November 15th - At sea - Ushuaia to the Falkland Islands

Our bed was very comfortable, but we were woken in the night by the movement of the ship. Tim was up very early and saw a grey-headed albatross and other seabirds from the stern. We were now 3 hours behind GMT. We went up on deck after breakfast and looked at Cape Petrels (black and white splodges) and more albatrosses.

 

We went to a lecture on birds of the Falklands by the ornithologist, Chris. We went to a party for "first-timers" and met Sheena and John Garbutt, who had been involved in business with Tim some years ago! Tim was suffering from a swollen ankle and had been to see the ship's doctor, a young Turkish woman. We had lunch with her and heard about her travels. We then attended a lecture by the historian, Victoria, on the history of the Falkland Islands. It was interesting but long, and it was easy to fall asleep in the comfortable theatre seats with the swaying of the ship. We then had to go and select our Wellington boots from the ship's supply and were given Zodiac instruction. We seemed to have been busy all day and then we had to get ready for the Captain's cocktail party at 7 o'clock. We met Captain Peter Stahlberg from Finland and he introduced some of his crew to us all. We then had another very good dinner (lobster) with Mary and Stephen Lowry. We then went to bed as we had to be up early in the morning to board Zodiacs to West Point Island in the Falkland Islands.

Our cabin, 309.