Dylan and Tom left us when we arrived in Stanley leaving just Chris and I on board. We have been here for two weeks now and in that time a decent amount of jobs have been ticked of the list. Our new instrument courtesy of Raymarine are installed including a touch screen chart plotter bigger than most TV's which should allow us to track the ships movement (and perform many other functions) even easier than it's predecessor.

We have installed (or rather reinstalled) the wind vane, a clever device which will steer the boat at any given angle to the wind. I love these clever gizmos, and although they have their limitations, they are completely silent and use no power which should result in less running of the engine to charge batteries and a consequently quieter and 'greener' boat. We ought to be able to sail for many days now with no recourse to the engine.

Up front in the forepeak which doubles as workshop, pantry and garden shed there is an extensive tool selection and more paints, oils, lubes, glues, seizing agents, anti seizing agents, sealants and solvents than seems possible, all of which have had a thorough reorganise. The small mountain of equipment essential to the high latitude yacht, miles of rope, wire strops for mooring to jagged rocks, a pair of inflatable dinghies and their outboards, chafe tubes for the mooring lines, barrels of survival gear for taking ashore incase it's not possible to get back to the mothership and to my delight a large box in which to keep cheese is all in it's place and lashed down.

It seems that over the years the screwdrivers have been getting together and breeding like rabbits and we have had a serious cull and a huge number of very blunt drill bits of unknown vintage have been shown the door as well. This has been a good exercise for me as I'm new to this boat and now I feel I have some idea of where things are and what tools and equipment we have.

Despite all the hard work I have found time for a couple of good hikes, one out to the lighthouse at Cape Pembroke and back along the white sand beaches (some still mined from the 1982 conflict) of the north coast and one up Mount Longdon and the 'Two Sisters. Cape Pembroke forms the eastern half of Stanley Harbour and the cape itself is the eastern most point of the Falklands. There is an interesting sign post under the lighthouse that points to land falls in various directions. The one that caught my eye being somewhere in Chile. While Chile lies to the west of us here, the signpost points eastish, a stark reminder that the Southern Ocean rolls right around the globe uninterrupted.

Calling Mount Longdon a mount is slightly stretching things but it is a good walk and very breezy on the day I went with plenty of conflict relics hidden amoung the rocks and long grass including a huge (4 meter?) Argentinian gun still on it's tripod and pointed directly at one of the 'Two Sisters'. Indeed there are also memorial markers placed by the relatives of Argentinian soldiers, wooden crosses with rosaries and fabric flowers to be found along the way as if one needs further reminder of this waste of human life and endeavor. Also in abundance even after all this time are the rubber remains of Argentinian 'plimsoles' and boots, the fabric being long rotted away and the leather on its way, which were abandoned in their hasty retreat.

Stanley is really a very pleasant place to be, the weather has been sunny and even warm at times, I have been working on deck in my t-shirt whenever the wind is quiet and I may even have topped up my tan a little!

Now the time draws near for us to unhitch Pelagic from her ties to the land again and head across the Drake Passage to the South Shetlands in time to meet our penguin scientists at Deception Island on the 2nd of December. A quick look at the chart tells us we have somewhere over seven hundred miles heading almost due south to cover. We have been following the weather patterns for the last week and hope to leave on Tuesday afternoon when the latest low pressure system moves off to the east and takes it's fifty knot southerlies with it. Then we have a few days of favourable conditions for the dash to Deception before the next system comes through and makes it all horrible in the Drake again. Fingers crossed.....