I was very tired from being up late the night before for the board meeting, so slept as late as possible before breakfast closed. We enjoyed the introduction to the Falklands by Typhanie May, an 8th-generation Islander, whose family lives and farms there. Besides being quite self-sufficient from fishing license fees and tourism, sheep are a major source of income. The second lecture was about the albatross, the “masters of the wind.” Spending most of their lives in the air, staying with their mates for a lifetime which can be up to 70 years, they are truly incredible birds. We are seeing them more now as we get closer to land, and there were a huge number of them by the A23A glacier a few days ago. In the afternoon, I had to take a nap - unusual for me - and then we read a bit.
At about 5pm, there was an interesting game up in the main gathering area, the Ice Lounge: Ruskin would ask “who here …” and the question could be anything from served in the Peace Core to spent the night in jail to been to Mongolia to been in a bar fight. As folks raised their hands, some of the answers were from the least likely folks. One question was “who has ever been in a movie” and I raised my hand as did another woman, often he’d ask for answers, she answered, and then I answered “Amadeus,” after which Michael, one of the naturalists, came over later to say how much he loved that film.
We had arranged with Carlos the maitre d’ to have the large table for 14, which had mostly been used by a Chinese group from an organization called something like Signa. Reuben Finch and I arranged the guest list and Carlos offered to issue printed invitations, which were lovely little notes on ship stationery. We had a grand time I made a toast to the group and the trip, and a good time was had by all. The folks from Australia all seem to be really fun people so far, and I sat with an American couple who had worked in the oil and gas industry and the husband was involved in car racing, so we had a nice chat about my recent interest in Formula I and the “Drive to Survive” series, I will make sure Barney gets a chance to chat with him tomorrow.
Some of the group moved upstairs to the bar but we retired to gt a good night’s sleep at last, since the ship was no longer tossing and turning. We expect to reach the Falklands in the morning.
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