Storms at Sea

We left Montevideo port on Saturday night and started our journey towards the Falklands. We were told the water would be choppy but we were not quite prepared for what happened. At about 10am we met for some breakfast and already we could feel a lot of movement in the boat. Me, Em and Chalkie each made a hot drink and the minute we sat down we hit a big wave and the drinks and plates went sliding off the table. Luckily nobody was hurt.

After breakfast, the boys being boys wanted to get out onto the deck to get a closer look at what was going on. It was really windy and we were told there would be high seas due to a storm, then they started to close all the decks. We went up to mine and Paul’s room to have a look out and to get some sea sickness tablets as it was getting worse, me and Em had to lie down, soon followed by the boys. We hit what we later found out was a 10m high wave and the whole boat shuddered and roared, the Captain assured us that this was common in these seas but still it’s scary when you haven’t experienced it before. The Bay of Biscay was a mill pond compared to this.

Due to the amount of movement we stayed on the bed most of the day as the sickness seemed to be a lot better when lying down. Em and Chalkie went back to their room and ordered about 6 rounds of room service and DVD’s! We met briefly for dinner then went back up to bed, I don’t know how the waiters can work in these conditions.

As it got later the waves got worse :(, at one point we were in 12m high waves and the boat was all over the place. I can’t describe the feeling of being in that storm, I was very scared and I know Em was too. Earlier in the week a waiter told us stories of the Veendam in 10m high waves, now I imagine they will be talking about last nights storm in 12m high ones. Paul slept peacefully through but I was awake for the whole night until I saw daylight peeking through the curtains and finally I got a few hours sleep.

The conditions have been much better today and we have just been for dinner at the Pinnacle Grill where we ate 18oz steaks! Obviously we didn’t eat all of them but we had a good go 🙂