Penguin Island, Antarctica 2008

Monday, February 14, 2011

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

Dick wakes about 6:30AM when the seas stop pitching so much. Looking out he can see the headlands of the Falklands in the mist. Carolyn gets up sometime after 7AM and we watch the entrance to the harbor. It is windy and raining.
There is a tanker of some sort already anchored. The captain gets a tender out....maybe we will actually get ashore. As we watch, we see two Chinese fishing boats heading in.

There is a small inner harbor and the red roofs of Port Stanley are visible in the mist, but there is no way that our ship can get through the eye of that needle. We have been told it will be a 20 minute tender ride.
The Captain comes over the PA at 8AM to tell us that there is just too much wind, 40+mph, to anchor and use the tenders safely plus he has been informed that Port Stanley is expecting Force 8 winds during the day so it is too dangerous for us to even be in the harbor as there is only a small area deep enough for us to drop anchor. Winds that high can drag us into the shallows. What a disappointment!
As we are listening, they are trying to raise the tender and the cable snaps or slips off the boat so they have to start over.
After two more tries with the boat not even able to get close to the ship and the hooks swinging wildly, the tender backs off. That is not the only problem the Captain is having at the moment, the wind really picked up.  As we watch the tender, and the second Chinese fishing boat is being blown off its turn to go around us. It appears for a few minutes that we are going to be hit broadside, then the captain of the fishing boat gets control and makes his turn....still it comes a little too close to our stern.
The Mariner turns a little also and the tender is finally able to be hooked up and lifted.
While all this is going on, four more of the Chinese fleet come in. The weather must really be going to be bad.

It is British Pub day aboard the Mariner so there are several pub type activities planned for this evening. We have now moved up to deck 12 to watch the sail away. All of a sudden we see a small boat heading at a high rate of speed to the Mariner...is this the pilot boat? We watch as it comes along side and starts off loading boxes and then cases of BEER!
It turns out this is the English beer for the Pub party tonight! Good to know the captain has his priorities straight!

A little after 9AM the ship sails for the open water and we go to breakfast. While we eat, the motion of the ship really picks up and the fog horn starts blowing. The CD, Ray, announces that we can pick up new daily programs at the desk and that Terry will do a talk on Argentina at 9:45AM. He will do another of his very nice church services at 9:30AM.

We go to the church service and the lecture. Terry spends the first fifteen minutes telling us about the time she was the lecturer on the original Royal Princess years ago. They had anchored in the harbor and most of the passengers were off the ship for tours when a sudden storm started rolling in. The captain sent all the tenders in to get the passengers back, the staff went around the town with bull horns calling everyone to get to the tenders. They loaded them to capacity at the pier in an attempt to get everyone on board fast. The problem was just like this morning; they couldn’t get to the ship to off load. After a number of tries and a number of sea sick passengers, the tenders took the passengers back to shore and the Royal Princess headed out and around to the lea of the island to weather the storm. The storm lasted for two days! The ship couldn’t leave because it had the passenger’s passports and the passengers had the life boats! Terry said the passengers on shore actually had it better than the few that were on the ship. The residents of Port Stanley went out of the they way to show the stranded visitors a good time!

We spend the early part of the day in 50 to 60 mph winds going in and out of fog and rain. Then the skies clear a bit around 2PM and we can see two pairs of Black-browed Albatross, a pair of Wandering Albatross and some petrels doing their thing around the ship. So after lunch Carolyn parks on the open deck behind the Horizon Lounge on deck 6 and tries to get some pictures. The birds put on a great display of their flying skills. It is reminiscent of our return across the Drake Channel in 2008.
 
Dick goes to Trivia...the team comes in a solid ?...... they are not saying today.

At 6PM we go up to Deck 12 for the British Pub sing along. It is a great party and we wind up going to dinner with two other couples from Trivia who are there too. We have an English dinner..thin slices roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding along with English bread pudding for dessert...very good. Then we go to the Liars Club at 9:30PM to see what that is all about....... all in all, even with missing the port, it is a very nice day.

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