Antarctic Cruising - Explorer
The Explorer sinking in the Antarctic was just an accident waiting to happen...
As cruising becomes more popular, cruise companies are choosing more and more isolated places to take their ships to. Unfortunately some of these places are very remote, such as Antarctica. While the landscape maybe beautiful, the seas are amongst the roughest on earth and it is so far from anywhere (and cold) that it is very difficult to co-ordinate a quick rescue. Explorer's passengers were incredibly lucky because there was another ship close at hand - 4 hours away - but what would have happened if that ship had not been about? What would have happened if the seas had been rough?
Antarctica has some of the strictest cruise ship regulations in the world governing which ships can enter, how many passengers they can carry, the environmental impact of their presence on the continent and how passengers act while they are in Antarctica. There has been worrying incidents in the past such as the Nordkapp running aground (luckily HMS Endurance was on hand to help). The thing that worries me most is the environmental impact of the oil from the ship on the sea animals and the underwater environment.
I had always wanted to visit Antarctica until I was on Diamond Princess in 2005, crossing the Bering Sea. I overhead two guys talking about their recent trip to Antractica on an icebreaker. "The seas were rough" said one guy, "in fact, they were so rough we had to strap ourselves onto the bulkheads in our cabin. I never thought I'd survive". Being a person who is mad on ships but suffers from seasickness (I keep it under control with the most wonderful seasickness tablets), I decided against Antarctica. This year, I chose to say hello to Santa (and reindeer) in Spitsbergen instead!
As cruising becomes more popular, cruise companies are choosing more and more isolated places to take their ships to. Unfortunately some of these places are very remote, such as Antarctica. While the landscape maybe beautiful, the seas are amongst the roughest on earth and it is so far from anywhere (and cold) that it is very difficult to co-ordinate a quick rescue. Explorer's passengers were incredibly lucky because there was another ship close at hand - 4 hours away - but what would have happened if that ship had not been about? What would have happened if the seas had been rough?
Antarctica has some of the strictest cruise ship regulations in the world governing which ships can enter, how many passengers they can carry, the environmental impact of their presence on the continent and how passengers act while they are in Antarctica. There has been worrying incidents in the past such as the Nordkapp running aground (luckily HMS Endurance was on hand to help). The thing that worries me most is the environmental impact of the oil from the ship on the sea animals and the underwater environment.
I had always wanted to visit Antarctica until I was on Diamond Princess in 2005, crossing the Bering Sea. I overhead two guys talking about their recent trip to Antractica on an icebreaker. "The seas were rough" said one guy, "in fact, they were so rough we had to strap ourselves onto the bulkheads in our cabin. I never thought I'd survive". Being a person who is mad on ships but suffers from seasickness (I keep it under control with the most wonderful seasickness tablets), I decided against Antarctica. This year, I chose to say hello to Santa (and reindeer) in Spitsbergen instead!
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