Monday, July 22, 2019

Cruise the Northwest Passage


Eli notes there is still time to drop $28,824 per person to cruise the Northwest Passage in August on the Roald Amundsen, the new flagship of the Hurtigruten.  Since the ship has a hybrid propulsion system even the CO2 emissions are (relatively) low. 

The Hurtigruten are now a cruise line, but used to be the post boats that supplied northern ports in Norway, sailing from Bergen all the way up to Kirkenes and back even in the winter.  They continue to do so, offering cruises there, but have added cruises to Antarctica and other polar  locations

Of course, there is a real chance that the Northwest Passage won't open, but the Northern Sea Route along the Russian Arctic coast is already wide open and the chances look good that the bunnies can spend their money.



The point being that the Arctic ice is fragile enough that such a cruise could be scheduled.  That is worrisome

6 comments:

Fernando Leanme said...

I bet you a gallon of carrot soup they won't get past Cambridge Bay.

EliRabett said...

While Eli would be pleased to take your carrot soup, the only real remaining issue is the narrow channel at Fort Ross and they may have contracted an ice breaker for that. Hurtigruten are strengthened so they can sail through rough conditions.

From Cambridge Bay it is pretty much open going west (which is the way they are going). The interesting question remains how are they getting back, unless this is a positioning cruise for Alaskan cruises, avoiding the Panama Canal and they are going to leave the ship in the North Pacific.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

At this rate the Inuit will be opening a casino on Ice Station Zebra, and a rock climbing resort on Mount Thor

Patrons of Antarctic nostalgia should send bunnybucks to Mnestherus @Paypal.com so I can buy a ticket to Ushuia in November to set sail on Juan Sebastian Elcano for the Straits of Magellan leg of her 500th anniversary retracing of the first circumnavigation.

EliRabett said...

As Eli remembers that involves an interesting interaction with the inhabitants about half way round. Will there be a reinactment

Fernando Leanme said...

If they have an ice breaker escort, they should get to Cambridge Bay, sneak through ok. Drop their tourists and return via the Northern Sea Route, which ought to remain open until October 7. The Russians have ice breakers escorting cargoes into the Ob Gulf they can hire if the ice gets bad ahead of forecast. The vessels to take tourists to Antarctica in January 2020 have to sail from New Zealand, because the waves coming from Tierra del Fuego are terrible.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

The late unpleasantness in the Moorish Philipines reechoed in 1986 when Juan Sebastian Elcano 's captain the second time I was aboard, Vice-Admiral Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal y Maroto, 17th Duke of Veragua, 16th Duke of la Vega, 18th Marquess of Aguilafuente, 15th Marquess of Jamaica Grandee of Spain and Grand Cross of the Orders of Isabella the Catholic and Christopher Columbus, Cross of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild, Knight of the Order of Santiago and hereditary Admiral of the Western Ocean was senselessly blown up by ETA Basques in Madrid.

As a Fellow of the Royal Academy of History, the Royal Academy of Social and Natural Sciences of Extremadura, The Academia del Lincei, the Italian Academy of History, the Dominican Academy of History, the Paraguayan Academy of History, and the Porto Rican Academy of History he is sorely missed.

Given th state of politics in the South China and Sulu seas, the Armada may be hard pressed to find a comperable Magellan to volunteer for next year's anniversary.