From Drake Passage To Falkland Islands

Sailing the Drake Passage on our way to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, again we were very lucky. In fact, the swell was a bit less as compared to last time’s crossing down to Antarctica. In general, we had a fantastic sailing in the Drake Passage and the condition holds until we arrived at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

The Malvinas, the Falkland Islands – they’re the same place I’m referring to. The Malvinas are the islands that the British fought with Argentina back in 1982. The place is so serene and the scenery is beautiful.

We were the only ship in Port Stanley that day. The waters inside the harbor were shallow, so we had to drop anchor outside the harbor which is about 15 minutes trip with the tenders.

Though it was a bit windy all throughout the day, the ship’s anchor was holding well to the ground. The anchor may have dragged a bit later in the afternoon as the wind further increased but it didn’t really drag the ship out of the anchor watch zone in the ECDIS.

I wasn’t able to go ashore in Port Stanley. Well, I almost did if not for the gusting winds and to meet the safety manning which is at least two watchkeeping officers have stay onboard. All 3 other officers were already ashore, so I had to wait for at least 1 of them to return to the ship. But none of them came back to the ship a bit early – they got so magnetized with the penguins… LOL…

Anyway, I have been to Port Stanley before so it’s not a big deal for me not to be able to get off from ship that day. Our next port is Montevideo, Uruguay and I have marked that day a “day off”. Well, not precisely a total day off – let me call it a partial day off that involves escaping overtime. 🙂 🙂