictures of the kayakers.

We saw birds and water fowl but I couldn’t tell you their names. We also saw a couple of elephant seals. Here are pictures of some of the wildlife we saw.

After about 45 minutes of kayaking they took us back to the ship where we changed out of our kayaking dry suits and then we went ashore. This is a picture of the buildings along the shore line.

Here are some pictures of the landscape. It was desolate, clearly a harsh environment.

After a 5 minute jeep ride we came to a nesting area for black-brow albatrosses and rockhopper penguins. The babies were relatively mature but most still had their down. They have down to keep them warm when they are babies but must grow feather in order to swim or fly. The albatross babies sit on a pedestal nest. There was a lot of squawking for food. Here are pictures.

We didn’t have time to go to the local house for tea and cakes but here’s a picture of it.

We headed back to the ship in the zodiacs for lunch.

During lunch the ship moved to Saunders Island where there was quite a large penguin colony as well as sheep grazing. Here we saw rockhopper, gentoo, megellanic, and king penguins.

We returned to the ship where we had our daily debriefing and dinner.