Promises Kept

Elias and Leiv Poncet

We met Leiv Poncet, who is from the Falklands, during our last winter in Tasmania.  When the winter ended, we sailed off to New Zealand, and Leiv set off back home for the Falklands on board his boat, Peregrine.

-Come out to the Falklands, he told us before he left.  -All the reindeer and mutton you can eat, I have an old Perkins you can strip for parts, and you can dry out on our jetty and do some work on your boat.

Well, two and a half years later, I can tell you that Leiv is a man of his word.

Beaver Island.  Imagine if this island was your home...

We visited Leiv on Beaver, and, as you might have seen in an earlier post, he kept us well fed with reindeer and mutton.  He pulled the dead Perkins out from its grave and let me strip off various useful bits.  And Galactic duly went dry at the jetty to deal with some maintenance.  Sure beats going to the boat yard.

Eric at a probable sealers' fish trap

More importantly, Leiv also shared his home with us - Beaver Island.  The Poncets own the lot of it, and it is a very remarkable place indeed.  Leiv took the time to show us some of the corners and nooks that make it so remarkable - some of the places that you would know if you grew up there.  Spending that time on Beaver with Leiv gave us an experience of the Falklands that was much richer than anything else that we've had.

Reindeer on Beaver Island.

Beaver Island Settlement

Damien II, Peregrine, and Galactic ready to go dry on the tide.

Elias watching fur seals

Larrikin

Santa gave Elias a harness and climbing rope - Beaver Island supplied the cliffs

Just now I haven't the time to do the place and our experience there justice with proper writing.  The heat and fury of the summer season are on us.  We're hammer and tongs after getting the boat ready for our next passages, and I'm also hammer and tongs at the science, taking care of the demands of what turn out to be my peak work season.  So this brief description will have to do.

I'll finish with this shot of Alisa sailing away from Beaver.  We've left a lot of islands with bananas hanging in the stern arch.  Beaver is the first place we've left with hanging mutton.

Tomorrow (with luck!): some of the remarkable wildlife of the Falklands...