The Falkland Islands consist of two main islands, East and West although the archipelago consists of over 700 islands. With its location combined with the weather here the Falklands have an abundance of wildlife. Literally millions of petrels, albatrosses, penguins, gulls and cormorants inhabit these islands. There are also a plentiful amount of marine mammals along the coast line. For most people when they hear of the Falklands they relate it to the war in 1982. For several decades the Spanish and the British went through a succession of expulsions and postering of the Falklands. The last of these came in 1833, when Britain forced out the Argentinian colonists - Argentina having taken over as the Spanish influence in South America was waning. The Falklands then remained under British control until 1982 when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands for 74 days before Britain wrested them back. The War cost 910 lives, including 3 Falklanders. Today it remains under Britain’s control but Argentina still maintains a claim to the islands. There still remains a bit of tension between the two nations as there is no trading with Argentina which is actually unfortunate as the Falklands trade extensively with Chile, right next door.
Today, we were stirred out of our slumber at about 7:45 with an announcement from the captain, “we have deployed both of our anchors and have launched our tenders but the weather is not looking good, we are in contact with the harbour master”. Shortly after 8 Captain Mercer came back on and announced that with the 45 mile an hour winds and the water breaking over the tender pontoon, the Harbour Master has closed the port and therefore we will need to cancel our call to this port today. A difficult decision to make but the right one. We were here last year and did have a fantastic day walking amongst the penguins at Volunteer Point, so for us we were okay with this decision, for others though, I heard of one couple waiting in line for tender tickets at 5:30am, which is in fact completely unnecessary, but I do feel bad for those who were looking so forward to this port - we are currently at one landing in three attempts. I saw the weather report yesterday, which read, 30 mph winds with rain in the morning giving way to clouds and sunny breaks in the afternoon - so, we were okay with not getting the wind driven cold rain in the morning and were going to head out around 11 for a walkabout. As far as the early tender ticket people go, yes the ship is pretty full but some people just get up early, thats what they do - there is apparently a lido pool side coffee drop in session beginning at 4:30 every morning. So rather than meeting by the pool they go down to the Ocean bar and grab a coffee and wait in line of their tickets. Hey, if you need to get off that early, then go for it, we usually don’t get to sleep until 12 or 1am, so unless something big is planned we are not usually on the first tenders. Now unfortunately where we are located on the ship, there are a few 5:30 am door slams from these inconsiderate guests, I guess they figure that if they are up, then everyone should be up, yeah thanks. And no when we come to our room late, we do not slam our door, its just not right…
A few pics from our day as it wrapped up with the fun 50 and 60’s group the Runaround Kids, I also included a few pics of our time ashore last year for those wondering what the big deal is with Volunteer Point, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day - “Only strength can cooperate, weakness cannot cooperate, it can only beg” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
And from last year at Volunteer Point
Glad we made it last year. I am scare about those early birds in line at 5h30 for tender tickets for our World Cruise next year !🤬
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