MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Wind frustrates cruise visits in Punta Arenas

Strong winds blowing in Chile's southern region of Magallanes since last Saturday frustrated the visit of two important cruise vessels scheduled to call in Punta Arenas.

"Royal Princess" with 1,200 visitors and a crew of 500 had to turn back early dawn Sunday when side winds reached a hundred kilometres per hour and waves climbed to a meter high reports Punta Arenas press.

A couple of hours later "Le Diamant" with 230 passengers was also unable to dock since the port of Punta Arenas remained closed for almost another twelve hours.

"Royal Princess" and "Le Diamant" headed for neighbouring Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego.

All other coastal and maritime traffic was also cancelled for the rest of Sunday.

Punta Arenas airport was also exposed to the wind storm with gusts averaging 64 kilometres per hour with peaks of over 100 kilometres early dawn and a record 114 kilometres at midday.

Some flights were cancelled but Lan Chile's Airbus 319 did land close to 13:00 hours. However the intense winds impeded the hydraulic opening of the hold which forced the aircraft to return with cargo and passengers luggage to Puerto Montt, from where they were transhipped to flights 295 and 297, finally arriving in Punta Arenas after 23:00 hours Sunday.

The situation impeded Punta Arenas from having access to Santiago's Sunday newspapers editions.

The wind storm which turned milder this Monday caused partial blackouts in certain areas of Punta Arenas plus several hours' interruption of the cable television system because of damage to lines and lampposts.