Back from the Ice

 We have seen a deal since we last posted. Not sure about the glitch in photo loading but it could easily been me and old brain. 

So where were we?

Ah, yes, the Falklands. We headed south from there, a day at sea crossing the Drake Passage. The captain is confident we’ll have an easy time of it. Only 3 meter swell. Once we get there we have to abide by the speed limits, at one point we are limited to 14 knots, then another ‘red line’ in the sea were we can only go 10 knots per https://documents.ats.aq/ATCM46/att/ATCM46_att141_e.pd this is to protect the whales.

Spectacular scenery, more ice than you can imagine! Icebergs in abundance, mostly flat but a lot of shapes, Jane even saw one shaped like a rubber ducky. 


Yes that is the ship shadow, no photoshop!

We actually stumbled across iceberg A23A, a portion of the Fischer-Ronnie ice shelf. Last measured at 3500 square kms. So I guess stumbling across it shouldn’t be that difficult. Like stumbling across Rhode Island. I did take a long video of our passing it, it took over 20 minutes, but it would probably bore you.


The entire continent is rugged as I am sure you know but the amount of ice is mind boggling. Ice shelves 20 meters thick, glaciers 100s of meters thick. Lots of floating ice everywhere.


It’s hard to believe people live here. It’s summer and 1 degree C. There have been some good lectures explaining the region and the captain is really good at announcing things that he sees or expects to see. We have looked at several huts and stations, one we came so close the inhabitants came out to wave. The captain explained that most cruise ships only get to within a kilometre. We were 100 meters off the shore.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 There is a lot to see at the southern most tip of North America. Christmas is big here, lots of decorations using pine bow garland but I haven’t seen any pine trees so it must just be tradition. Lots of churches too, quite a few have been repurposed though, like the one above. We did make a little faux pas at the Southernmost Point. We walked up, waited till the people there took their picture then we took our sand left. It was only then that we noticed the line up down the street waiting to take pictures. OOPS! Happened to watch a funeral as well. All the streets blocked off to the church and police everywhere. It was the wife of some newly elected politician so lots of pomp and security. It was reminiscent of a New Orleans funeral only fewer bands.  Last day in the Keys then onto the boat tomorrow!
Read more
Image
 We did another road trip on the 23rd. ( We are a little behind on our posts, busy few days). We decided to try to go to Punta Chame. We were told that the road was terrible but thought we could try it and turn around if it was too bad. It was slow, the road did have some large potholes(but what road here doesn’t) and some construction but otherwise a pretty easy drive. I could say ‘I could have driven a school bus through there’. Pretty little town, fairly isolated, lots of fishing boats. What else would you do here. A number of resorts with one very large one, Playa Caricol Residences and Beach Club. Really big and very new. Us, being plebeians hung at the Surf Shack for a bit. It’s right beside the resort and much more regular. Cold beer is cold beer! If you look hard you can see some kite surfers in the second pic. Instead of just heading home I decided to see where the road went. Not too long a track but it ended right at the tip of the point. It was completely deserted. You c...
Read more

A Bit About Irish Golf Courses

Image
 We have all heard about how wonderful the golf courses are in Ireland and Scotland. At this time I can only comment on Ireland but hope to be able to add Scotland soon. The first premise of this golf trip was to play smaller more local courses that cost €50 or less per person. Since our experience and research shows that rental clubs per round, if the have them and they are usable, tend to be as costly as the round itself. We have rented clubs long term in Portugal and found a service in Ireland that met our needs. We rented our clubs for the entire time in Ireland from a company called Clubstohire. The website is www.clubstohire.com   The clubs were delivered to us at the car rental station at Dublin airport by Billy, amiable young man with good information. The clubs were high quality and suited us well. I should have ordered a club between fairway 3 wood and 5 hybrid but that was my failure not theirs and I managed.  The first course was Roundwood Golf Club in county ...
Read more