Antarctica Voyage Day 1 – 19th December 2015 – Falkland Main Island
Port Stanley from the ship
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
After boarding our ship, The Vavilov, we met Simon Boyd our onboard bird guide. Simon immediately recognised me from the OBC Magazine article about Spoon-billed Sandpiper and my trip to Bangladesh. Our company was One Ocean and the staff seemed to love what they were doing. There were 78 passengers on board out of a maximum of just over 90 passengers.
We dumped our bags and after looking around the boat, we went straight to The Bridge to see what birds we could see as the boat pulled out of Port Stanley Harbour. The commonest birds were Black-browed Albatross.
Black-Browed Albatross
We had a lifeboat drill which was fun but serious, thinking of the boat that Bob Flood WA on that had a ship fire and had to be evacuated in the night. Mum said she would keep our SD cards with our photos in her pocket at night as apart from lives and health, photos were the only things not replaceable! Mum made some passing comment/joke to one of the other passengers about sinking ships, stressing the poor lady completely out, so mum had to keep reassuring her that she was sure our boat would be fine and even if we got evacuated in the night, she was sure there would be lots of other boats around to rescue us…making her feel worse.
Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig inside a covered lifeboat on Vavilov
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
It was amazing that we were finally on our way to Antarctica, my big dream for so long.
Falklands sunset from ship
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig
Overnight, our ship was steaming around the Falkland Islands, to be at Sealion Island in the morning.
Best birds from the ship:
Black-Browed Albatross
Southern Giant Petrel
Sooty Shearwater
Magellanic Cormorant
About The Author
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.