Thursday 5 November 2009

Falkland Islands- almost there!

The seas picked up today as a low pressure system moved in from the west, but the Fram remained quite stable under the circumstances (the few passengers who remained in their cabins all day may disagree!). We even saw almost all four seasons today, with sunshine, rain, and hail. Despite this, many of us took advantage of the sunny conditions and were out on deck with their cameras.

However, our company for the whole day- the seabirds- really enjoyed the winds as they used them to stay in the air, move with the ship, soar, and find food, and apparently have lots of fun doing so. Today we recorded many species but the highlight was seeing so many Wandering Albatrosses. Other common species were Giant Petrels, Cape Petrels, and Black-browed Albatrosses. Some passengers also saw some dolphins or porpoises. A relative rarity on our day's list of birds was a probable Royal Albatross.

Tomorrow morning we will step on terra firma for the first time in three days as we make our morning landing at New Island in West Falkland.