Stanley Falkland Islands take two, so here goes again as my computer ate my last blog before I could upload it. So several days out I must remember the great time we had there. Arriving in Stanley early morning we were welcomed by howling winds and a dark gray treeless landscape. Making the call Captain Rikard made the call for the tenders to head to shore.

The tender ride was a 30 minute bouncy chilly roller coaster ride to the pier; we all had our picture taken by the ships photographer as we set foot on solid ground. Boarding our Range Rover Defender we headed out of town in search of Penguins. Well the road turns to a washboard about five miles out of town, reminiscent of Fairhill Training Center this road ended at a peat bog five miles later and the last and final seven miles were weaving back and forth through a network of dips and swamps.

Over the final hill and the bog changed to sand dunes and then Penguins. Thousands of Penguins and wind! I was ever windy this day at Volunteer point. We spent the better part of the morning walking among the Penguins, good thing brought our boots. There were baby Penguins, eggs of Penguins, dead Penguins the entire life cycle of a Penguins was on the beach. We had to leave though as if was a long drive back to Stanley, but on the way we visited town and there was even a racecourse, have a cheap claimer? Send them here the competition looks weak.

Well remember the wind? Well it's blowing even harder now as we roll back into town as a matter of fact one of the ships tenders was blown up against the rocks and damaged the propeller. At that point tender service was halted, bummer lets head to the Pub and no better way than to start at the top of the hill and work our way down. Drinking with the locals and one Irishwoman from the ship we walked Pub to Pub all with one eye on the seas. With almost perfect timing the winds died down and we walked out of the last Pub with the last tender approaching slowly from the ship. Bobbing along we all sang "We Want Beer!!" as the Ocean Princess grew bigger and bigger and Stanley smaller and smaller. Sailing out of port we turned towards Cape Horn.

With a six degree list during the night Ocean Princess approached the bottom of the World Cape Horn. Gloomy and wet Ocean Princess sounded her Whistle (not horn as I was corrected) as we passed, not much to see other than a flag pole, house and light. Sopping wet we headed inside as the Cape faded into the fog and sipped hot chocolate excited as tomorrow we would be in Ushuaia Argentina.

We woke up in the channel leading to Ushuaia and what I am told was a lot like the Alaska passage. High mountains on either side of the channel the winds still whipped at Ocean Princess. The wind nearly canceled our docking as we approached the pier the ship was pushed hard and with our anchor dragging we hit the pier with more speed than I have ever seen before a loud squish as the bumpers were flattened against the concrete.

Piling into a bus with 40 others we toured Tierra del Fuego National park and the very end of the Pam American highway. Back in town we had local King Crab the biggest we have ever seen as every restaurant had them on display in the front window so you could see who had the biggest. We saw one table of six eating one huge crab. Not enough time to see everything there is only one thing to do, come back and since our Antarctica trip was cancelled we'll have to do that. Anchors away, we left three hour late as again as the wind had us pinned against the pier.

Punta Arenas Argentina a day sail away we arrived kind of bummed as this would have been our Antarctica jumping off point. We now had thousands of extra dollars on our account to do something special so we chose to fly to Paine National Park for a day of high peaks mirror like lakes and 40 degrees to 90 degree inside of two hours. It's hard for Paine National Park to make up for Antarctica so to not sound like crybabies I'll stop here

After leaving Punta Arenas we had two days cruising the inside passage of Argentina and Chile we started to not even notice the scenery passing by our windows until we got too Amalia Glacier. Glowing in the fog and rain our first close encounter with a Glacier was made even better as Captain Rikard rotated Ocean Princess 360 degree so all balconies could have a Glacier view. A small launch was sent out to grab a few chunks of glacier ice for our drinks that night. After several hours we were again northbound for Chile and points north, our cruise half over we haven't drove anything in a month or taken a shower in a shower that was bigger than a phone booth. We have sang, danced ,drank ,eaten lobster, had pancake Tuesday, made new friends, told stories, laughed a lot, celebrated my 50th,stepped in Penguin poop, seen whales, played water balloon toss, competed in a hula hoop competition (I lost),kissed a fish, had a bowl of chocolate dumped on my head, pushed the Captain into the pool, walked better than ten miles on the track, watched movies, ate pizza, drank coffee, sat on buses, flew in a small plane, felt the fog of Cape Horn against our skin and the blowing sands of Volunteer Point.

Some ask how do you stand that many days on a cruise. It is what you make it! Sure Joy and I have been in close quarters and argued here and there, but we also smiled and danced. Ocean Princess is heading back to Miami for the last time so to become Serena I hope the best is yet to come! P.S. The ships internet is usless for uploading picture I get them post soon.