Antarctica Travel Forum

Anybody travelling on the above ship to Antarctica in the next week or so? It has just run aground at Deception Island, the Royal (UK) Navy and Nordnorge have been to the rescue! Passengers have been transferred to the Nordnorge, and non essential staff to the HMS Endurance.

More details here: http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.7919

You may want to check with your travel agent to make sure your trip is still on - I feel for the people who were just on their way into the Antarctica, I'm guessing they will now travel out with the Nordnorge.

Shim

I posted something about it yesterday, but it wasnt a travel question so it got deleted.

You would have thought an exception could be made for something like this that has the potential to affect people's holidays. I'm guessing NCV are now going to try and rebook some of the Nordkapp people for the next trip (which I think is also the last for the season) onto the Nordnorge instead. From the sounds of it, the ship needs some extensive repairs.

Shim

I have been following the news with interest, since I went on a cruise to Antarctica on the MS Nordnorge in 2003.

What I read in the German news is that both remaining cruises on the MS Nordkapp have been cancelled. People booked on those cruises have been informed and get their money back. I doubt that they will be able to book too many people on the Nordnorge, since they won't have many vacancies!

Shim, were you booked on the Nordkapp?

Believe it or not - it passed me a couple of hours before she went aground... and we were traveling on the same path... our draft though is a few meters more.... *shudder*

Michael

Yes - I received a message from the travel agent 10 hrs before leaving for my flight to Buenos Aires that my trip was canceled. So incredibly bummed, but I also feel for those on the Nordnorge - they were just en route to Antartica and had to return to Ushuaia with the rescued passengers. Wonder where they put all those people? The car deck?

Oh, no - I am so sorry!!! What a disappointment for you! I just hope you will get priority booking on their next year's cruises!

And yes, I feel so sorry for the Nordnorge passengers as well! They had just "survived" the Drake passage (which is usually pretty rough sailing) and were only something like 2 miles from their first stop on an Antarctic island - and then within reach of their dream destination they had to turn and do the Drake passage again (and I read something about REALLY rough sea on that return passage) on a totally overcrowded ship!! I guess that the crew had to leave their quarters and that many of the extra passengers tried to rest a little on the panorama decks in those fairly comfortable chairs.... But still, that must not have been fun at all!

The only good thing is that nobody got physically harmed!

I was following the ships voyages on the webcams, and it seems the Nordnorge passengers did get some time in Antarctica before going to pick up the Nordkapp people. Nordnorge appears to have visited Deception Island first on the 28 January, and then made other stops on the following two days, including Almirante Brown base on the 30th, before returning to Deception Island on the 31st to pick up the Nordkapp passengers.

The Nordkapp passengers were at the last stop of their trip when the incident happened.

I wasn't booked on either ship - I was there this time last year on the Nordnorge - I posted the info because I wasn't sure how widely it would be reported around the world - I'm guessing it only made the news in the UK because the Royal Navy was involved.

If this had happened to us it would have been soul destroying, as we took a month off work which we had to book 18months in advance.

Amkelly, have you tried getting a last minute booking on one of the other operators or have you resigned yourself to waiting another 12 months?

As to where they put all the people - the ships can accomodate up to 691 passengers, but I'm guessing they would have had to have strangers share cabins?

Shim

I was a passenger on the Nordkapp when it hit the charted rocks in the center of Neptune's Bellows at Deception island. NCV did everything possible to handle this unfortunate situation. The passengers were not in danger, but were transferred to the Nordnorge for the trip to Ushuaia. We shared cabins with the Nordnorge passengers and "dormitory accommodations" were created in the conference rooms.
Obviously the ship will not sail until repaired. The sister ship, Nordnorge, is still in service and was not full so it is possible that passengers may be able to make the change.
Pleae remember that these cruises are adventure cruises in difficult waters. Weather and water conditions make for changeable itineraries and conditions. NCV does not ask you to get a doctor's permission to go for no reason. No one who is not physically capable of disembarking onto polarcirkel boats with waves lifting the boats up and down should get on these ships. Be aware of the type of trip this is and prepare accordingly.
Seasickness medicine is a must for EVERYONE! I got the transderm patch from my doctor, and supplemented with dramamine in the heaviest seas (i.e, Drake Passage).
That said, we had a wonderful, memorable trip.

Ginatwo

So many stars fell into alignment allowing me to schedule this trip originally - the waiver of the single supplement, schedules at work, etc. Affected passengers are being offered a 30% discount on the cruise price only (net of transportation costs) if they book next year, but considering the 20% price increase in the '07-'08 rates plus no apparent single supplement waiver, it looks cost prohibitive for me to rebook at this juncture - even if personal and work schedules could ever be realigned.

There goes my quest to visit all seven continents...

Hi Shimrod

We are here at Lisbon a lives. Good and wonderful experience at Nordkapp. But when we are evacuated at Nordnorge another extraordinaire experience crossing the Drake Passage under a depression 954 Mb with their powerful 39 feet waves from several directions. Great ships these Norway Company have.I could sleep three days because i was concerned with some passenger friends and my wife ( it's was your first Beaufort F9), as it was normal. But i would like to came back to Antartida ( if i get the money in the future)in the NORDKAPP. Concerning the Captain, as i was pilot we say a bad landing doesn't make a bad pilot. The captain did everything to put the people on board and the vessel a safe.The motives of Nordkapp run aground in a narrow entrance of Deception Island let the commission does the work, but Deception Island has not a isolated danger signal at the entrance neither a strong wind advice. Could you imagine what drift could cause a gust of 35/40 Knots or more in a 123 metres ship with a speed of 15 Knots? Crew and Captain were wonderful.
Thanks for your suggestions before i went to Antartida at Nordkapp.
HROD

I find it astonishing that you went through the entrance of Deception Island - since another ship tried it the same morning and turned around without entering it - we were behind that ship and turned around without trying it - Nordkapp came towards us passed us and tried to enter it and the accident happened. Surprising that one ship abandoned entry - the second one turned around right away - and the Nordkapp as the third ship tried it - even though it was too dangerous at the time due to high winds and adverse weather conditions.

Hi
The accident happened after a visit to the Whalers Bay, When the ship tryied to went out the island.No at the entrance, It was + - 16H00 Local Time at 30JAN07.
HROD

Yes - that is after two ships turned to visit alternative areas due to adverse weather.

HRod,and also ginatwo,
1600 local time was the last webcam picture from Nordkapp, although the ship appeared to be leaving the island through Neptune's Bellows at 1430.
I had been seeing webcam pictures of Whalers Bay from 0830 local time, some showing the small landing boats.
Did you land and have time ashore?

Hi
I was there. The picture that you see is Nordkapp at that morning. After some holes on exterior hull on starboard came back to the bay and anchor there. The crew was fantastic because there attitudes with the passenger was almost perfect. The dinner on board was shellfish and the passenger keep calm. The storm outside is on our way, but didn't affected the Nordkapp but punished her ship brother when she coming back to Ushuaia crossing the Drake Passenger. I have no doubt both ships are very good and crew too. But the manager who take the decision to sent the Nordnorge to Ushuaia as soon as she could, when a low pressure passing over Drake P., unfortunetly it was not aboard, i guess.
This lesson i learned two things The ships are very good, The crew from both ships were good too but i couldn't sleep three days, i was very tired and my wife didn't want to speak about. But i'll go again with Nordkapp one day.
HRod

Hi,

Just got back from the Nordnorge trip and would like to let you know the facts about the rescue incident. Firstly an amazing ship, crew, expedition team and experience. It exceeded my expectations at all levels andthe drake passage on the return exceeded my worst nightmares - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger :)

We were many days into our antarctic itinerary and had visited Petermann Island before heading North to Port Lockroy when the announcement was made that we would sail for Deception immediately to the Nordkapp. We lost out therefore a couple of days in the South Shetlands on the return as a result. The passage to Decpetion was rough and we waited several hours to go through the bellows for a second time before seeing the listing Nordkapp and HMS Endurance. We transferred all passengers and luggage and we volunteered to share cabins (sad to say there were people who didn't), my experience was richer as a result.

We sailed through force 11 occasional 12 on the Drake which took us 36+ hours to traverse at speeds of 4 knots on occasion. I spent much of that on my back beneath the bed, the captain later described seeing a 25m wave which even he remarked was "unusual". A very rough and memorable experience. We dropped the passengers off at Ushuaia and carried on to Cape Horn. We did some extra cruising to fill in the time and we got to go see the engine room as a bonus (not normally allowed) as well as a free trip to Torres del Paine. The best news of course was to come - a 100% compensation of the cruise element of the trip plus a discount on teh next cruise. Can't say fairer than that for a few days of hardship.

An excellent trip, excellent company, and excellent organisation when things went wrong. I recommend them very highly.

Regards

Justin

Justin,

thanks so much for that in depth description of your trip - you all (passengers and crew of the Nordnorge as well as of the Nordkapp) were constantly on my mind after I heard about the accident - especially the tough part of the trip going back through the Drake passage with that kind of storm - oh my!!!

I sailed on the Nordnorge 3 years ago and I can only agree that I found ship and crew exceptionally nice and efficient and I can very well imagine that they did their absolute best on your rescue turn!!!

Glad that you still got to see some of Antarctica - and great to hear that Hurtigruten was so generous! Will you go back?

As a passenger on Nordnorge, I can confirm that Justin's report is absolutely spot-on. Nordnorge's crew rose splendidly to the occasion, and the "hardship" we suffered in the storm in Drake's Passage would rate 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, such was the stability of the ship and the professionalism of all involved.

A 100% refund (and discount on a further cruise) more than compensates for the loss of a couple of days of what was advertised as an adventure in an area notorious for wild weather - even helping us forget the missing luggage on the planes out AND back from South America and the 13 hour delay at Santiago which led to a 24 hour delay in our return home! These delays were not the airline's fault - the plane we were to travel in had to turn back on its way out from Spain because a passenger became ill. Iberia looked after us very well, with free rooms and meals in Santiago, and again in Madrid.

Hi Michael,

Good to hear from you! Hope you are enjoying the retirement :)

Sorry to hear about your travel nightmare at the end.

Regards to Claire.

Justin

Good to read your words. Unhappily i didn't copy a lot of email address of other passengers from Nordkapp or Nordnorge. In fact i ask the weather charts to Weather service of Chile Navy. exactly the same that was at deck four close from information desk. The center of depression was 954 HPa. Well it wasn't a F10 Beaufort scale but 8/9. Occasionally same waves could reach 30% higher- At F10 the surface is white and we did not see such white surface. I consider that we have a Gale or a Strong Gale. I admit that we could pass some huge waves but occasionally less than 30% (30'). But you see how the ship was suffered with the sea state. Remember the beautiful grab wood of the stairs, was opened, the energy blackout, the software of TV monitors, and so on. But the crew was very well training specially with how to face the passenger advising them and talking with us . If i was a rich man i would like to repeat the Antartida adventure ( without holes and gale).
HRod

HI
I received a few days ago a email from NCV about a compensation, did you reveceid it? What do you think?
I think they are fair, but when?
HRod