gentoo – Spans, a new life

Down to the Deep South, The Falklands III

Dawn of a new day breaks over a new island, West Point Island. Unlike the previous islands that were owned by conservation trust West Point is still privately owned and, although much of it is managed for conservation there is still some small scale sheep farming. The owner of the island who is now 94 lives in Stanley, he was given the island as a 25 birthday present by his mother. We were welcomed ashore by the farm / island manager who lives at the settlement just above the harbour. The settlement here is tucked into a small hollow and surrounded by introduced trees that act as a wind break, really quite idyllic. As a reminder of the strong ties with the UK tucked away behin the settlement sere several decaying Land Rovers :-).

Little fluffy things welcoming us ashore

Can’t resist a good Land Rover – just need to find one 🙂

After returning to the ship we motored round to a new anchorage at Grave Cove for an easy landing on a shelving white sand beach (anywhere warmer and these beaches would have been completely degraded by holiday developments) to visit the largest Gentoo colony in the Falklands and for a cliff top walk too a small Albatross colony.

Land Rover – found a good one. Although it looks abandoned it apparently belongs to some researchers who had taken the boat out to the big smoke (Stanley 🙂 ) for some R&R.

A proud Gentoo mum. She has a reason to be proud, apparently having two viable chicks is unusual but seemed quite common in this colony – good food supply?

Although classed as a large colony it actually consists of a number of medium sized groups spread over a wide area

Rubens, one of the permanent crew ‘swimming’ with the dolphins. Due to low sea water temperatures dry suits are needed to spend anytime in the water

A walk round the headland, don’t know what these plants are but they formed large cushions loe to the ground

The walk around above the cliffs (to visit another albatross colony) was on steeply sloping ground but with good footing and certainly well within the capability of anyone who has been mountain walking before. Although some of them claimed to be seasoned travellers and trekkers some of the group complained about being exposed to this level of risk. I explained, supported by Maria one of the guides, that they were not obliged to go on and that they should just move out of the way of those of us who were happy to proceed and join with us again on the way back as we had to return by the same route. This had already been explain to them previously. Not sure if my advice was well received 🙂

Down to the Deep South, The Falklands II

27th Nov, Steeple Jason and onward.

Sailed overnight from New Island bound for Steeple Jason where we were hoping to make a landing. Good winds and reasonable sea conditions allowed us to make good time. There were no formal watches but captain asked for volunteers so I stood up for 04.00 to 06.00 hoping for another special sunrise, didn’t work out though 🙁 . Steeple Jason’s claim to fame is that it is home to the largest breeding colony of Black Browed Albatross’ in the world. Oh no, I feel more Albatross pictures coming on :-). This island is also infamous for the reason that it is a very hard island to land on. When we arrived at the anchorage the sea was still running rather high but after a quick reccy our guide decided that a landing was possible and selected a small sheltered cove (just big enough for the Zodiac to fit) with shelving rocks that we could step out onto. So, in actual fact the landing was quite smooth despite the heavy swell running we didn’t even get wet!

Heading for Steeple Jason with sun rising behind

Taking a picture of one of the islands through the murk when I was photo-bombed by a Fin Whale

Commerson’s Dolphins taking a look at us

The white specs are Albatrosses. Overall the colonies spread along the coast of Steeple Jason contains in excess of 150,000 breeding pairs of Black Browed Albatross, over 70% of the world population

Sea Lion bull with hareem guarding beach

Black Browed Albatross are generally monogamous with pairs returning to the same nest site year upon year but if one of a pair does not return for one or two seasons the surviving partner will pair up with another. Bonds between partners are reinforced by courtship rituals. They can live up to 70 years and start breeding at approximately 10 years old.

A view down the island with adjacent island behind

At anchor but with sails unfurled ready to go

Bidding the Albert Ross’s as sad farewell we headed back to the Europa and prepared to sail to our next destination, New Island. With a South Westerly wind of up to 40knots this was the first time that the Europa really got into her stride, heeled well to port and making 10 to 12 knots she handled beautifully. On this leg I also learned a lesson on preparedness, we had safety lines out on deck a I was holding onto one of these whilst chatting to one of the other voyage crew when we noticed an unusually large wave coming our way. To reduce the wave’s impact I ducked into it, a big mistake! I was wearing my full waterproof but had the hood down and the top of the jacket open consequently, the water took the route of least resistance entering at the top of my jacket and exiting at the bottom. Drowned rat does do my condition justice but, at least my legs were dry.

Another occurrence on this leg was that we overhauled a yacht that was also heading for Hope Harbour on New Island and, next morning when we met the sailor, it turned out that he was an ex Europa crew member (from 10 years ago) and he took some pictures of us that he gladly shared – below. This was a great bonus as, of course, we never got to see the ship under sail so it was good to see how fine she looked.

Down to the Deep South, The Falklands

26th Nov to 6th Dec.

Arrival at New Island in the Falklands was an emotional event for one of the voyage crew, Roger, as he had been here immediately after the Falklands War as air traffic control in the RAF, this was his first time back and, on the outlying islands he was to meet of few of the locals he remembered from those earlier days.

New Island was the first of many landings (don’t panic, we did not visit all 700 islands 🙂 ) we were to make and landings by Zodiac (rigged hulled inflatable), Penguins and Albatrosses were destined to feature heavily over the next 10 days. In the following I will share, by individual posts by Island, some of the pictures and impressions of the locations in which we found ourselves, WARNING – heavy bird content!

At the end of the series I’ll try to leave you with my overall thoughts and impressions on The Falklands, or should it be Malvinas?

New Island:- we made two landings on New Island, one at Coffin’s Harbour next to the settlement and one at Ship Harbour. Both were beach landings (there are some beautiful beaches in The Falklands) in relatively calm sea conditions. We had had a lot of build-up and safety briefings on these beach landings but in the end they were quite smooth and nowhere near as challenging as we might have been led to believe, probably due to the preparation and professionalism of the boat pilots and the two guides who always reccied the landing and then landed first to hold Zodiacs close into the landing.

Landing at Coffin’s Harbour (named after a Nantucket whaling family) adjacent to a wreck and the whaling museum. In the 17th, 18th & early 19th centuries the Falklands were a centre for harvesting of seals and penguins for their fat (blubber) and New Island also had a short lived whaling station but, as the whales were far more numerous further south this was soon closed down in favour of South Georgia. A visit to the small museum was interesting but also quite sobering when you consider the impact the industry had on the populations of seals, whales and penguins some of which have never recovered to their previous levels and, due to mans impact on the environment of the Antarctic fisheries (including krill) and global warming, are unlikely to do so. The museum was opened for us by a South African lady who, along with her ‘Cornish Man’ partner, is a custodian of the island employed by the conservation trust that owns it. I managed to have a chat with the custodian and asked how it was living in what I assumed would be a pretty desolate location in the winter with little contact with the outside world. Her amused response was that the isolation, beauty and abundance of nature were the major draw – yeh, think I could survive here too. Interestingly, they live a semi-subsistence lifestyle with a small vegetable patch (under a poly tunnel) and harvesting resource from on and around the island. Theirs’s was probably the most exposed settlement on any of the islands.

From the museum we walked across the neck to visit colonies of Black Browed Albatross, Rockhopper Penguins and King Cormorants.

The settlement – inviting? and this is summer.

Lrbbj – Little red breasted brown job – actually Long Tailed Meadow Lark

Fence post remnant of former farming activity (mainly sheep) with ample lichen indicative of the very good air quality.

Old blue eyes – these birds also have brilliant sheen to their plumage

Falkland Skua – the Hyena of the seabird colonies

Road to the settlement, gorse is an invasive alien introduced from Europe but adds a nice splash of colour.

Wreck with Europa in the background. The wreck is apparently that of a sealing vessel beached in 1969

And finally, a natural artwork. Do you see the penguin

New Island stage II, landing at the ship harbour and walking around North Bluff. Terrain here was wilder and home to two different species of penguin, Gentoo and Magellanic. As the Magellanics nest in burrows care has to be taken when navigating their colonies to avoid unplanned below ground excursions.

Landing by Zodiac, guides Jordi and Maria holding boat in position as voyage crew member Michael steps ashore.

Striated Caracara – carrion recycling facility

North Bluff scenery – small freshwater lake and sea beach beyond

Magellanic penguins at entrance to their burrow

Gentoos also like a day out on the beach but…….

and sometimes run. Skuas are hoping for crumbs

These guys remind me of Wildebeest at the Mara river, no one volunteering to go first

Some spectators – members of crew and voyage crew

Being buzzed by an Albatross – Paul, Piet and Monique

More of nature’s art work, this time sculpture – pterodactyl?

Take only pictures leave only footprints

So, first impressions gained from first island – stunning scenery, approachable unique wildlife and friendly locals. Certainly a wonderful place to visit, could I live here. Probably could have done when I was younger.