Christmas & New Year Cruise

We were able to sail into the inner harbour of Port Stanley, Falklands, as the weather was quite good. There was a ship docked at the port, and another expedition ship was at anchor, so Port Stanly was fairly busy. The Pursuit let down her anchor and soon 2 tenders were underway to get guests to shore.

Unfortunately the tenders didn't make it because there were problems and they broke down. Paul had asked if, over the last few months, the tenders had been looked at and put down in the water to test them out. Nope, it hadn't been done.

Usually ships regularly test their tenders to ensure that any problems, including mechanical ones, are sorted out. The Pursuit doesn't use the tenders very often to ferry people to piers. Either we dock or we use the zodiacs. And nobody thought to check the tenders out, assuming that mechanically they were sound. Well, not being used for a long time - things had gone wrong. Oops! Needless to say, the passengers were rescued and they were put on zodiacs to go ashore. Fortunately it wasn't a long ride to the pier. All in a day's work and a mini adventure.

Paul and I went ashore and had a walk down the main street which follows the coastline. After that, we headed back to the pier for our tour. We discovered that when I made the booking for the tour, Paul hadn't been booked on it, which I did ask for them to do. We waited until everyone was loaded up in the mini vans and there was space available so Paul was able to come along.

We had a nice drive out to the farm where there are colonies of nesting King, Gentoo and Magellanic penguins. We were able to walk between the colonies but we weren't allowed to get up close - there were markers designating how close we could get, but not cross them. If a penguin came towards us, we had to keep our distance of up to about 5 metres, and move away if need be.

There were lots of chicks! Some penguins had two chicks, others had one. It was lovely to see them. The surrounding area is beautiful. The farm owner raises sheep and a few cattle, and has been doing penguin tours for a few years now, after gentle persuasion from Holland America Line after someone went out to see the farm and saw the penguins.

About 45 minutes with the penguins, the rain came, along with a bit of hail. We would have liked to have stayed but we started to get cold, and walked along the shoreline to the gift shop. We had a browse around. Wool from the farm's sheep has been woven into tweed, and there were lovely wool products to purchase, as well as other nice items. After that, we had a wander around the small museum and went to the Sea Cabbage Café for a mug of hot chocolate and a slice of cake and scones with jam and cream. Yum.

Our time at Bluff Cove came to and end and we headed back to Port Stanley. Paul had time to quickly go into a shop and purchase two books he had seen earlier but didn't buy at the time.

Unfortunately time was marching on and Paul had to get back to the ship for a meeting. He made it just in time.

The Pursuit is now heading towards South Georgia, a 2 day sail away. We hope for good weather there, but according to 'Windy' the forecast isn't looking so great at the moment.... I just hope mother natures smiles favourably upon us and gives us the good weather we hope for as from 23rd December when we arrive there.Baca lagi

Paul and I had a brief nap in the afternoon and decided, as the rain had stopped, we would go out on one of the last scheduled zodiac cruises around the bay. It was quite pretty. I suppose, standing one of the balconies of the ship – we would have got just as fantastic views as we did from water level. But we were able to get closer to icebergs, bergy bits and growlers, and a bit closer to one of the glaciers. Some of the snow has a pink or yellow/green colour - it is from algae growing on the ice. The darker pinky purple, leading up to penguin colonies are actually bird shit/recycled krill.

In the evening Paul and I had dinner in the Dining Room – the first time in ages. We hosted a table of 5 guests. It was a pleasant evening and we enjoyed the food. {Soon after this cruise began, senior staff and the expedition team were asked to dine in the staff canteen because of the amount of guests on board using the Colonade restaurant. Breakfast and lunches there are buffet style, and in the evenings dinner tends to be served a lot quicker than in the Dining Room, which this particular intake of guests prefer.)

Paul has to go to the Bridge for his shift at midnight. He can’t wait to go home now!Baca lagi