We had smooth sailing all the way up from Elephant Island to Stanley, where the weather abruptly turned overcast, cold and windy. If it had been like that on our crossing, I think we would’ve had a pretty nasty ride. Almost 1,100 miles of heavy weather might not have been too much fun. 😉

We took on a pilot on arrival. I was out watching, it looked like we drug up quite a bit of mud coming in. Of course I wasn’t really paying attention to any charts or navigation since I was on vacation, but I still take an interest in that sort of thing.

It was windy as hell. Probably blowing about 35 kts. The pilot boat did a great job coming alongside to give us the pilot. It looked like a straight shot to the dock, but like I said I wasn’t paying any attention to charts, tides, rocks, bottom conditions, etc. That’s what pilots get the big bucks for. They know all the details for their port by heart.

Personally, I never really wanted to be a pilot, tho so many captains do. It’s the top job for a ships master. I just figure I would be bored to death. Just in and out the same port every day. Like a bus driver, just with a different bus to drive every time. I guess if I was going to be a pilot, Stanley looks like a good place to be one (so does Freeport, where I live- easy).

It took a couple of hours to get alongside the dock, once we we were all fast we were free to go. It was nice to be able to walk off the ship for a change.

There was a nice little seamans center right at the end of the dock. I stopped in to say hello. I always appreciate the people who do so much to help the worlds seafarers fell welcome in their ports. It’s not very often we can get ashore any more, and very hard to get out of the port area, so I really do like to see places like this.