CARCASS ISLAND, FALKLANDS
Today, we dropped anchor just off Carcass Island, another of the Falkland Islands, near the North-Western corner of the Main West Island group.
Once again, the weather seemed favourable, and hopes were high for a repeat of the successful tender operation we all enjoyed yesterday. As before, tender tickets were issued from the Future Sales desk, this time working from Z to A, backwards… we had a ticket with the letter ‘O’, and ticket holders were being summoned in groups of three (beginning with anyone holding tickets X, Y or Z), so we gathered our belongings hoping to be able to make the trip across to the island very soon.
After X, Y and Z, came the call for ‘U, V and W’, followed about half an hour later by R, S and T…. with growing anticipation of ‘O, P and Q’, we knew we would be next…
Sadly, it wasn’t to be.
Although the sky was blue and the sun shone brightly, there was quite a stiff breeze ruffling the surface of the sea, making getting in and out of the tender boats quite difficult. By all accounts, it was worse at the quayside end, where the boats were struggling to successfully tie up alongside, and having to take two or three goes at it.
‘R, S and T’ ticket holders only got as far as the inside of the tender boat; before being released, they were asked to vacate the boat and climb the steps back into the ship. Since many people had already gone ashore, and believed that they had until 6pm to roam freely around the island, the Marco Polo gave four blasts of its horn, which apparently is a signal to return to the ship. I’ve never heard this before, and haven’t seen it in any of the literature. It would seem many of those who were already ashore didn’t know this either – that’s assuming they heard the four notes at all; I’ve heard it said that the wind was in the wrong direction, so the notes weren’t heard properly anyway.
Naturally, all of this is a disappointment, but what can you do? The tender operation was clearly highly problematic, so the captain had to make a decision. I’m sure he was thinking ahead; even if he’d managed to get everybody across to the island, how difficult was it going to be to get them all back? Although his last announcement was to say that the tender operation had been suspended, and a further announcement would be made in two hours time, while they brought everyone back to the ship, most people knew what this meant.
Shoreside runnners and landrovers were sent out to spread the word of the evacuation; this information came from Ian the photographer, who managed to get ashore in the second tender, and who also confirmed just how rough the sea was at the quayside. He could see that the tender boats had stopped, so he knew something was wrong.
Unfortunately, the Marco Polo remained in its same anchorage position all day. This was a blessing to the birders who were able to take advantage of the relatively stationary position to observe the birds in the locality. All would have preferred to have been able to visit the island on foot, though. Even from the ship, it was clear that Carcass Island, privately owned, is a remarkably beautiful island, with lots of interesting footpaths to wander on, hills to climb and coves to walk around. For a lucky few, this was a rare opportunity sadly not afforded to the majority.
On the plus side; this could easily have happened yesterday, and us not have been able to go ashore at Stanley. Despite its compact beauty and accessible wildness, if we were destined to fail at one of the islands, then Carcass Island was the one to fail at.
I’ve spent most of the rest of the day writing yesterday’s and today’s blog. Unfortunately, with the lack of good wi-fi in Montevideo, no wi-fi at all in The Falklands and a diabolically poor signal on the ship’s wi-fi, with my blog update page failing to load properly after almost an hour and a half of watching a blank screen, I’m keenly aware of the fact that I currently have a whole week’s worth of posts that I am still unable to upload, and if the ship’s wi-fi doesn’t pick up, it’ll be at least another couple of days before we reach our next port, in Punta Arena, in Chile, where I, hopefully, will be able to bring things up-to-date. Needless to say; by the time anyone reads this, I hope they haven’t given up on me… I always say posts can be like buses – none for ages, then two or three at once – I think this length of time without decent internet access is probably something of a record for me!
