The landscape is gorgeous: rolling green fields, peppered with large patches of rocks and boulders, trail down to meet vast sweeps of southern ocean. The Falklands are one of those places with a special light. While I was there, the air seemed constantly charged with a golden glow — the kind of air that suggests a rainbow might appear at any moment. This wild, isolated beauty adds to the sense of a place that’s haunted. The mangled skeleton of a downed Chinook helicopter still lies in a windswept field. At the British and Argentinian graveyards, birds wheel overhead in a gray sky, the ocean laps at the nearby shore, and rows of well-tended but lonely gravestones commemorate the men who came to the Falklands but never left.
Our driver took us through Goose Green, a tiny settlement on the shore, dotted with a handful of houses and barns. Chickens and guinea hens wandered; a small shop was open for tea; it was hard to believe this was the site of fierce fighting during the war and that 64 soldiers lost their lives on this patch of earth.
After a few days in Port Stanley, which included a good dinner ashore and several beers at The Globe Tavern, Pelagic Australis sailed out of Blanco Bay and north before heading down the coast of West Falkland. The trip was rough, with sustained winds of 37 knots for hours. A gust put out the stove and filled the boat with diesel fumes, and the combination of heaving decks and cold smoky air didn’t soothe the stomach. Several good sailors were seasick — I had a patch on and spent a lot of time on deck, gulping fresh air, and couldn’t sleep a wink. At daybreak, I finally took a nap and woke as we dropped anchor off Carcass Island.
The water was flat now and we could see the shoreline, dotted with gentoo penguins — hundreds of them waddled along the beach and across the fields. We launched the dinghy to go ashore and then spent hours standing and observing as the penguins played, groomed, dove from the rocks and bickered with one another.
Related Articles
When five J Class yachts raced head-to-head for the first time in decades, Onne van der Wal was there to capture it in this must-see video.
This month we tie up in “America’s Hometown.”
Ocean Independence sales broker Marco Vandoni also serves as charter marketer for select yacht owners.
