San Carlos

15 January 2024

Port San Carlos

Over the past few days, we made a short trip around the islands. After a nice first day of sailing, we arrived in the Falkland Sound. This is the stretch of water between East Falkland and West Falkland (the two largest islands here). After only a few miles, we turned into the even narrower stretch of water called San Carlos Waters. During the Falklands War, some of the heaviest fighting took place in this area. Today it looks much like the rest of the Falklands: lots of untouched nature and, at first glance, no signs of human presence. Only the sea charts show quite a few wrecks in the area.

Just before dinner, we reached our destination Port San Carlos and, after a night’s rest, made an excursion ashore in the wake of the events during the war. The wind blew hard with many short showers of rain and hail in the strong gusts. All walkers returned with ice-cold fingers and toes and were happy to enjoy hot tea and biscuits on board. In the evening, most had warmed up enough to dare to go swimming… that must have been really cold!

Early the next morning, we hoisted the sails for the trip back to Stanley. At first light, we lifted anchor and once we had left the Falkland Sound, we enjoyed a few hours of fast sailing with a south-westerly wind that increased to 35 knots! In Stanley Harbour, another big surprise awaited us as we moored next to the Tecla. How special to meet another Dutch sailing ship on the other half of the globe!