Oldies On Tour

I was out of bed at 0630 hrs, Christine decided to stay, and up to the Constellation lounge, up high facing forwards across the bows of the ship. Unfortunately the weather was not very Helpful, it was very misty, raining, cloudy, raining, windy and cold, 6 degrees; just like England though we could see the mountains and Glaciers dropping down into the sea, the fjords of Patagonia.

I took Christine a cup of tea in bed around 0800 hrs and we were down to Breakfast, sharing a table with Canadians for 0900 hrs. Again a leisurely Breakfast as we are travelling the length of the Beagle Channel then turning and travelling back to Ushuaia, planning to arrive around 2200 hrs.

The Beagle channel, about 150 miles long separates the southerly land mass of South America from two major Islands, Navarino and Hoste, together with several hundred more small Islands, all part of Chile. This channel is like one giant Fjord with the mountains and glaciers dropping into the sea.

After breakfast we went upstairs to sit in a comfortable seat to watch the scenery go by, unfortunately so did most other passengers and we could only find a seat and table in the Ocean Cafe. This was a little unfortunate as this cafe is self service food, all day long and Christine had a dicky tummy, self inflicted I hasten to add, too many glasses of wine last night!!!!! Though by lunch time she enjoyed a Pizza and followed this with another glass of Wine!!!!!

The scenery was quite stunning and the glaciers in places looked blue due to a combination of factors, can’t remember what they were but it was spectacular. By the time we turned around, most people had left the Ocean View Cafe so we had a choice of tables. The weather also improved with the grey lifting and some sun appearing, it was then that we heard over the PA system that the Captain gave permission for passengers to access the helipad situated right on the Bowes of the ship. It was much better viewing the scenery without double glazing that had wet streaks on the outside.

Tonight our show was an extravaganza with all the specialist acts doing something, it was riveting and the hour and a quarter it lasted flew by and it was time for dinner. Tonight we were still feeling the effects of eating so much over the previous days that we looked for the more lighter dishes, well I did, Christine enjoyed yet another steak.

The ship docked around 2200hrs in Ushuaia, though I was asleep!

Early to bed tonight as we had to set the alarm for 0500 hrs ready for our 6 hour tour tomorrow starting at 0630hrs.

During the night sometime, we managed to get going again, we are now heading for Antarctica, which is very exciting.
We took a leisurely breakfast, met some nice English folk from Norfolk, where we compared travelling notes, we all thought due to the delay in leaving the Falklands, that the trip might be off! but we await news from the captain! normally he gives us a 10 am briefing, but today it has been delayed, so we await our fate!
About 11.30am an announcement from the captain! stated our plans would be changed yet again! due to the delay in leaving the Falklands, we are no longer going to Puerto Mandryn, but Elephant Island has been re-instated, so we await the next forty eight hours, at least we are going to Ushuaia, which is the end of the world!
We had lunch in the cafeteria on top level, then came down to the posh coffee shop, the staff are really nice there, and have a laugh and a joke with us. I was going for a swim, but when we went out on deck, gosh it has got very cold, everyone was wrapped up, so we decided to go back to the room and read for a while.
Today was a very quiet day, spent relaxing, in evening we went to see Michael Jackson look a like, and although he was probably very good, neither of us had been fans of his, so we left early, along with several other couples!
Onto the Martini bar, then dinner, we then had an early night as we need to be up early in the morning, as we are going to the Beagle channel.

We had to set our alarm today as we were due to have an early start, ouch, not used to that!!!!! Due to the forecasted heavy weather our itinerary was changed and today it was our day in the Falklands, looking forward to this.

Early breakfast and then into the theatre, wrapped up warmly to await our turn for the tender service to Port Stanley. We were a little anxious after looking out of the window at the sea, waves and wind!!!

Our turn came and we trundled down to the lower deck and onto our tender. As we were all bundled up space was a premium, I would hate to have to use one of these tenders in an emergency having to wear a life buoyancy aids as well!

The “bumpy” journey to Port Stanley took about 30 minutes and actually it wasn’t too bad, “thank goodness” say’s Christine! Off the tender at Stanley’s jetty and straight into our waiting coach for a trip across the battlefields of the Falklands war following the invasion by Argentina on April 2nd 1982.

Our guide, though ex Army, didn’t take part in this war but was a professional soldier and has lived in these Islands for the past 23 years so was well placed to commentate on these events and could provide technical insights some guides may have lacked.

Today was a day of surprises and the first surprise was that before the war, the ONLY roads in the Falklands were in the town of Port Stanley, the Capital and everywhere else there were just tracks and certainly not made for cars. Apparently all the Shepard’s, yes sheep/wool was the main source of income before the war, went about their business on horse back and what habitation there was was on the coast and was serviced by boat. Following the war, the Government built a road across East Falkland with a few branch roads along the way, however building this road brought its own dangers as all the surrounding areas out of Port Stanley, including the beaches were heavily mined. There were several million of these very small, plastic covered anti personnel mines liberally scattered by the Argentinian army as they retreated after the British started their advance. As we drove along this road, both sides was cordoned off as there are still many mine fields to be cleared, this is an on-going operation that will last for many more years to come.

We drove to our furtherest point of the tour before turning back for a slow trip back being told what happened as we did so.

The next surprise was we were still about 50 miles from “San Carlos” where the British army came ashore but their original plan of invasion was to use the Chinook Helicopters to transport men and equipment to this area where the first line of Argentinian defence was. Unfortunately the Atlantic Conveyor” the ship with all this equipment on was sunk by the Argentinians with an Excocet missile so the troops had to march the 50 miles carrying everything, each soldier had about 112 lbs on his back and the terrain was either very rocky, where twisted ankles were common, or across peat bogs, very unpleasant. I think we all thought they landed nearer to where the actual land battles took place.

The Argentinians had three lines of defence, utilising three ranges of mountains and our boys had to fight, and in several cases hand-to-hand, each mountain as they came up to them. Just to name a few Mounts Longdon, Two Sisters, Tumbledown, Harriet, Wireless Ridge, we saw them all and were horrified at what the boys had to put up with, for example, apart from the rock strewn land and boggy conditions, there was no cover what’s so ever, there are no trees in this region, no big boulders, nothing, just incoming fire from the defenders up the mountains, it was a miracle it wasn’t carnage like the trenches in WW1. Apparently our force was about 3000 but there were 14,000 enemy soldiers on the Islands.

The one place we couldn’t get to visit was Goose Green as it was about 30 miles in another direction and the terrain prevented us from going, no roads!

Apart from the mine fields the only other piece of war residue are the burnt out remains of two enemy helicopters, a Chinook and a Puma, though by looking at these remains no one would know what they were!

From the first landing of British troops on the 21st May the surrender took place on the 14th June, our boys did very well under extreme conditions. What we watched on TV back in 1982 did NOT portray the severity of their task.

Arriving back in Port Stanley we enjoyed a snack and a cup of coffee then walked along Ross Street, their “Main Street” if they have one, it has the police station, post office, town hall, law courts, the memorial for the liberation of the Falklands in 1982, the sheltered housing and “Thatcher Drive” as well as the local supermarket and a number of gift shops.

Next we had booked a “Port Stanley Experience” tour; after having walked along Ross Street we thought we had covered Stanley and wondered why we we had this booking but as it turned out it was a very good tour, we learned much about life here on the Islands and realised there is more to Stanley and the surrounding area. On this tour we stopped by a memorial to the first Falklands battle that took place in 1914, yes it was a surprise to me as well! This was a sea battle where the British South Atlantic fleet defeated and sank all but one of the German Pacific Fleet as they were heading back to Germany. We then stopped at the Stanley Museum where I took the opportunity to read all about the 1914 event as well as see much memorabilia from the ’82 war. We were also taken to Port Stanley Airport, not to be confused with the new one built after the war allowing large aeroplanes to land and if necessary re-enforce the standing garrison should the need arise again! This airport was the one the RAF Vulcan Bomber dropped 21, 1,000 lbs bombs on the night of 1st May 1982: this was a extraordinary achievement bearing in mind the distance from Ascension Island, there were approximately 12 refuelling RAF tankers in the air to enable one to get down to Port Stanley Airport, this raid was followed up with further attacks by Harriers.

We drove past the Oil Exploration Depot where the equipment was stored whilst two companies explore for oil, no wonder Argentina want to take over these Islands. One fact that emerged was interesting, these Islands have been in British hands since the seventeenth century yet Argentina has only been independent since 1816, so how can they have claim to them! One sure thing we understood in no uncertain way was the animosity towards the Argentine, even to the joke that Inhabitants in the Falklands do not play tennis, the winds are so strong that their balls would get blown to the Argentine and these balls would never be returned!!!!!

Since the war, the Falklands is now on the international map and tourists’ is one of their main sources of revenue, Cruise liners have been coming since the nineties and tourists arrive, either through the tortuous route through Chilli or the direct route with the RAF flights from Brize Norton, refuelling at Accession Island.

This was a very informative tour and Nancy, our guide, was extremely thorough,

After a swift pint of Guinness at the local island pub, we boarded the tender back to the ship then straight into the Martini bar before going into dinner. It was during dinner the Captain came over the PA telling us the bunkering ship alongside had hit one of our Tender Davits causing damage that for safety reasons prevented us leaving Port Stanley until repairs were carried out, naturally the implication of this was more changes to our itinerary, we will know more tomorrow once the ship is under way again.

Leaving the dining room walking through the bar the entertainment were just about to start a “pub quiz” so far a laugh we got a sheet and joined in but only managed 10 out 20, still there were several obscure questions about TV soaps.

Off to bed now after an enjoyable day, weary but happy and wondering what tomorrow’s announcement will bring.

Chronological order of 1982 events

April 2 Argentine forces land & occupy the Falkland Islands
April 5 First ships of task force leave Britain
April 10 EEC declare sanctions against Argentina
April 12 Britain declaims 200 mile exclusion Zone around Islands
April 25 South Georgia recaptured by British forces
April 30 Britain declares total exclusion zone around Falklands
May 1 Vulcan bombs Port Stanley airport
May 2 British sink Argentine cruiser, General Belgrano
May 3 HMS Sheffield sunk by Argentine Exocet missile
May 14/15 British Special Forces attack Argentine aircraft on Pebble Island
May 21 British forces land San Carlos, Argentina attacks by air
May. 28 2 Para recapture Darwin & Goose Green, 1,000 prisoners taken
June 1 5 infantry brigade arrive San Carlos
June 8 RFA ships Sir Galahad, Sir Tristram bombed at Fitzroy
June 11/12 Mounts: Harriet, Two Sisters, Longdon retaken
June 13/14 Mounts: tumbledown, William, Wireless Ridge retaken
June 14 PM, All Argentine forces surrender to British General Moore

We are both sleeping very well, and the bed is very good, in fact I could get to like this cruising!

Breakfast was taken in the restaurant, where you can either sit on your own or share, we opted to share, and met this Australian family from Sydney, where Geoff had a long discussion about the welfare state, apparently they have similar systems.
After breakfast we had a guided tour of the kitchens, and I forgot the camera, it was fascinating, the equipment was the same as I had in the Canterbury Hotel, but lots more, and far bigger, they had huge dishwashers and freezers, their were meat areas, fish areas, pastry departments, everyone had their own space, it was fascinating, I am just annoyed as I had no pictures.
Later we went onto the coffee shop, they welcomed us back and apologised for yesterday, we said don’t worry we enjoyed the entertainment, and were disappointed it was so quiet.
Then onto a talk about the trips we are going on, which was interesting, but halfway through the captain came on the tannoy system say he had to change all the plans!

The storm we avoided

apparently they are expecting adverse weather conditions with sustained winds from a south westerly direction of 60 knots (110km or 70 miles per hour) or more. And waves of 9 meters (29 feet) or more in the drake Passage. These weather conditions will make it impossible for the celebrity Infinity to conduct the scenic cruising around Cape Horn and also prevent us from a safe passage to Antarctica. Well you can imagine how I felt, but hey oh, never mind, we get to go the the Falklands tomorrow instead of next week!
We both had lunch, then I decided to chill out by the pool, I did some swimming, and managed to drink three peach smoothies, they are lovely, who needs alcohol.

Refreshed after a good night’s sleep we headed down to Breakfast, oh dear we can already feel the weight going on and we have another 13 days of this!

After breakfast we went on a orientation tour of the “Celebrity Infinity” trying to get our bearings and finished up at the Italian Coffee Shop where we not only enjoyed a super Mocha and Tea, we witnessed a staff “spat”; they were caught be surprise with too many people arriving and insufficient staff to keep up with demand. The waitress’ were taking the orders (sales) but they were let down by the “production” team and of course the waitress’ got it in the neck from the guests and were harassing production!!! I have to say things got sorted fairly quickly when re- enforcements arrived to increase production, including the very nice Indian barman from the Martini Bar: Everyone here seems to be multi tasked.

It was now time to get swimmers on and visit deck 10 where there are two outside pools and two Hot Tubs. We also witnessed the weekly volleyball challenge match between the ships Officers and the ships Hoteliers, the Hoteliers won, apparently they never lose! The challenge then went out for guests to form a team to play the Hoteliers. Several volunteers jumped into the pool, including me, and we gave them a good run for their money only losing by 21:15, better than the Officers!!!!

Next it was one of those stupid competitions called the “poolside Olympics”. Two teams of 8 adults; USA guests V Rest of the World guests. Again I was in the ROW team.

First test was to throw a bean bag through a hole in a board, USA won, 2 to 1 after extra time! Next was a “Synchronised Swimming” event. We had had about 5 minutes to sort this one out earlier and fortunately our “crew” organiser gave us some tips. The judges were all the rest of the guests around the pool and they judged us (ROW) to be the winners, so we went into the last game, equal. Everything hinged on the outcome of this. A dingy was placed into the pool and first 1 person jumped in, paddled to the end of the pool and back again where upon a second team member jumped in and the two did the paddling, then 3 – 4 – 5 and so on until there were all 8 members of the team in this rather small dingy. After two very close times we, the rest of the world were the fastest and won the Poolside Olympics and we each had a “gold” medal, silver went to USA, yeah!!!!!!!

We enjoyed more swimming and lounging in the sun before we retired to our cabin to dress for dinner, tonight is our first Formal Dinner, black tie and posh frocks. We are also booked to dine in the SS United States restaurant, at extra cost I must add!, but before that we had a date with the Martini Bar and our friendly Indian Barman.

Whilst enjoying our drinks we got chatting to an American who lived in Buenos Aires and who has an apartment which he suggested we should rent from him next time we visit BA, oh yes I think there will be a next time, we both enjoyed what we saw and experienced that we certainly want more.

Into the restaurant where we were escorted to a private table and had several waiters waiting on our every need. This is marketed as a four course “gourmet” restaurant offering a level of service only experienced by Guests on Ocean Liners of a bygone age with food to match. We thoroughly enjoyed our starters then experienced a superb Chateaubriand, cooked to perfection, carved on a trolley next to our table and washed down with excellent wines. Unfortunately now we were “stuffed” we couldn’t manage the next two courses, Cheeseboard and Flambé deserts, oh dear but we have booked again and if we go without lunch we make all 4 courses!!!!!

After dinner we went to the theatre, firstly the Ships Captain introduced all his senior officers and hoteliers and this was followed by an amazing showcase of songs and dances from around the world. It went on for one hour non stop! what energy as it was only one set of performers that did everything with very quick and slick changes.

By now we were exhausted but happy so of to bed as it was around Midnight, well past our bed time, tomorrow is another day a sea.

Up early, packed our cases, then down to breakfast, the taxi was coming at 9.40am which we thought was very early, but in fact it worked out very well.
Into the taxi, down to the port, our bags were taken from us, and we then waited in a big lounge, it was not long before they called us forward, to do all the checks, and we were on board relaxing by 11.30am, a lot easier than flying! The only decisions we had to make was which trip we were going on, and which drinks package we wanted? I left Geoff to decide the drinks! although I had ordered a non alcohol package! he went for the premium package! which means he can top me up when and if I want one.
We viewed the trips, and selected and paid for what we wanted, then went and relaxed on

Tugs pushing us off

Top deck pool and jacuzzi

the top deck with drinks, very pleasant, the sun was very hot, and our only regret is that we had not put our swimming costumes on, so we could go in the pool, never mind there’s always tomorrow.
Our cabin is lovely, with a big six foot bed, settee, big wardrobes, very comfortable, we did not receive our bags until after 4pm, so in between the safety drill, and dinner, we unpacked. We changed for dinner, then went to watch the show, which was very good, singers, dancers, guitar player, trapeze artists, everything you could wish for! Onto dinner, but realised we had an extra thirty minutes, so we found the martini bar, which was good fun, lots of different choices, plus the waiters were filling two or three glasses at the same time, they made me a lovely fruit punch, Geoff had a traditional dry martini! but says he will try different ones later.
Dinner was good, the standard of food is very high, so I guess we will be putting on a lot of weight. Geoff was very tired, so we went back to the room and fell quickly to sleep.