Sunday 8 November 2009

At sea, again!

As mentioned yesterday, some of the passengers visited the Long Island Farm, a 22,000-acre sheep farm belonging to a 6th generation Falkland Island family, the Watson's. The farm is situated about 20 miles from Stanley. The drive there took our passengers though the unique stone runs and the beautiful scenery of the Falkland Islands. The farm is run in the traditional Falkland style- they still cut out peat and burn it in a traditional peat stove. People were shown how specially trained dogs help gather sheep, how sheep are sheared and they were finally invited to have tea and home-made biscuits. During the conflict in the early 1980s, the farm was visited regularly by Argentinian soldiers and their general, who were convinced the Watson's were harbouring some British Marines (they weren't!).

Today we had our very important IAATO briefing on board. Passengers were shown how to land in South Georgia and Antarctica and they were given all the important information regarding security and guidelines to protect the pristine places we are about to discover. IAATO stands for International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (www.iaato.org).

Some hourglass dolphins accompanied our ship for a little while and there were a lucky few that could admire them and make some photographs. We also saw several species of seabirds today including albratrosses, storm-petrels, and prions.