Wk 7 Slowly making our way back

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Geo: -42.48, -73.77

Saturday 25/02/12 Stanley, The Falklands, 19c Sunny with blue skies

What a surprise, the forecast was for temperatures between 3-8c with chances of sleet, in addition with the high seas being experienced there was a chance we may not be able to land as it's a tender port, one passenger has been seven times but only landed twice because of heavy seas. But on the day the sea was as calm as the proverbial mill pond and the sun was out with blue skies and getting warmer by the minute, how lucky are we? As well as ourselves the Star Princess Cruise ship was also anchored up, they have approx. 3500 passengers mainly Americans, so there's going to be an awfully large influx of passengers descending upon Stanley this morning.

I'd booked a tour of the battlefields and as Linda wasn't interested she was going out with Chas & Debbie to see the penguins and we arranged to meet up in town after my tour.

The tour guide had served 29 years in the army but had only lived on the island for 22 years so missed the invasion that said his commentary was both informative both from an Islanders and an ex soldiers point of view. He explained that there were only metalled roads in the town of Stanley itself and that the road we were travelling on was built by the army after the war, and like all the new roads that have been built they're gravel roads with a max speed restriction of 40 MPH. One islander caught doing 90 MPH was fined £1000 and banned for 3 years.

As we progressed we noticed live minefields on either side of the road and these are still being made safe by the sappers. The guide pointed out one section of field on the right and explained that until 5 months ago that was live minefield, and that on completion the army challenged the local football team to a match on the field!!! Proof positive or not; anyway after the match the players and spectators were all invited to walk the field to reinforce the knowledge that it was indeed another return to normal use of previously restricted ground.


We were taken to the Goose Green, Wireless Ridge, Mt Tumbledown, Bluffs cove, Fitzroy and given a full military explanation of the positions of both sides and review of the problem facing the British army and how they achieved their objectives, as well as seeing the numerous war memorials to the fallen. One of the things which isn't probably recognised is that although there's hardly any natural cover in many areas the foot of the mountains are covered in boulders, these were originally the sea bed but with the upheaval of the tectonic plates they were raised up leaving the boulders behind. In some areas they completely cover vast areas and in others were the surface has rippled there are what I can only describe as rivers of boulders some 6' wide running down from the mountain with grass in between so there's alternating stripes of boulders and grass, the boulders vary in size from the size of your fist to 6-8' long by 3-5' wide real ankle breakers and the Brits had to get across this natural obstacle with no cover and under the positions of the opposing Argentinian solders.

After returning to Stanley I met up with Linda and we visited the Whalebone arch, the war memorials and spent the rest of the afternoon photographing the buildings and local points of interest. As we left our berth the ship made its way slowly out into the South Atlantic in readiness for the voyage down to the end of the world. As we made our way out we were pleased to see group after group of penguins swimming over to a couple of sandy coves that we could see just across the water making they're tell-tale movements of bobbing up and then arcing back down in the same way that dolphins do, it made for a memorable departure. (I know someone's going to correct my "group of penguins" but I'm unsure just what you call a group of swimming penguins)


Sunday 26/02/12 The End of the World At Sea 5c overcast

I only go to the gym on sea days so I hadn't really missed Tara who's the Gym and fitness professional, she's around 25 with a nice personality and from what little I've seen appears to be well liked and good at her job so I was stunned to learn she'd been sacked and put off the ship in Buenos Aires with a flight ticket home. Apparently after the first day in port at Buenos Aires Tara and some of the others (I know you can see it coming) went out for a drink and effectively got hammered, they all made it back to the ship in the early hours somewhat the worse for wear. Unfortunately for Tara she had an 08:00 gym class and although she turned up, possible still the worse for wear, I don't know as it wasn't a gym day for me so I wasn't there. One of her class complained afterwards that she smelt of drink, the end result was that Tara was interviewed, sacked, and given a ticket home, the end of a wonderful lifestyle and career, all for the sake of a little bit of stupidity on her part (we've all been there haven't we) and the narrow minded, griping of a passenger, who, I hope learns a lesson from it, and feels ashamed for the rest of their short life.

If you've never done anything wrong you've never lived and never learnt anything.

Unbelievably we rounded Cape Horn at 18:15 and it was as calm as calm could be, The Star Princess was just ahead of us and in conversation between the two captains their Captain said that in 6 years of doing this route yesterday was be best he'd ever seen the Falklands. So we've now been through the roaring 40s the furious 50s and nearly down into the screaming 60s, normally as you go further south through the 40 , 50, & 60s the weather gets progressively worse but for us it got progressively better, so who's a luck boy then.

Monday 27/02/12 Ushuaia, Argentina Sea 5c overcast

This was to be our last Argentinian port and we'd booked a coach journey to the end of the world as it's the most southerly land mass before Antarctica, there's also the opportunity to have your passport officially stamped with the "End of the World". However despite the fact the customs guys boarded at 02:00 this morning and the pilot at 05:45 we were stunned when it was announced that the pilot had been informed by the local port official that we'd been denied permission to berth as we'd previously been to the Falklands, we couldn't believe it, not only that but the American ship Star Princess which was following us had also been denied for the same reason. So it seems our luck's finally run out, like all the passengers we're really frustrated by this reprisal, but we can't do anything about it.

After some frantic negotiations between the ships, their agents and the port authorities we've been granted permission to arrive at our first Chilean port of Punta Arenas earlier than originally intended. As a result of the changes instead of running down Glacier Alley at night we're now able to take our time to slowly navigate the Beagle channel taking in the full beauty of this wonderful waterway by daylight rather than the half-light of the late evening as was originally scheduled.

An hour into our run up the channel we came across the Fred Olsen ship the “Balmoral” doing basically the same trip as ourselves but the other way around so we've informed them of the action that's been reprisal action taken against us. It'll be interesting to know what they will do as although they may be granted permission to berth at Ushuaia if they berth in the Falklands it's a pretty fair conclusion they'll be denied permission to berth at subsequent Argentinian ports. As Buenos Aires is both a major Tourist attraction as well as replenishment, and hub for flying out passengers at the end of this leg or flying new passengers in starting a leg I'd be surprised if they'd want to jeopardise berthing there, meaning the only option would be to miss out the Falklands and play straight into the Argentinians hands as they're currently waging economic war on the Falklands by reducing the Islands income from tourism and the issuing of fishing licenses.

Tuesday 28/02/12 Punta Arenas, Chile 18c Sunny with clear blue skies

There's not a lot in the actual town, but it's an ideal point of entry into Patagonia and Antarctica. As we made our way off the ship we noticed dolphins playing in the water on the other side of the berth and stopped to watch, very shortly we were joined by another couple who then shouted out to their friends “look at the fish playing” I give up.

We made our way into the town as we knew there was a market in the xxxxxxxxx having spent the best part of an hour or so browsing around the different stalls we then set out to explore the remainder of the town, although it's a bit difficult some times as we discovered in Sth America the majority of shops close at 12-12:30 and don't open again until 16-16:30 cruise ship or no cruise ship, but there were a few exceptions. When you consider that in addition to ourselves the Star Princess is also in town they lose out on so much potential income, not that the stall holders in the market seemed to mind.


As we're due to leave at 17:00 we decided to stroll down the back streets towards the seafront but away from the main port, when we finally arrived we we're pleasantly surprised to discover there was a nice promenade and sandy beach so we decided to walk away from the port and up to a spit of land jutting out into the sea. We'd only been walking along the shore for 5 minutes when we spotted a lone Penguin standing at the water's edge, slowly but surely I inched my way down until I was just 6m away and he still wasn't concerned so I started snapping away and within a few seconds a couple of Yanks came running down all excited and shouting it's a penguin, not content with taking their time they rushed forward as the penguin took to the water so that was the end of that.

We were half way to the spit when all of a sudden out pops the penguin just in front of us, with a little care I once again managed to get within 5m and slowly managed to get 4m without him seeming distressed. Slowly but surely we were joined by around another 15 or so people all edging closer, but in their excessive enthusiasm they'd effectively formed a semi circle on the shoreline all around the little fellow and with the tide slowly coming in and nowhere for him to turn to it was inevitable that he'd have to take off once again, which he did shortly after we left.

Having reached the spit we started to make our way back to the ship along the promenade when we spotted the front of a house which had been artistically painted. (I'm not sure what to call the artworks you see in many of the places we've visited, their never graffiti, being far too artistic and considered for that, but all the same whole sides of houses are painted in all sorts of themes, some outlandish, some thoughtful, and some just eye catchingly beautiful.) This particular corner house had been painted to look like there was a road between the house and its neighbour but it was in fact all one house (photo will follow when I get home) it was really well done.

Further on our friendly penguin reappeared to pretty much the same scenario as before as soon as I got within a reasonable distance I was joined by a group of teenagers all wanting to get to within a foot of him and being loud and inconsiderate as they were so close that nobody else could get a photo of the penguin or if they could it had to included them in it as well so we left.

Further down the beach there were the remains of what I believe were two piers which was obviously the preferred resting place for hundreds of cormorants; unlike our all black ones these have a white underbelly which when viewed from a distance it's easy to mistake them for penguins.


Wednesday 29/02/12 Cruising the Chilean Fiords 5c Sunny with clear blue skies

For the next couple of days we'll be cruising up the Chilean Fiords with all the sights they have to offer although this morning it's cold, windy, and overcast. As the day progress's the weather is improving all the time, the surprising thing so far is the absence of any wildlife. The lower slopes of the hills and mountains are forested with the tops in nearly all cases being bare, but there's nothing, absolutely nothing other than the odd tern.

Half an hour before we made our approach to the Amalia glacier someone turned the light switch on and hey presto brilliant blue skies and sunshine, incredible one moment we were wrapped up in fleeces, raincoats, hats, and gloves and five minutes everybody's stripping off, by the time we reached the glacier front it was a beautiful clear day, stunning.

Just as we're getting changed there's a ship wide announcement (rarely a good thing as it's usually to impart bad news) sure enough it's unbelievably bad news, our next port of call was scheduled to be Chacabuco but due once again to civil unrest and rioting our call's understandably being cancelled, but another port (Castro) is to replace it. The real disappointment for us is that we were looking forward to going on tour into the Atamaca dessert, oh well that's another refund coming our way.

Thursday 01/03/12 Cruising the Chilean Fiords 7c cold, wet, misty, & miserable

I was looking forward to the gym this morning thinking it'd be wonderful exercising as we make our way up the fiords, however it wasn't quite what I expected looking out of the windows it was raining with strong winds, and a mist that reduced visibility to 1Km on either side, not good as today we're visiting the largest glacier in Sth America.

Exercise completed, showered and with a substantial breakfast inside me to replace all the calories I'd lost in the gym, we returned to our room to get the foul weather gear on again as we'll be at the glacier in about an hour and a half.

In view of the squalls and rain we decided that deck five would be the best option as its open to the sea but covered in on three sides. We could have gone to the crow's nest and looked out through the windows whilst enjoying the comfort of decent seating, heating, and the never ending processions of waiters to meet ones needs, or indeed any of the bars or meeting rooms with exterior views but somehow you have to be in it to feel it so there we stood like two Antarctic explorers waiting to shipped out to the pack ice.

Once again the place is devoid of wildlife and then all of a sudden whilst were looking out into the gloom we've got dolphins playing alongside the boat, oh yeah, who's got pole position now then.

The rain subsided and ever so slowly the mist lifted but only by a couple of hundred metres or so, which left you being able to see the right out to the mountains but only the lower couple parts were visible everything else was still shrouded in mist, still it should be sufficient to see the glacier even if not in all its glory, but we'd still see it.

As we approached the front face of the PIO X glacier the mist was still lifting but we could see the glacier quite well but there were none of the spectacular translucent blue hues you see in the ice when the suns out. The ship slowly commenced its pirouette and almost simultaneously there was a break in the cloudy which lit up the glacier, not the same as on a clear sunny day but under the circumstances we were all well chuffed, and then to cap it off as we started to turn and make our way out of the fiord we were treated to displays of the dolphins at play both alongside the ship and just in front of us. Frozen but with a warm glow inside we made our way up to the crows nest to admire what remained of the views in warmth and comfort, all in all surprisingly another magic day.

Friday 02/03/12 At Sea 8c Heavy seas, cold, and overcast with squally winds

Chris & Sue told us a story the other day which I've now got time to repeat. As you're aware if you've been following the blog they're up at the front of the ship and suffering a complete lack of sleep because of the pitching motion and the noise of the anchor being dropped every time we make port.

Next door to them are two gentlemen in a suite, these suites from memory cost >£80000 for this trip and come with your own butler, not a problem if it's what you want and can afford, but they're still going to the same places as us and with our savings we could manage a few more round trips, plus we're not bothered by the pitching or the anchor, anyway once again I digress.

Some weeks ago one of the gentlemen apparently slipped in the suite (might have been when he bent down to pick up the soap) and ended up having to have stitches put into a wound on his cheek, his face is covered in bruises which is obviously unpleasant, that, coupled with the noise of the anchor and restless nights due to the motion of the ship would be enough for anyone, but there's more.

We knew from Chris that when we had the severe storms a week or so ago that their suite was flooded out, what we didn't know was that it's now happened on a couple of more occasions and it's being flooded out with grey water (if you're unsure grey water is all waste water except sewage). We found out from a member of staff that apparently the holding tanks for the waste water are positioned within the ship such that they can pump the water between the tanks to affect the ship's buoyancy. When you're head on to a full storm the bow of the ship rises significantly as you crest the oncoming waves and then plummet down the other side which is what they try to avoid. One way they even out this pitching is to pump more grey water to the bow tanks making it heaver and therefore counteract the effect to some extent.

When they did this the night of our storm the sloshing effect in the holding tank caused the seal to fail and consequently flood out the adjacent areas one of which just happens to be a suite, despite presumably making makeshift repairs it's failed a couple of more times with the same effect.

Not a pleasant situation and I can't help but wonder what compensation they'll be offered / accept. As an aside the weather forecast out in our area of the Pacific (we're in the Fiords so aren't affected) for the next 24 hrs is” very high sea state with cresting waves “I really hope its subsided by the time we venture out in a couple of days time.

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