19 February 2010; Falklands, Weddings and Wind.

During the night I was called twice for standby on the bridge due to reduced visibility caused by some sort of drizzling rain clouds. That gave me a good feeling as it meant that the last of the weather front was passing over us. Also the Barometer was climbing and that indicated a turn for the good as well. The weather forecast that I pulled from the internet at 05.30 coincided with that of the agent and that meant that I could try to stop in the Falklands. Outside there was a wind force five to six blowing from the South West and that meant that inside the bay (called Port Williams) there would be only about a wind force four. That is about as good as it gets in the Falklands. So at 06.30 I dropped the anchor in the middle of the bay and by 8 am. our tender service was in full swing under cloudy skies but with the sun peaking through on occasion. After the Amsterdam and the Veendam having missed their last calls to the island I had a lot of apprehensive guests onboard who were keeping their fingers crossed that at least we would make it. Two people who were very anxious about today were a couple from Australia that had made arrangements to get married here onboard today. A bit of a gamble but we made it.

The marriage was officially to take place in the crows nest but I found that very impersonal so I offered them my cabin. It is big enough anyway. The magistrate duly arrived by tender and the hotel department reconfigured my cabin into a wedding chapel.

Where normally my dining table stands we now had a wedding chapel.

By 11 am I escorted the bride into the cabin and then they were duly wed. Getting married inside Falklands territory (if even if it is on a Dutch ship) will give them a British license and being in the commonwealth, it can be used by Australians as well. Basically this 70 day Grand South America Voyage is their honeymoon and they did their wedding along the way.

The Prinsendam Captains cabin is large enought to make a grand entree

The moment it was all about. The wedding vows duly exchanged and the groom is allowed to kiss the Bride.

The proof that it all really happened.

It of course helps to have a bar in the cabin and the bar staff were out in full force to make it an unforgettable moment. Service with a smile.

An hour later my presence was required on the bridge as the wind started to pick up. Not in the forecast of the morning and also not in the forecast of the moment. All ashore claimed innocence in regards to the change of weather. However the wind steadily picked up from wind force 4 to 7 in the bay. Luckily by that time most guests were on their way back and only two tenders had a real bumpy ride. While these tenders were being retrieved the wind increased to a wind force 9 in rain squalls and that made getting out of the bay a real challenge. It is not so easy to turn a cruise ship in a wind force nine and going backwards to sea was not an option as their were ships at the anchorage behind me and the distance out of the bay, was a bit too long as well.

The Prinsendam happily at anchor before the winds picked up.

Thus I decided to raise the anchor, keep the nose in the wind and wait for an opportune moment to get the ship swung around. Even in windy weather, very windy weather, the Prinsendam can do that, courtesy of that large funnel. When going astern the Prinsendam has the tendency to turn the stern into the wind and that characteristic helped us today. I stated the swing by falling off and as soon as the ship was turning, gave full astern to get that stern going. It worked as a dream. The ship shook a little bit as I used all the power of the four ships engines but she spun around as a dream, 20 minutes later we were safely back in open waters again.

From there we set a Northerly course, going straight up, to the sea buoy of the Rio de la Plata where we will arrive the day after tomorrow. That is at the entrance of the river. From there it will be a whole night sailing on the river to get to the port of Buenos Aires. First we will have two sea days to relax; to savor the memories of our grandiose Antarctic experience and to get the chill out of our bones. It will get warmer now very quickly.