Preparations behind the scenes for the new journey
Europa has been lying alongside Ushuaia’s port for the last couple of days. She just came back here after her first Antarctic voyage of the season.
Before everything is ready and she is up for another adventure to the southern seas and lands, these days are needed to make preparations, check and straighten her up, both below and above decks and up her rig.
A time during which the crew spreads all over the ship cleaning her public spaces and the cabins, giving the decks a good scrub, doing maintenance (always ongoing projects in a ship like the Europa), loading stores, water and fuel bunkers.
Days also for a few changes on some of the Permanent crew, and now a warm welcome to the new group of Antarctic travellers.
Located at the beginning of the long harbour, the ship stands out as beautiful as she is, as an old timer as she can be, amongst several of the larger motorvessels that crowd the pier. All of us plan a visit to Antarctica, and we all sail and work for it in different ways. But just a look at her can give anyone a glimpse of how much of a different experience it could be sailing her across the Drake Passage and visiting the Western Antarctic Peninsula coast.
What’s first to come is the typical chargeable weather and seas that make the Drake one of the world’s most famed oceanic passages, to then reach the remote and icy Antarctic areas we plan to visit. A part of the world, loaded with epic and interesting historical episodes. Lands long sought for, but only found in the first half of the 19th Century. The Europa knows these same coasts well, but she still had to wait about 90 years to be built and launched. First guiding the ships that sailed along the Elbe River serving as a lighthouse, and then restored in the 90’s to the Ocean Wanderer Bark she is nowadays.
Once we all managed to board the ship, it is time for starting knowing each other, get acquainted with our bunks and cabin mates and start getting familiarised with the ship and procedures aboard. The actual departure is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Then, during the day, the Europa will make her way along the confined waters of the Beagle Channel, before entering the open seas of the Drake.
