PARADISIACAL DEFEAT TO ANTARCTIC PARADISE
I thought of several alternatives to name this chronicle, “The Antarctic Paradise”, “The White Continent”, “Everyone's Antarctica”, but none of them conveyed the message I wish to share with you through this writing.
When I had the opportunity to sail to the White Continent, I knew it was going to be a special mission, but I never imagined that the defeat to the Artigas Antarctic Base would be one of the most extraordinary experiences of my career. As an officer of the Prefectura Nacional Naval de la Armada Uruguaya, I had the opportunity to sail and appreciate the beauties and grandeur of the North Atlantic and several of the seas of the European Continent, but I was never so dazzled by a scenario as when I found myself sailing in the Fuegian Region in my beloved South America; as the author of this chronicle I thought it important to highlight and give a brief space in this text to explain the meaning of the expressions that title it.
The National Navy of Uruguay sails every year 5391 nautical miles in order to deliver supplies to those Uruguayan men and women, military, scientists, medical personnel, etc. who are stationed at the Artigas Antarctic Scientific Base, fulfilling relevant roles for the country in terms of environmental monitoring, geoscience, life sciences, and others. As many of you readers will know, the Antarctic climate is far from the conditions in which we work daily in Uruguay, unlike other countries in the region, Uruguay, due to its small territorial extension, has a mostly constant climate typical of a southern subtropical zone, in spite of this, Despite this, the National Navy has been able to satisfactorily fulfill each mission to the White Continent, always looking after the safety of its crew and that of the ships that are sailing on the same route, as well as the prevention and protection of the marine environment both in its role as a Member State of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and as a Naval Force and defender of the strategic resources of the oceanic environment.
As a delegate of the Maritime Authority, within the National Navy, my role in the mission was the transshipment of fuel to the base; a task that I obviously did not perform alone, but like the entire mission, it was a team effort, divers, officers, junior personnel, scientists, etc. We all worked hard with the aim of carrying out the mission and successfully complete it so that we could return home with the satisfaction of having fulfilled our duty.
The Antarctic Region is everyone's task: Our Oceans, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity!
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