Jan. 22 & 23 At Sea and Puerto Madryn

 Sunrise 6:11 am Jan. 23


Wednesday was spent at sea, travelling from the Falklands to Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The highlights were a pedicure in the spa and a talk from the captain. He had a slide presentation with photos of the bridge and engine rooms. He also explained his background and a bit about his personal life. His mother celebrated her 80th birthday onboard with him. As usual, his presentation was full of humour.

Our docking in Puerto Madryn was delayed Thursday morning by half an hour as the winds were strong and it took longer to safely arrive at the pier. Puerto Madryn was founded in 1865 by Welsh settlers. There are a few monuments to those settlers along the malecon. The official city flag has the blue and white stripes of the Argentinian flag with the Welsh dragon instead of the Argentinian golden sun.


Our excursion was a trip on a RIB, a rigid inflatable boat into the Golfo Nuevo in search of dolphins and sea lions. Puerto Madryn has tide fluctuations of 4 metres, so the pier is very long, slightly over half a mile. The tide was out so once we had boarded the 52 passenger RIB that was still on the boat trailer, an old articulated four wheel drive tractor pushed us out into the water.

We went about 5 miles out into the Golfo Nuevo in search of dolphins. The seabirds swarming an area was an indication that dolphins were around stirring up the fish  we saw several pods of Fitzroy dolphins, also called dusky dolphins. They are very curious and came right up to the RIB. However, they were also very fast so we got a lot of photos of waves and water!

After following the dolphins for an hour we headed back towards land. There is a sea lion colony at Punta Loma. The dominant male is the beach master and has a harem of 15 to 20 females. They breed year round and the females can become pregnant again within 10 days of giving birth. There were week old pups on the beach. 

There were also 2 types of cormorants in the reserve at Punta Loma, the Imperial that look like penguins and the Rock Cormorant. The Rock Cormorant colony here is the largest of its kind.

When we returned to land, we walked along the malecon. The sun was high in the sky, it was hot and it was noon. We found a restaurant with a covered outside patio where we enjoyed a big bottle of beer (1litre) and some battered calamari. 


Back on the ship, it was ideal weather to sit on our balcony and read or watch the activity on the pier and in the water. There were some huge jellyfish pulsing in the water below our cabin.


The captain’s update at 5:00 pm as we were about to depart from Puerto Madryn was hilarious. He gave the usual information about the route and weather. He then stated that he was doing some training. The First Officer had brought the ship into port and the Safety Officer would be taking her out. But he said not to worry as he had put a sign on the stern stating “Student Driver” to warn the other ships in the area. 

Sunset 8:45 pm



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