Today was an adventurous day. A rainstorm came in during the night, and it was rain a lot this morning. We were scheduled to land at Saunders Island Settlement and go to the sheep farm. This is where we are to meet Linda’s friend. After a wet ride to shore during which we were greeted by dogs on the bow of the incoming zodiacs, we walked up a rocky hillside to the farm, which had various barns and houses. There was a little store, really a table, set up in the barn, and we found Linda’s friend Susan, who gave us a bag with the gift that Linda mentioned. We also met Biffa, Ross’s mother, and asked if we cold go to the gravestone of Tracy to lay a flower there for Linda, and we arranged to go up after the demonstration. David did a sheep-shearing demonstration, expertly removing the wool in one large piece. Susan, Linda’s friend, then shook it out on a table in one motion, almost like rolling out a rug. We could feel the lanolin inn the wool, and David showed us the various grades of wool. Then outside (still in the rain) to see the sheepdogs at work. One of the other women (can’t recall her name) sent the dog out, and she Sadie the dog) ran Upp the hillside, expertly rounded up the sheep and nudged them down the hill and into the paddock. There she kept watch to make sure none o fate sheep tried to get out the open gate. Finally, Sadie was released, and the sheep ran out of the pen and back up the hill to almost the same spot they were before. Sadie and Lassie (the other dog) were soaking wet but were oblivious to the rain.
We then went with Biffa to the gravesite. It was a largish enclosure with about 8 graves, including Biffa’s father. She had planted up Tracy’s grave with multi-colored carnations, Tracy’s favorite flower, and we put the plastic flowers we brought from Stanley there among a few other plastic flowers, and I said a short prayer. We took photos of Biffa and the gravesite to send to Linda. We had a real sense of the loneliness of this site, and how hard it must be to live there. We headed back i the Land Rover to the barn, and worked our way back to the ship, with Lassie at the bow once again, barking all the way to the ship.
After lunch the rain continued and the winds picked up. Ross announced that we would go to the site of the albatross nesting area. We were in the first group off the ship, and there were large waves, we were rocking and rolling and getting drenched all the way to shore. Some folks took the option of walking to the nesting site, we decided to take the 4x4s, which the folks from the sheep farm had driven over. On the way out, we drive with David the sheep-shearer, and I realized I had never been in that sort of 4x4 backcountry drive. We bounced through holes filled with water, over rocks, and up and down hills I never thought a vehicle could get up, or down. A few times we listed strongly to one side or another, with 9 of us packed in the car it seemed not entirely stable. we got to the albatross nesting site, an it incredible windy, we later learned about 40 mph winds. We were standing on a fairly slick hillside in the pouring rain, and I could imagine that it would not be hard to lose your footing and fall down. We managed to get a few photos of the beautiful black-browned albatross, which are mostly white, sitting on their cylindrical nests. A few empty nests were filled with water. Suddenly the naturalists were telling us to move back and go to the cars, it turned out that Conor, one the naturalists, had actually been blown over and they decided it was too dangerous to be out there. we hustled back to the 4x4s and packed in for the bumpy ride back with Typhanie, who noted about halfway through that she was a bit short to be driving that particular car (being a short person I understand having to lean forward to see the road), but she was experienced so we got back fine. Then it became clear that the waves at the landing sit were way too high, and Ross took off running to another site farther down the beach while the zodiacs held in the water, which mats have been a bit nerve-wracking for the driver. He settled on another location, and we lined up to pile into the zodiacs, in water up to out knees, but we were already soaked. The zodiac was struggling against the wind and waves, and someone on board the ship directed Boris, the naturalist and driver, to take a different route back to the ship, it was that difficult. We finally made it back, and we could tell it had been a difficult task. Some zodiacs had turned back before even landing, the walkers were turned and brought back, and other groups were told in base camp that they would not be going. Everyone got back OK but the staff were clearly both excited by the challenge but slightly rattled too.
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