Windy the Falkland, very windy….A first storm will welcome us a few hours after our arrival, and a lot of them will follow, we will became used to it. Stanley is not much more protected, perhaps worse, but although the anchorages are very exposed the holding ground is very good. We could howewer enjoy Stanley, very, very british, have a look at the round of the skid fishing boats, coreans or others, watch the cruise ships and their hordes of tourists, see again our greek friend Aleko, on the way for Saint Helen, alone. We will store peat for the stove, good english beers…The marine life is still rich, Peale’s dolphins, sei whales who thrive of the abundant krill.
A weather getting a little bit better, followed by another storm, and we are at last at Peeble Island. Here we are in the land of penguins, Magellanic standing by their burrows, Gentoo in full moulting. Sheeps are everywhere, the geese too, all this small world living together peacefully. Peale’s dolphins, so beautiful in their white and black smoking, will escort us till The Neck, on Saunder’s Island, so close that I will be afraid to let go the anchor on them.
The arrival at The Neck is gorgeous : thousands and thousands of penguins by this wonderful beach, Gentoo, Magellanic, King with their chick just born, Rock hoppers in the cliffs. As it’s moulting time the ground is covered with down. We can go very close to them, especialy with the Rock hoppers, we will even have sometime to ask them to let us go. It’s like to be in another planet, we are in the penguin’s world.
A little bit further, in Carcass Island, we will meet again the penguins, Magellanic and Gentoo, well sheltered in the tussoc, these big clumps which give refuge for nearly all the animals. The steaming ducks, oystercatchers, tussac birds, the long tailed meadowlark, everybody enjoy the beach, us too in collecting drift wood.
West Point Island, where Alan and his wife welcome us, was named Albatross Island in the past, and you can imagine why : here, in the tussoc we will get close to the young black browed albatross, still at nest. They have not acheived their moulting, the adults don’t feed them anymore so they could fly off, and they start to spread out their huge wings, under the indifferent look from the Rock hoppers, also busy in ending their moulting. They are so cute, they look like cuddly toys, and what is striking in all these animals which live together is the lack of aggressivity, the lack of fear of human beings.
Beaver Island, the den of Jérome Poncet and sons, where they share their time between trips to South Georgia and South Sandwiches and the breeding of sheep and reindeers. It’s the first place in the Falkland where we will find a sort of port. The boats of Jérome, “Damien II” and the “Golden Fleece” are beached alongside the jetty, Dion’s boat, the “Hans Hansen”, has his own mooring in the bay. And at night the blow of Commerson’s dolfins will cradle us in our bunk.
New Island will be our last call in Falkland. The welcome of Charlene and John will be memorable, they will welcome us as friends and we will thrive again of the Gentoo penguins, the albatrosses, Rock hoppers, sea lions…The imperial shags, the skuas have also their nests here, and the funny “Johnny Rooks”, the striated caracaras” will try to pick up our hats, it’s their game. No foxes as in Beaver, but beautiful coton tail rabbits, wild cats, peregrine falcons. Nexw Island is a natural reserve since 1972, the island begin to recover after 2 centuries of destruction: havoc of the breeding, which destroy the tussoc, and the slaughter of wild animals. Less than a hundred years ago, whales where chased, then the fur seals, then the sea lions, for ending with the rock hoppers… Thousands of them will die, to make oil, when they were not directly used as fuel….Their cousins from the Northern hemisphere, the great hawk, will not have the luck to survive, man, this superior being, will have swept from the planet.
It’s also in New Island that a flit spear point has been discovered, these so disputed islands have certainly been yaghan or kaweskar, long, long ago before the white man….And these islands have an indien name, Windy islands….
