We steamed all night to get to Punta Arenas this morning, arriving just
as the sun was starting to light up the city. This was our first real
experience of working on watches through the night and it was, well,
exhausting, but also exhilarating to see the secret world of the water at
night.
We were on short, two hour, two person watches, and thankfully
were met with fairly calm waters and little sea traffic the whole night. It
would have been a much more stressful story if we’d been sailing through a
maze of container ships all evening! For many of the crew it was their first
night sailing, learning to trust (or not trust) radar, GPS, the second GPS,
the depth sounder and the ship identification system, which is a steep
learning curve. For me the scariest thing is little wooden fishing boats,
who don’t have a full set of lights (often just one guy with a torch) and
who don’t turn up on the radar because they’re too small. But luckily we
didn’t come across so many of these until the dawn fishing run, so it was
very smooth sailing all around.
The crew was pretty thrilled to wake up in town and it didn’t take long
before we were jumping off to see what there is to see in Punta Arenas. For
many of us it was a battle between WiFi and tax free shopping, right up
until lunch time, where the prospect of a menu and someone else doing the
dishes was by far the most exciting thing since sliced bread!
We gained a new crew member today as well, a French fellow who will be
joining us until Malvinas. It wasn’t until we had a new person with us that
many of us realised the level of the camaraderie that has developed amongst
the crew, the comfort and good sense of humour! No doubt he’ll fit right in
shortly!
And now we’re readying ourselves for some wild days at sea, our excitement
for the wilderness is growing!
as the sun was starting to light up the city. This was our first real
experience of working on watches through the night and it was, well,
exhausting, but also exhilarating to see the secret world of the water at
night.
We were on short, two hour, two person watches, and thankfully
were met with fairly calm waters and little sea traffic the whole night. It
would have been a much more stressful story if we’d been sailing through a
maze of container ships all evening! For many of the crew it was their first
night sailing, learning to trust (or not trust) radar, GPS, the second GPS,
the depth sounder and the ship identification system, which is a steep
learning curve. For me the scariest thing is little wooden fishing boats,
who don’t have a full set of lights (often just one guy with a torch) and
who don’t turn up on the radar because they’re too small. But luckily we
didn’t come across so many of these until the dawn fishing run, so it was
very smooth sailing all around.
The crew was pretty thrilled to wake up in town and it didn’t take long
before we were jumping off to see what there is to see in Punta Arenas. For
many of us it was a battle between WiFi and tax free shopping, right up
until lunch time, where the prospect of a menu and someone else doing the
dishes was by far the most exciting thing since sliced bread!
We gained a new crew member today as well, a French fellow who will be
joining us until Malvinas. It wasn’t until we had a new person with us that
many of us realised the level of the camaraderie that has developed amongst
the crew, the comfort and good sense of humour! No doubt he’ll fit right in
shortly!
And now we’re readying ourselves for some wild days at sea, our excitement
for the wilderness is growing!
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