MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News update

Headlines:Endurance under tow to Punta Arenas; 'Satisfactory' progress report for FICS; From messboy to master; This week's cruise ships.

Endurance under tow to Punta ArenasHMS Endurance is currently being towed by a Chilean tug and is expected to arrive in Punta Arenas today, according to Mercopress, quoting the latest reports from the Chilean Navy. On Tuesday the Royal Naval ice patrol vessel was some 330 kilometres west of Punta Arenas, in the western access to the Straits of Magellan and heading for Valparaiso, when she suffered flooding of the engine room and subsequent main power failure. The cruise liner, Norwegian Sun, which has already made two visits to Stanley this season, was reported as standing by to evacuate the one hundred or so people on board Endurance, should it have been necessary. Another small vessel, Pudú was also on hand in the area. Several civilian passengers, including a film crew and a group of students, were evacuated as a precaution, some by Puma helicopter and others on the Chilean Navy's fast missile boat Casma.In spite of running out of main power, Endurance was able to anchor safely at the western access of the Magellan Strait, to wait for the arrival of the tug, Beagleto begin towing her. Chilean authorities also had a naval aircraft patrol in the area and a helicopter was on stand by for any emergencies. In Punta Arenas it is expected that HMS Endurance will be joining the Panama flagged cruise vessel Ushuaia, which ran aground in Antarctica almost two weeks ago and is expected to be dry docked in the Asmar naval works sometime next week. 'Satisfactory' progress report for FICSIN its assessments of the various elements of a school's performance, Ofsted the UK Government's Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, awards four grades: outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate. When the Falkland Islands Community School was inspected in October 2007, its performance in some key respects was found to be inadequate. A two day inspection of the school, described as an 'interim review' and using the Ofsted criteria was carried out this November by Mike Chislett, an inspector/adviser of the Service Children's Education Service and brings some good news. Director of Education, Barbara Booth, said the progress review of the Falkland Islands Community School has concluded that overall the school has made "satisfactory progress and that their capacity to improve further is judged as good." Considering the progress the school had made against specific recommendations made in the2007 report, successful progress was noted in the areas of safeguarding pupils, teaching and learning and leadership and management. Good progress with considerable improvement was also noted in the behaviour of students, with incidences of bullying much reduced and no longer raised as an issue by students. The report however, describes the area of academic achievement as one of unsatisfactory progress, which it hopes will improve. From messboy to masterPROUD grandmother Joyce Allan, received news this week of the success of Islands-born Paul Clarke, who has just received his Master's Certificate. Paul had his first sea faring experience in 1991, when he was 16 and joined the Throskas messboy on a voyage from the Falklands to the UK. Four years later, while working in the Public Works Department's design office, Paul applied to join the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a deck boy on the RRS Bransfield. He never looked back and worked on all the BAS ships over the next 11 years. In 2000 Paul went to Warsash Nautical College in Southampton to do his Deck Officers watch keeper's ticket and then in 2004 /5 did his Chief Mate's certificate at South Tyneside College. After attaining these qualifications, he went back to sea with BAS, joining the Ernest Shackleton before a final trip on the James Clark Ross, which ended in May 2006. Looking for a change of scenery, Paul has worked since then as Chief Officer for various companies, on oil rig support ships, mostly around South East Asia. In November this year Paul returned to South Tyneside Nautical College to take his Master's oral exam, where he achieved his ambition and earned his Masters Foreign-Going certificate! Paul and his wife, Dr Christy Williams, live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where Christy works as a Clinical Psychologist. Falklands own sniffer dogTHE Falklands could soon have its own drugs detection dog if a paper to go before Executive Council is approved. The recent drugs find has highlighted the fact that the Falkland Islands and its waters are being used as a shipping route to import drugs from South America into Europe, Chief Police Officer Paul Elliott told the Police Committee on Friday. The incident reignites the issue of whether or not the Falklands should have its own drugs dog, said Superintendent Elliott, adding that there is little doubt that a full time drug detection dog would be a valuable asset to both the Police and HM Customs and Excise. In the past, one of the barriers to there being a full time dog handler in the Falklands was the training costs. However the Falklands police now has an officer with considerable experience of handling police dogs. PC Paul McDade has undergone training while he was an RAF Police Officer and has served more than 11 years on dog handling duties. Superintendent Elliott said that he had sourced a 40 day course in Kent, in the UK for £5,400 that included the purchase of a dog. Flights were not included in the cost, he added. While the funding was not available from this years training budget, Mr Elliott said that there was the possibility that the cost could be split with the Customs department. The Police Committee agreed that the proposal would be helpful in the fight against drugs and the Chief Police Officer, working with Customs, is to prepare a paper for Executive Council requesting the funding be included in next year's budget process. This week's cruise shipsFriday: Corinthian II (76) to Saunders and West Point Island, Prof.Multanovskiy (49) to West Point and Carcass, Akademik Ioffe (117), Marco Polo (417) and Hanse Explorer(12) to Stanley. Saturday: Prof.Multanovskiy to Stanley, Marco Poloto West Point and New Island. Sunday: Minerva (300) to Grave Cove and New Island. Monday: Minervato Stanley