17.11.2015: Punta del Este

Punta del Este

The "Dagmar Aaen" has left the Sugat Loaf and Rio de Janeiro behind. Fabian, Lara and Volker, the new crew members, arrived in the Brazilian metropolis and with the rest of the crew experienced, in the following days, the forerunners of the storms around Cape Horn.

The winds became stronger shortly before the weekend; they came initially with a force of 8 Beaufort from eastern. This is the reason for Volker's attempt to motor the vessel closer to the coast in order to evade the southerly winds under land. The ship still managed to reach a speed of 8 knots.

But conditions worsened steadily. On Saturday nothing at all worked - winds at force 9 head on, the "Dagmar Aaen" drifted slightly eastwards and Volker decided to heave to. Later in the day, winds blew with a force of up to 40 knots. Both the crew and the ship were under a great strain.

The winds gradually decreased to 20 knots, the ship drifted partly at 5 knots therefore the drift speed was 2,2 knots. Despite these adverse conditions, the "Dagmar Aaen" reached the harbor of Punta del Este in Uruguay on time. John, a longtime crew member came on board there.

The ship is planned to arrive in Ushuaia in the first week of December at the latest. Here Arved Fuchs will come on board to tackle the upcoming projects around Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula.