Our weather luck ran out
Today was a port everyone was eagerly anticipating — Stanley in the Falkland Islands. It’s a great place to see King penguins. And, of course, to get souvenirs to prove we’d visited there.
We’d been told there was a 50:50 chance the ship would allow passengers to go ashore. From where the ship anchors it is a 30 minute tender ride (basically a shuttle) to get into Stanley harbor. The harbor is too small for a large cruise ship to dock.
When I woke this morning, the sun was shining and the ship seemed stable. Oh good, I thought. Then I saw one of the tenders on the water, alarmingly bobbing up and down, side to side.
I checked the weather and saw warnings for high winds. When the captain came on the PA system at 7 am I knew none of us were going to like his message.
He essentially said that while we might be able to get into the harbor there was a good possibility we wouldn’t be able to return to the ship. So, regretfully there would be no time ashore.
This was disappointing, but understandable. So we are now headed back to Buenos Aires. From the time we left Ushuaia until we disembark in BA it will be seven days at sea without going ashore.
Given our amazing weather in Antarctica I cannot complain.