After the rough start to the evening yesterday, the sea did calm down overnight. Now the pitching and rolling was only sometimes rather than all the time.
Breakfast was far more relaxed than the last few days and afterwards we went to listen to a lecture on the geology of the Falklands.
Tuesday March 7th was our second day on our way to the Falklands from South Georgia.
Lectures in the morning
The first lecture about the Falklands was fascinating as the islands had ‘broken away’ from what became the continent of Africa. They then ‘drifted’ across the Atlantic closer to what became South America. The rocks of the Falklands are the same rocks as those in South Africa. Amazing.
Outside the ship was still pitching and rolling.
Our next lecture was a personal account about living in Svalbard. This was by Helga from the expedition team. Her lecture was full of her personal memories and associated images. Life in the Winter there definitely looked exciting. I’m not sure that venturing out with a rifle to guard against polar bears would suit everyone.
Afternoon outside
The sun had broken through by the time we had finished lunch and again there were sea birds all around the ship.
This albatross did make a pass over the ship.
As the afternoon passed Fram sailed back into cloudy skies.
Late afternoon
At 4 pm we went back inside to the Observation Lounge to hear a summary of events from the expedition team. We were shown just what was carried to ensure everyone’s safety on the hike from Maiviken to Grytviken for example.
This was followed by a fascinating demonstration was just how big the wingspan of each of the sea birds that we had seen was. This was done by using a rope marked off with each the wingspans in turn. Two members of the team held the rope to to stand apart and demonstrate the wingspans. When they showed the wingspan of the Wandering albatross I was amazed at just how big they were. This seabird has the largest wingspan of any seabird.
I did miss three Orcas that appeared at the stern of the ship during this lecture – very frustrating. I went back outside for a couple of hours but there were no more Orcas or even sea birds in the late afternoon.
The briefing for our landing at Stanley was at 7.30 pm. This told us about the times of the free bus service, what we could see around the town and what wildlife we might see. The good news was that we would be able to wear our own boots providing we observed bio-hazard precautions. The tender deck would be open for passengers who wanted to use their Muck boots though.
Dinner was relaxed too. We had scallops, tomato soup, reindeer followed by peach meringue covered in toffee sauce.
We watched the chef and his team plate up the main course as usual at the stations in the centre of the restaurant.
After dinner we skipped going to the ship’s officers Q&A scheduled for 10 pm and went back to the cabin to prepare for our day in Stanley and to have an early night.