Many seabirds followed
the FRAM on our way past Cape Pembroke and into Port William before breakfast.
We landed early morning in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands.
The buses were already
on the pier to take us to our various excursions. On a city highlight tour, we
learnt everything on Stanley, from its beginnings as a ship repair yard for sail
ships that were damaged in storms in their attempts to round Cape Horn to the
modern time in which Stanley lives from fishery license fees, tourism, and
offshore oil exploration. Alternatively, some guests strolled along the beach
on a guided nature walk, learning about the different native and introduced
plant species as well as the feathered inhabitants of the islands.
For lunch, a
blue-coated armada invaded all the local pubs and restaurants to enjoy a real British
treat: fish & chips! After this refreshment, the blue armada sailed on to
raid all the gift shops in town. Innumerable small penguins in different shapes
and sizes, post cards with penguin pictures on them and other penguin paraphernalia
were captured (shopped), and in contrast to the last invasion 32 years ago, the
people in Stanley were quite positive to our appearance on their island.
In the late afternoon,
the FRAM set course out of Stanley harbor, we passed the narrows into Berkeley
Sound and sailed south to halfway circumnavigate the islands to our next
scheduled landing on the Western side of the Falklands. The waters around the
FRAM teemed with huge flocks of sooty shearwaters and also some sei whales as
after a rainy afternoon the sun came out once more to delight us with a
formidable, colorful sunset.
