Stanley, Falklands (finally arrived yippee!!)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Port Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands
It was Country and Western night last night. The activities kicked off with a Country and Western trivia. The other members of our trivia team weren't interested in this so Roisin and I slipped unnoticed alone in to Explorers Lounge and decided to play the trivia for fun hoping that no-one would recognise us as part of the know-it-alls and ask us to join their team only to find out that we are crap at music!!

I did calculate that if we had put either Hank Williams or Garth Brooks as the answer to every question, we would have scored 8 points (out of 40) As it turns out, we didn’t use this tactic but coincidentally scored 8 anyway (had we have been playing!!)

Once the trivia was over we decided not to stay for the 'ho down’ so went up on deck to settle in and watch the Movie under the Stars (Sherlock Holmes – Game of Shadows)

We were both surprised that the Captain had not made an announcement all day so were still none the wiser if we were going to make Stanley tomorrow . The area is so windswept and the seas around it so fierce that only about half of the cruise ships scheduled to call at Port Stanley actually make it. Since there is no dock, even if the ships themselves can get into the harbour, the tenders are often unable to handle the wind and high seas. If the weather will be half as bad as Puerto Arenas, I can’t see it happening. However, as the Captain has not announced anything, this must be a good sign, right? He must have an idea what the weather is going to be like.

The other strange thing we noticed is that Stanley is 4 hours behind GMT. We are currently 3 hours behind. There was no notification, when we arrived back in our stateroom, that the clocks go back `1 hour’. Perhaps we are going to sail straight past the Falklands thus remaining on ships time. That would save adjusting them back to 3 hours once we arrived back in Argentina!!

I woke up at 05:45am and jumped out of bed, excited like a 5 year old on Christmas day. As I drew back the curtains, I saw land ahoy. According to the Captains Log on TV, the sea state was moderate. This has to be as good as it gets? Although the TV did state that the sea temperature is 158°F (78°C). Blimey!! That’s hotter than running a bath!! I’ll chalk that one up to a typo!!

I climbed back in to bed but just lay there waiting for the ship to toss and pitch indicating that the sea state has taken a turn for the worse. This never came and at about 08:00 I heard the winching of the tender lifeboats being lowered. We had arrived at Port Stanley, the Falkland Islands!!!

Most of the people with any awareness of the Falkland Islands are either:

Comments

Dave
2013-02-22

Ace. We actually live in Thatcher Grove, but the roads on our estate are named after professions, Mason, Potter etc.
My mrs's best mate was born in Stanley in 1955(her dad's job) so i showed her your Blog. She's fascinated and now, of course, barred, as she wants to go cruising...

Phil
2013-02-27

" penguins have something that can melt away the coldest heart and warm up the coldest body emitting an all over glow of warmth and well-being" 2 blogs later you could not care if you saw another one for the rest of your life's!! Something must have occurred in between!

Keep up the good work Christopher!

chris-roisin
2013-02-28

Phil, Well spotted and a good point well made. However, I was dissing the souvenirs and what they stand for rather than the penguins. If you continued to quote the paragraph in this blog it reads: '...not so much about the little fellows, themselves but all the usual souvenir crap and tat in every place we’ve been have images of penguins...'

2025-02-12

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