December 31, 2017

   The last day of 2017 we are spending in the town of Stanley, Falkland Islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean. The Argentinians called the islands Las Malvinas, since it was part of Spanish territory when Argentina became independent from Spain. The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory. It has a working port and the passengers need to be tendered to the pier, about a 20-minute ride. The ship was anchored just outside Stanley Harbour in Port William Bay.  There was also another ship anchored, the Europa 2, which was a smaller ship with eight decks above the water.

    We woke up to mainly cloudy skies, a temperature of 6°C and the wind was west at 40 km/hour. Our walking tour guide told us that yesterday it had rained and hailed and it was a bit cooler than the seasonal average of 13°C. Gale force winds are common with westerly winds prevailing in the area. It is common in Stanley to have an overcast sky and some days there can be six hours of sunshine that necessitates sunscreen due to the thin Ozone layer in the region. Today the dark clouds contained rain for the second half of the walking tour, everyone was pulling out their rain ponchos and umbrellas. Then in the afternoon, the sun came out and the temperature rose to 11°C as clouds cleared and winds weakened.

    Most of the excursions were to see penguin colonies which meant a mini-bus ride then a 4 x 4 vehicle ride for over gravel roads, grassy treks and rocky beaches to see the thousands of penguins.  Our two-hour walking tour route started at the pier, and followed Ross Street, the main street. The population of Stanley is about 2,800 and the total population for the Falkland Islands is around 3,500. They are located 450 km east from Argentina. The islands were discovered by Captain John Strong of the ship Desire and were claimed for Britain but have been occupied by the French and Spanish and then were abandoned in the early 19^th century.  In 1833 Britain reestablished its sovereignty with the Port Edmund settlement. There are many shipwrecks in Stanley Harbour, Port William and around the islands. The most noticeable shipwreck is the Lady Elizabeth which is an old three mast sailing ship that was damaged rounding Cape Horn and arrived in Stanley Harbour for repair. The repairs would have cost more than the value of the ship, so it became a warehouse for decades.  When she was ripped from her moorings in a big storm and grounded at the north end of the harbour, she became just a wreck. Across the harbour from Ross Street is a shore line with the names of some British Naval ships created with rocks by the crew of the ships.

    The first stop was to view a garden of native plants, including the Tussac Grass, before continuing to the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral with front garden Whalebone Arch, the Pioneer Cottages, Victory Green and the Liberation Monument along Stanley Harbour.  The whalebones of the arch are the jaw bones of the blue whale.  There is a sidewalk near a café where there are six Falkland Island coins embedded in the concrete. On the grass shore on the harbour side of Ross Street, is part of the huge mast of the ship, Great Britain, which was built in Bristol, England in 1843. She was one of the first deep sea propelled iron steamships that was damaged in the rough seas and then was also used as a warehouse from 1886 to 1963.  In 1969 the city of Bristol raised money to salvage the Great Britain and took her back to Bristol where she has a place in a museum. The Anglican Christ Church Cathedral is a lovely red brick structure. The bricks used to construct it were sent from Britain.  By the altar, there is a stained-glass window featuring a woman and her bicycle in the lower third.  It is a memorial to a woman who was the island’s nurse for 40 years. She rode her bicycle everywhere up and down hills, through field and rough paths in all kinds weather against the strong island winds. Outside the church on the sidewalk to the church was a Commonwealth Walkway metal plaque, commemorating Queen Elizabeth II of England’s 60^th Jubilee.  We had seen these plaques in London in 2014.

    Further along, we stopped at the Police Station housed in a building built in 1870 and has had wings added. Across the street was the building housing the Post Office and the Town Hall. On the corner was the only bank on the island and it does not have an ATM. The light rain started as we climbed a small hill to the residential street to see the gardens and the peat sheds where people used to store the harvested peat to dry and burn for heat and cooking. All the houses have corrugated steel (wriggly tin) roofs.  The back yards have vegetable gardens and greenhouses to grow strawberries and other warmer climate fruits and vegetables.  Back to Ross Street, we viewed the Falklands War memorial. There were 255 British soldiers killed, 649 Argentinian soldiers killed, many untrained conscripts and three Falkland islanders where a British bomb landed accidently. There was also an Argentine ship sunk with over 1,000 naval personnel on board.  The British Navy now has a base on the island.

    The final stop was the dry and warm Historic Dockyard Museum where we hung up our jackets, ponchos and umbrellas to dry, before entering the museum.  There are exhibits about the history, including the 1982 war and Antarctic exploration, flora, fauna, and geology. The Antarctic room has the original late 1950s Recluse Hut used by researchers, it is only about 140 square feet in area.  Some of the oldest buildings in Stanley, dating back over 150 years, form a semi-circle around the modern main museum building These include recreations of the old printing office, telephone exchange, smithy and a wash-house. 

   With free time and the rain having stopped, we explored some of the gift shops and the local grocery store, before deciding that we needed to go for a faster walk to log some steps.   Steps 3,297.  We climbed up a hill, away from the water for four streets and then followed a street. The flowers were pretty especially the yellow flower bushes. We could see the Zaandam and the Europa 2 far over the hills of Stanley Harbour in Port William Bay. We walked to the cemetery and on the grass nearby were several Upland Geese. Then we walked back along Ross Street to the pier where the tenders were taking people back to the ship.

    We didn’t even bother trying to connect to Internet. There is just one phone and Internet provider for the islands.  To use Falklands Wi-Fi, you first buy a card starting at about $7 US which gives you 50 minutes of very slow Internet access.  We decided we would not even try to update eight days of blog entries until Puerto Madryn, Argentina, in another two days.  Internet fees for Islanders start at 6 GB of data costing 37 pounds ($63 Canadian) per month. Our guide advised that Internet is slow and certain times of the day it can stop, even for government business.

    We returned to the ship in time for Classic Afternoon Tea served by white gloved waiters offering tea varieties in a tea chest and the sandwiches, scones and tiny cakes on three tiers of plates per couple.  We sat with the lecturer, Dr. Margaret Bradshaw and three others.  Then we got ready for the “Gala Attire” dinner dress code.

   Jan, Doug, Shin and Joyce went to the 6 p.m. church service, so it was just Jerry, Violet and us at the table. Dinner choices were: Tomato Basil Bisque, Crawfish Chowder, Lump Crab & Jumbo Shrimp Roulade, and Cucumber, Tomato & Walnut Salad, then Lobster Tail & Filet Mignon with mushrooms carrot & asparagus and Parmesan crusted Halibut with asparagus.  We ordered Chocolate – honey Baked Tart and Fresh Strawberries in Grand Marnier yogurt for dessert and finished with petit fours as the complimentary end to the New Year’s Eve dinner.

   The ship was supposed to leave at 6 pm but at 7 pm the captain announced that there was difficulty securing one of the tenders and as soon as the problem was solved the ship would leave. As we sat up in the Crow’s Nest Lounge on Deck 9, watching the sun set about 10 pm the ship finally started the journey to Puerto Madryn.

    There was no show in the Mondriaan Lounge this evening.  In the Mondriaan Lounge the seating was rearranged to reveal a dance floor in the center near the stage that could hold over 30 dancing couples. The Ocean Quartet started off the Pre-New Year’s Celebration with a set, then a trivia game where five women and five men were given questions that the opposite gender would know the answer. If the team answered correctly they got a point but if they failed then the other gender could answer. The ladies won, since one of them grew up in a family of mechanics. There was an overhead net full of hundreds of black, gold and white balloons ready to be released at midnight. From 10:45 on the four piece Zaandam Orchestra played dance music while one of the ship’s vocalists belted out popular songs.  We couldn’t stay awake and were asleep at New Year’s.

Final Steps 13,326 (9.4 km)