Position: 51:41.484S 057:51.5W

Date: 24 November 2011  

Mina 2 has now arrived safely in Stanley. For full details of the dramatic final throes of our passage you need to read the Mina2 blog. We have now had two full days in Stanley but as yet have not really seen very much of either Stanley or of the rest of the island, in part because we have been re-charging our energy levels but also just getting on top of ‘jobs’ before we can finally relax.

We have had a marvellous welcome from everyone. The local Cruising Association rep, Barry, has been fantastically helpful. Dave, on whose half completed jetty we are moored is really friendly.  In fact nothing is too much trouble for anyone. Dave warned us on our first night that a North East wind was coming in and that we would be much more comfortable anchored out in the bay. We took his advice and had a very peaceful night, sleeping well into the morning as we caught up on lost sleep. We then pottered around, tidying up around the boat before coming back onto the jetty the following afternoon.

First impressions of Stanley as that it is a bit of a hand knitted sort of place,as Billy Connolly would describe it. The houses are mainly prefabricated with  brightly coloured crinkly tin roofs. There are only 4 brick built terraced houses on the waterfront, called Jubilee Villas. The Anglican cathedral is also brick built and stands handsomely on the foreshore with its dramatic whale bone sculpture and carefully tended gardens. As for the landscape that we can see, it is barren and windswept, not dissimilar to Sutherland. There are no trees, only those that are planted in people’s gardens.

There are one or two other yachts here, but there is a Swedish yacht called Dawnbreaker which has a pretty international crew that we have linked up with in particular. One of the crew is from Brazil, and when he discovered that we had cachaca and limes on board, brought everyone round for caipirinhas. He even brought his own specialist lime squidger with him! This was then followed by a  very sociable meal together at the Malvina House Hotel. The famous Upland Goose Hotel has apparently closed. They are planning to follow almost the same route as Tim, round the Falklands, over to Ushuaia and then down to Antarctica after Christmas so no doubt Tim will be bumping into them from time to time.

We are planning a big food shop tomorrow. The supermarket opposite us is fully stocked with Waitrose goods so we will be able to cater well, if somewhat expensively for our remaining 24 days on board. There will be no other opportunity to buy anything else before getting to Ushuaia. Tim plans to stock up on items such as marmite, Cadburys chocolate, garibaldi biscuits and such like which he has been deprived of for the 4 years his boat has been out of the UK.

In the meantime the ‘jobs’ program continues. The boys currently both have their heads down in the bilges trying to work out why the water isn’t being pumped out – pretty important to get that sorted really. Hope that by the weekend all will be complete and we can get out and about.