Visiting the Falkland Islands 1/21/26 Wednesday Day 3

We had our first Zodiac landings today. The way the staff gets everyone off the ship and onto the islands is a well oiled machine. Our first stop was at New Island, park of the Falklands. New Island is semi-famous for being the location where the American Charles Barnard and his crew were left behind for nearly two years. Barnard rescued a British ship that had wrecked nearby and agreed to take all the passengers aboard his ship, the sealer Nanina. The British ship was unaware of the War of 1812 until Barnard told them. While Barnard was ashore looking for food to feed all the new passengers, the Brits stole his ship and left him and a small crew on New Island. I mean, there was a war between the US and Great Britain going on, but that seems pretty low to me. He was later rescued by a different British ship when the war was reaching its end, and he went on the live happily ever after. 

There is a small museum located in the building where Barnard stayed. All the tourism proceeds go directly to Falklands Conservation, a non profit that protects the islands. We also saw tons of Rock Hopper Penguins and a lot of beautiful Albatross. Most of them had their chicks in December, and the baby penguins and albatross were adorable. Baby penguins are brown and the baby albatross were a silver gray color.

While we were at lunch, the crew relocated the ship for a landing on the north side of New Island. We took the Zodiacs to shore again, where we saw lots of Ruddy Headed Geese, Gentoo Penguins running along the penguin highways to the beach, and Striated Caracara. Caracara reminded us of hawks, and they were tying to pick off the weaker baby penguins. It was hard to watch, but alas, that’s the circle of life.  

One the way back to the ship, we raced a pod of Peale’s Dolphins. The dolphins were clearly having fun racing alongside the Zodiacs. They gave us a pretty good show and a few people got a bit wet from all the splashing. This is the reason you have to wear waterproof pants and coats on the Zodiacs. 

The weather was absolutely beautiful today, with lots of sunshine and 58 deg F.  We stuffed our waterproof parkas into our backpacks, as it was way too warm to wear them on shore. It was quite windy however, and we all came back with a bit of windburn on our faces. Tomorrow’s planned landing is in Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands.

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