Carcass Is. Falklands

It turns out that the Patagonian chart, purchased in Argentina is useless for keeping track of the ship's position here. The Argentineans have their own names for the islands (beyond just calling them Las Malvinas). The individual islands and settlements are differently named, too. Nothing matches the English nomenclature.

We went ashore to the beach and photographed Magelenic penguins and a pair of oyster catchers. Had tea at the home of Rob and Lorraine McGill. They had guests, a lady from South Africa and another from Holland. Rob had one of those wind-up radios Paul has heard about. It is in a see-through case. A manual winding yields sufficient electric power for a half hour of use. Rob confirmed that it runs for 32 minutes. It also has supplemental solar cells. They have intermittent telephone and radio contact with Stanley (capital of the Falklands). There is a monthly publication devoted to news of the wool-growing industry, with stories about sheep-shearing. The industry is in severe recession with very low prices for wool, the mainstay of the island's economy. They've planted trees and hedges to provide wind breaks. Surprisingly, they have success with cabbage palm trees.

In the afternoon we made our final excursion of this trip. We landed through the heavy surf onto a nice sandy beach on Saunders Island. Rosie stepped too deeply in the surf and got her first bootful of water. There were colonies of Magelenic and Gentoo penguins, but the prize was a very small group of, perhaps, a dozen King penguins at the far end of the beach. One group was in a roped off nesting site and a smaller group of just four birds on the beach. Stefan theorized that they were immature, non-breeders. One male and three females. The King are quite majestic. They move very slowly. Sometimes not at all for long periods. We surrounded the four at a respectful distance in a semicircle of avid photographers firing off shot after shot through long lenses as we watched these birds for more than an hour. It was a rewarding effort as they exhibited pre-mating behavior. Neck stretching, preening and a very slow follow-the-leader parade. We noted that when the tide came in and their feet got wet, they retreated to dry sand. Dolphins toyed with our Zodiacs during the trip back out through the surf to the ship. It was a fitting conclusion to an extraordinary expedition.

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