News from Ushuaia

[Tia Serena]

2007 has been a very unlucky year in Antarctica, if you believe such things.

 

The Explorer sank in November.

 

Early December the crank shaft of the Clipper Adventurer broke, apparently taking a piece of the engine with it, but the owners wanted it to sail to Antarctica that way! The Argentinian Coast Guard intervened and forbade the ship to sail until repairs have been made. She sailed today to Stanley, after a repair job that bypassed the crank shaft (don't ask me for details, I am no engineer, just repeating what the engineer said...). The broken engine will not have full power, just about 60%.:confused:

 

The Antarctic Dream was trapped inside Deception Island for more than 10 hours, when floating ice closed Neptunes Bellows, the entrance to Port Foster inside the caldera.:(

 

Le Diamant encountered a heavy gale in South Georgia and their landing platform fell in the water, dragging the bosun and one seaman with it. As they were wearing their lifevests they eventually floated to surface and were recovered by the Zodiacs that were on standby to drive passengers.

However, staff on board report that their Zodiac operation is not very safe, and that they don't follow established safety procedures, like navigating with the water tight doors closed:eek:.

 

The Fram lost power, and drifted on to a glacier or iceberg. No major damage. One of the main generators failed, and the second generator was supposed to engage imediately didn't, nor did the back up system. No explanation has been offered for this failure to the port authorities. The ship is in Ushuaia and next cruise has been canceled. However the Argentinian authorities say they will not give her permission to sail until the damaged lifeboat has been repaired or replaced.:confused:

 

The Argentinians have been very strict this year, following the Explorer sinking. They are getting hell from Chile: most ships depart from Argentina, but it's Chile who is equiped to do rescue operations in Antarctica.

 

Well, for the first time in 15 years of sailing, I am getting really worried.:(

[roberts2005]

Correct me if I am wrong. I was on the ocean Nova in November and was told that the Orlova missed it's first cruise. While traveling down the Chilian fiords, the Chilian Government made it put into report for certain repairs..

[Jade13]

2007 has been a very unlucky year in Antarctica, if you believe such things.

 

The Explorer sank in November.

 

Early December the crank shaft of the Clipper Adventurer broke, apparently taking a piece of the engine with it, but the owners wanted it to sail to Antarctica that way! The Argentinian Coast Guard intervened and forbade the ship to sail until repairs have been made. She sailed today to Stanley, after a repair job that bypassed the crank shaft (don't ask me for details, I am no engineer, just repeating what the engineer said...). The broken engine will not have full power, just about 60%.:confused:

 

The Antarctic Dream was trapped inside Deception Island for more than 10 hours, when floating ice closed Neptunes Bellows, the entrance to Port Foster inside the caldera.:(

 

Le Diamant encountered a heavy gale in South Georgia and their landing platform fell in the water, dragging the bosun and one seaman with it. As they were wearing their lifevests they eventually floated to surface and were recovered by the Zodiacs that were on standby to drive passengers.

However, staff on board report that their Zodiac operation is not very safe, and that they don't follow established safety procedures, like navigating with the water tight doors closed:eek:.

 

The Fram lost power, and drifted on to a glacier or iceberg. No major damage. One of the main generators failed, and the second generator was supposed to engage imediately didn't, nor did the back up system. No explanation has been offered for this failure to the port authorities. The ship is in Ushuaia and next cruise has been canceled. However the Argentinian authorities say they will not give her permission to sail until the damaged lifeboat has been repaired or replaced.:confused:

 

The Argentinians have been very strict this year, following the Explorer sinking. They are getting hell from Chile: most ships depart from Argentina, but it's Chile who is equiped to do rescue operations in Antarctica.

 

Well, for the first time in 15 years of sailing, I am getting really worried.:(

 

Tia, can you say which ship you are on?

[jobob]

Tia....I have a friend that is currently on the Antarctic Dream sailing that started right after Christmas. Is this incident current or earlier in the season?

I can't wait to see the pics and hear about her wonderful adventure. Twelve years ago, she circumnavigated in her sailboat, but always wanted to visit antarctica.

[Tia Serena]

Tia....I have a friend that is currently on the Antarctic Dream sailing that started right after Christmas. Is this incident current or earlier in the season?

I can't wait to see the pics and hear about her wonderful adventure. Twelve years ago, she circumnavigated in her sailboat, but always wanted to visit antarctica.

 

Yes, the incident with the Antarctic Dream happened earlier this year, during the cruise that ended Dec 17th.

 

Let me just add that the Antarctic Dream is one of the reinforced ships, almost an ice breaker, and their expedition leader, Julio Preller has at least 40 years experience in Antarctica. He was a Zodiac Driver on the original Explorer under Lindblad!

[Tia Serena]

Tia, can you say which ship you are on?

No, not right now...

[Louise22]

Tia - what a negative person you are. Anyone interested might go to the "Clipper Cruise" forum and that might be an insight into what ship this person is on now. As she never answered my post there questioning her statements I would not trust her opinions.

[Tia Serena]

Tia - what a negative person you are. Anyone interested might go to the "Clipper Cruise" forum and that might be an insight into what ship this person is on now. As she never answered my post there questioning her statements I would not trust her opinions.

 

I once read that the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is better informed.

 

Or that an optimist believes that we live in the best of worlds, but the pessimist fears it could be true...

[Crowsnesters]

Tia,

Where did you get your information about the La Diamant? We are due to sail on her in little over a week. :confused:

[motordavid]

We did Antarctic Peninsula cruise out of Ushuaia in early Jan., on

MV Discovery, with no problems. Ushuaia is a beautiful town/city

on Beagle Channel, surrounded by mountains. Nice downtown,

friendly people. Save the paranoia & hand wringin...it was a

magnificent trip. Thread linked:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=13289617#post13289617

 

It's risky leaving the house, :D ...get off the couch and make the

trip to the Bottom of the World, if one has the opportunity, imo!

BR,motordavid

 

Pics of Ushuaia, attached:

[Tia Serena]

Tia,

Where did you get your information about the La Diamant? We are due to sail on her in little over a week. :confused:

I got the information from staffmembers that were on board when it happened.

Did you notice the platform was being suspended by the mooring lines?

[annski]

Have just returned from The Antaractic Chilean Fjords Cruise with MV Discovery, what a joy, Drake Passage was 2nd calmest for the season said crew, it was brilliant, Iceberg alley is tremendous. Paradise Bay is exactly that and the Zodiacs and their drivers take every precaution Gentoo penguins en masse.

The lecturers were excellent We had a great ice master on the ship who provided a wealth of knowledge, to travel through the Fjords is magnificent and MV Discovery as per regulations takes on Chilean pilot? unsure what they are called but they do all the directing. Saw the SKUA glacier travelled to a small fishing village up and down and around islands into sounds etc fantastic weather ..... Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt were day stops.

[Crowsnesters]

I have just looked at my picture of the back of le Diamant from a zodiac and all lines appear to be planned and standard. I did not ask about your report while on board because I felt it would be an insult to the professional and very compenent crew. I thought the zodiac operation while different, was as safe and effective as the one I experienced on Linblad several years ago in Galapagos Islands. We had a wonderful trip to Antartica and did 9 landings and a couple of zodiac cruises.

[Mel]

I'm trying to find information on Punta Arenas since we depart from there on the Discovery in late December. We fly in from Santiago and really I don't know if we have any free time there prior to boarding the ship. Do any past passengers from this cruise have any information for me? We're interested in things to do, obviously, buying wine to take on the ship (it didn't seem to bother them when we took it on board in Harwich) and any other info you may have on this port, and other information on the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica cruise aboard the Discovery. Please help!