Quote:
Originally Posted by Nos4r2
I think he might be ignoring it because they aren't called islas malvinas.
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I think he might be right ^^^
as somebody who got arrested and kicked out of my own country in 1982 I don't recognise that name. I did read the post actually, but didn't have time to reply and then I never got around to going back.
Also check out
www.visitorfalklands.com that is the most up to date site.
If anybody from RIBnet is heading this way give me a shout. One of these days I might even be able to offer a trip in a boat
Where to start on "what's the place like". A lot of common info on climate, government, countryside, getting here etc can be found on the above websites so I won't repeat that lot, but any specific questions then fire away!
As far as ribbing goes it's good and bad I guess. No chance of RIB raid style meetings as there are probably only a dozen or so in the whole of the islands, I know of 4 others in town, one is a Humber 6m dive boat (thought it was a Destroyer but last time I looked at it I decided it was probably an Ocean Pro as the hull is different). This one is only used commercially so rarely see it out when I am out. No. 2 is a Destroyer same as mine except yellow, a few years older and also with major tube diseases (UV related I think), though it is still airtight, and no. 3 is as yet unidentified, only seen it once and not sure who owns it. No. 4 is an Avon something or other. There's a couple at the military base belonging to the MOD dive clubs, and a handful of them scattered around the Camp (what we call the countryside i.e. all the farms). Few of the ones in here see much use at all, never understood anybody who owns a boat and never uses it! There are a few yachts around though these also seem to spend most of their time tied to dry land, and a few small commercial vessels, Halmatic type launches about 12-15m size range, mostly used for inshore vessel agent work, customs etc.
The plus side is that there is a whole lot of sea out there, basically nothing apart from basic anti collision regulations, and as long as you are not behaving like a complete prick and do something dangerous in the vicinity of another vessel, basically you can get on and do whatever you want.
The minus side is that if you break down it's highly unlikely that somebody will be along any time soon, and the only search and rescue facility is a helicopter which is for life-threatening emergency only - and then only if you can raise the alarm, mobile phones work a little way out from Stanley but that only covers about 10 miles of coastline, which is why I was quite keen to get an aux engine
Another minus is that it is usually very windy and that limits the days that you can travel any distance without getting bloody cold and wet, 20-25 kt is not at all uncommon and it gets very wearing after a while if you are plugging into that. The wind can get up very quickly too, from 5kt to 25kt in quarter of an hour with little warning so it doesn't pay to get over confident in how far you go because the coastline is mostly filled with nothing so its not as if you can just pop into a harbour and tie up for shelter or leave the boat and come back another day, basically you need to get home again at the end of the day!
For those reasons I wouldn't consider any type of offshore voyage because there are some pretty big seas around and basically if you got into trouble, you'd be up a certain creek without a certain instrument. Cape Horn is probably about 500 miles from here I think so not within easy reach!
Best time to come is between November and Feb/March (our summer, obviously!) and Feb is generally reckoned to be the best month weather-wise.
Me, well I'm a fifth generation Genuine Benny, great great grandfather came here in the Royal Marines and liked the place so was demobbed here, and the family has been here since 1862/63. Grew up on the family farm, then 150,000 acres of moorland running about 27,000 sheep, now a bit smaller than that, around 97,000 acres. Good Land Rover country! which is what I do for a day job, that and working part time for one of the oil companies exploring offshore,
www.fogl.co.uk if you want to have a look at that.
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