A perceptive friend said recently “I suppose the thing about Wind is, you can’t see it in photographs” and she’s right, it’s hard to see in photographs.

This is a shame, as it’s true that a defining feature of the Falklands is wind. I’m learning that a calm day is a treat to be enjoyed, and that a calm, sunny evening should be taken advantage of at once. Going to see the penguins at Yorke Bay on their sandy beach on a windy day is an exfoliating experience and you end up chewing sand for some hours later.

Wind has to be taken account of in all sorts of everyday living – I first thought about this while hanging up a duvet cover on the washing line to dry. My rookie mistake (and an embarassing one as a sailor, who should know better) is that you absolutely need to be upwind of what you’re trying to hang up. You need ultra grippy clothes pegs and lots of them.

You also need to open car doors very carefully, holding on to them and if possible park into the wind, so your doors aren’t wrenched off their hinges or banging into other cars.

So to give you a feel for Falklands wind, here is a screenshot from the Windy app recently (speeds are in knots – 32 is a gale).

Looking at Windy now the next few days looking forward are quite good, with quite a few bits of blue (calm) and green (pleasant breeze) and no red until next Friday night. Although everything can change quite quickly.

The moral of all this, is that the Falklands is not somewhere to live if you care about your hairstyle and any hats need to be very firmly on your head, which might explain the general preference for beanies and bobble hats!