Deanos' Pub, Stanley, Falklands

So we made it to Port Stanley for the evening and found a nice warm place to stay. Deano's Bar is a nice little pub on Johns Street in Stanley. It just so happens that it is the very same bar where the Asima crew got in the legendary fight.

We on the Nadia, have never had any trouble in there. The only thing the place is missing that all the other pubs in Stanley seem to have is a fireplace.

Here we are (Thanks for the picture Stef) in Deano's having a good time being off the ship. It was the first time we made it off the boat in 5 weeks so you can imagine it was well celebrated. From here we went to the Brasserie and ate an awesome meal.

Here we are in Deanos' again this time we got Nigel and Stef in the picture. Stef is our new Third Officer, and Nigel is our Captain.

Winter time in Stanley is a very quiet time. Many people tend to leave the island before it gets too terribly cold, but still there is plenty of fun to be had. You can go to church, the grocery store, the post-office, the seaman's' mission or the bar... and let me tell you the post-office... man that is lots of fun!

;-)

Relly Was especially happy to be off the boat!

A night off the boat...

Sometimes we forget we are Sailors

 We have been on the water now for 5 weeks... Thanks to the foul weather around Cape Horn, we got a rare day in the harbor along side Port Stanly.  Its hard to think about what we do and maintain much in the way of sanity. Our families are saints for dealing with our long absences as they do.  Looking into the future here is like looking off the bow into the fog, we don't see much past where we are now. One thing we did was to stop into the International Seaman's Mission center at the head of the port. I'll post some more on this neat little place in a bit. But here are some of the guys as we just walked off the dock into a cold misty morning. Left to Right: Julien, Ian, Hilmar, Kevin, Relly and Owen. It was the first time we'd been "on the hard" for over a month.

In the distance the snow was falling as we entered the harbor. It is amazing how comforting it is to be this close to land again.

Looking out the port bridge wing over our communications array

A rare look at all the ships officers on the bridge at one time.

Left to Right: Haans, John, Thomas and Stef all staring at the thruster controls for the ship as we pull into the harbor and position ourselves for docking.

The vessel technology has progressed SO FAR from when I started on boats. There is no wheel, or rudder, it is all directional thruster and satellite guidance and is more like a flight simulator than driving a boat.

Here is the main steering and control center for the ship. See no wheel, its all joysticks and trackballs.

 

http://www.missiontoseafarers.org/about-us

This is the Seaman's Center/Mission. If you didn't have a charity in mind for this year try this one. Its awesome. I'm going to post some of there info from their website below but I strongly suggest you go to their site which I have linked to, and see some of the work they do to make our lives better. Thanks guys..!

Excerpt:

Loneliness, danger and separation from loved ones are just some of the problems seafarers face. Around the world, night and day, The Mission to Seafarers provides help and support to those in need. As a Christian agency, we work in more than 230 ports caring for the practical and spiritual welfare of seafarers of all nationalities and faiths.

Through our global network of chaplains, staff and volunteers we reach out to seafarers by visiting them on their ships, offering them the hand of welcome and friendship, and caring for them in their hour of need.
In over 100 ports we also run centres which provide ‘a home away from home’. These are places where seafarers can contact their loved ones from whom they are separated for months on end, receive assistance with any problems they may be facing and get a break from their demanding way of life onboard ship.
To find out more about what we do and how you may be able to help, please contact pr@missiontoseafarers.org

Converse All-Stars on the Sea

Here are my hard working Converse All-Stars

Fun in the Falklands

 So here we are... running from the weather again... The forecast is 17meter seas and 70+ knot winds so it's a hurricane without the WARM... I'm calling it a snowicane or iceageddon... I'm not sure which but we just finished pulling in the gear to run to harbor.  As I sit typing Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" is playing in the background... A giant leap forward in the music of choice for this boat... it is usually bad elevator lounge tunes.  I swear "Girl from Impanema" played earlier.

Above was a neat shot looking into the foggy, cold morning. As we continued the recovery we found huge amounts of kelp stuck in various places on the equipment. Its amazing the tenacity of this stuff. Its tensile strength is massive here to the left it has two lead-ins stuck together just off the deck.  Those two cables should be 30 feet apart but are "tied" by a plant.

 Here are Julien and Ian having to cut off the kelp monster from the lead-in

 Here is what we deal with on a daily basis.  The weather here is "interesting"  Like the storms on Jupiter and Saturn, because of the lack of landmass south of Cape Horn, there is nothing to slow the winds or storms. In the winter, wind speeds can reach 200mph and there is a continuous cycle of storms (the same storms) on a approximate three day cycle.

 Recently the three day storms have changed from a terrible cold rain to a cycle of horizontal sleet and snow. If you can imagine, its interesting to see this, but really not pleasant at all to be out in.



Due to the amount of kelp we are dealing with and the occasional problem with the equipment in the water we have to go out in the work-boat, and although it doesnt happen often, because the seas are too rough, it does happen sometimes.

Because of the extremely cold temperatures we have to wear immersion suits (basically a diving dry suit) and its rather restrictive but fairly warm.

 Here is the ASIMA. During the next to last big storm we were in harbor along side the ASIMA so we got the rare photo of our friends... and in the background Bravo and the HMS York, (See Below) our new Falkland Protectorate ship. Shes a destroyer/sub hunter that got sent down after we reported a high frequency sonar signal in the water... Apparently according to MOD the Argentinians learned enough from the first conflict to go out and buy some submarines of their own.

Above is the HMS York, our new protectorate ship.

(Thanks to Penguin News, Stanley, Falklands for photo).

were pretty sure she could shoot down the whole Argentine Airforce and sink their subs without any help.

She is a little more intimidating than the HMS Clyde with the autoloading Seadart missile system and Phalanx Gun Platform.

a few random photos from the Falklands

 So here are some pictures I found in Eric Maspers Collection... Here we are in the Victory Pub in Stanley just before Christmas 2010... It proves we don't always work... infact who am I kidding we really don't work at all...

 Me and Simon on deck between Snow Storms in December to help replace the broken Lead-in Cables.

 A bunch of us getting ready to load out the ships provisions because the small crane had broken...

Here is how we dress when we have to do small boat transfers in cold weather... Cold or not your sweating pretty hard once you get all this on.

Just like the olden-days we still walk up the gangway to get on the boat...

 Here is Kevin and Ian at the Chilean Brasserie...

 and Kevin and Ian exercising the Brasserie calories off...

 Jake walking up the gangway after a long cold night in Stanley.

 Here we are at the Brasserie.... It seems we go there alot... it is the only "nice" place for dinner on the island with the exception of the hotel.

 Dorian after a 6 week trip... was glad to be back here... Dorian served here in Stanley during the offensive...

 Here's a bunch of trouble at the Brasserie... god is my hair really that gray..?

 The crew dinner in the Chilean joint... Excellent food all around... and so much Chilean wine.

 Kevin and Ian with the manager of the Brasserie.... I'm fairly certain we spent more in there than she would have made in a month.

Here is the sleet and ice accumulation on the bridge window yesterday morning... Now...

Hows that for a random assortment...

I tried to include some pictures of fun we had... to show its not all boring depressing cold bleak awful disgusting and miserable... hahaha its really not all that bad.  Definitely the top of my location options during the coming zombie apocalypse.

Again thanks for the pictures Eric..!

Y'allhavagud'un!

...and were down for weather!

Good old NOGAPs has what we're in at present, turning into this... Our boat is under the dark red blob in the middle of the bullseye... Weather is gone now... Current Forcast of +70knot winds and 15 meter seas... woohoo... I think we can safely say the winter weather pattern is upon us and what was 3-5 day periods between subsequent storms is now 1-2 days. In fact according to the current forcast we have approximately 10 hours under 5 meter seas.

Thanks to the weather, I did have plenty of time to talk to Melanie today about the intricacies of cicada molting in Starkville.  Apparently it takes roughly 30 minutes from the time the bug glues its shell to the wall until it pops out, and then an additional 30 minutes for it to dry out enough to fly away.  If you can imagine Walker had to stay and watch the whole process because as we say... "science... its what he does".  Glad Walker got to see them come out though... its something neat to see.