R & R in Buenos Aires
After having finished this season´s contract with Peregrine Shipping, I am taking a few days in Buenos Aires to recharge before I return to Ushuaia and to the Antarctic Peninsula for the final month of cruising. Yes, another full month! Believe it or not, my last trip is leaving on March 21 and due back in port April 1.
The next two trips will be with scuba diving customers, one on "Grigoriy Mikheev" and the next on its sister ship "Aleksey Maryshev", then the final trip will be on "Professor Multanovskiy" which is currently still operating for Quark Expeditions.
The last trip on Peregrine´s vessel "Akademik Ioffe" went to the Falklands, South Georgia and the northern Peninsula region. It was my first trip on the Ioffe and it took me a few days to get used to its slightly different setup. But the trip itself went great and the rest of the staff team were really great to work with again.
On the previous Falklands-South Georgia-AntPen (with Akad. Sergey Vavilov) trip we had made a landing on the South Orkneys, on this one we managed to zodiac cruise around Point Wild - what else can one wish for! As per usual, we got blown out of a few sites in South Georgia, but we always managed to make up for that by visiting some other places. And the Falklands impressed me yet again: incredible wildlife experiences, fantastic people, great atmosphere...
We were also briefed by several of the Quark management staff on the ongoing and future changes to the company and to our operations, now that Quark has assumed control of the former "Adventurefleet" ships, including Vavilov and Ioffe. The Quark Fleet will certainly be the biggest player on the market from now on, both in terms of ships and in terms of passenger capacity, with Hurtigruten as no.2 on the Antarctic market and Oceanwide as no. 2 on the Arctic (counting the current Arctic charter of "Antarctic Dream" as a part of the Oceanwide fleet).
On all occasions have Quark management confirmed that they will not resume scuba diving operations as part of their programme, so Oceanwide (and Waterproof Exp.) will remain the only players on that field.
Additionally, Quark is expanding its commitment in the Svalbard-East Greenland area by one ship. The Akademik Shokalsky will be joining the Akademik Sergey Vavilov in that area, so one can expect more encounters and more need for careful scheduling in the Svalbard area as well.
Interesting times!
The next two trips will be with scuba diving customers, one on "Grigoriy Mikheev" and the next on its sister ship "Aleksey Maryshev", then the final trip will be on "Professor Multanovskiy" which is currently still operating for Quark Expeditions.
The last trip on Peregrine´s vessel "Akademik Ioffe" went to the Falklands, South Georgia and the northern Peninsula region. It was my first trip on the Ioffe and it took me a few days to get used to its slightly different setup. But the trip itself went great and the rest of the staff team were really great to work with again.
On the previous Falklands-South Georgia-AntPen (with Akad. Sergey Vavilov) trip we had made a landing on the South Orkneys, on this one we managed to zodiac cruise around Point Wild - what else can one wish for! As per usual, we got blown out of a few sites in South Georgia, but we always managed to make up for that by visiting some other places. And the Falklands impressed me yet again: incredible wildlife experiences, fantastic people, great atmosphere...
We were also briefed by several of the Quark management staff on the ongoing and future changes to the company and to our operations, now that Quark has assumed control of the former "Adventurefleet" ships, including Vavilov and Ioffe. The Quark Fleet will certainly be the biggest player on the market from now on, both in terms of ships and in terms of passenger capacity, with Hurtigruten as no.2 on the Antarctic market and Oceanwide as no. 2 on the Arctic (counting the current Arctic charter of "Antarctic Dream" as a part of the Oceanwide fleet).
On all occasions have Quark management confirmed that they will not resume scuba diving operations as part of their programme, so Oceanwide (and Waterproof Exp.) will remain the only players on that field.
Additionally, Quark is expanding its commitment in the Svalbard-East Greenland area by one ship. The Akademik Shokalsky will be joining the Akademik Sergey Vavilov in that area, so one can expect more encounters and more need for careful scheduling in the Svalbard area as well.
Interesting times!
Labels: Antarctic Stuff, Arctic Stuff, Expedition cruise, Scuba Diving, Svalbard
posted by leptonyx at 13:40
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