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Oceanwide
Expeditions Announces
New
Departures to the Ross Sea in Antarctica
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Vlissingen,
The Netherlands – January 2016 / Newsmaker Alert / After successful
exploration runs in 2013 and 2015 the Dutch polar cruise company
Oceanwide
Expeditions has announced two new expeditions to the Ross Sea in 2017.
The ice-strengthened vessel “Ortelius” will be accommodated with helicopters
for the two Antarctica
cruises, sailing from the South American continent to the Antarctic
Peninsula, crossing the Polar Circle, further west to Peter I Island, sailing
in the Bellingshausen sea along the ice-edge of “deep Antarctica” into
the Ross Sea. The voyage continues to the uninhabited sub-Antarctic Campbell
Island and ends after 32 days in New Zealand. The second cruise offers
the same itinerary, but in reverse.
The
Ross Sea Challenge
The
Ross Sea region of Antarctica has always presented a dream but also a challenge
to visit to explorers. The Ross Ice Shelf prevents a full seasonal operation
and distances are enormous. Apart from the extremes, landing sites are
still difficult to reach. “With the advantages of the “Ortelius” in combination
with the use of helicopters, our travelers are having some great opportunities
exploring Antarctica’s most fascinating sites”, says CEO Michel van Gessel.
Historic
Discovery Voyages
British
Polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross discovered the Ross Sea region in 1841.
It took another 60 years before the true race to the South Pole began when
the British Royal Geographic Society sent Robert Falcon Scott on his voyage
in 1901, followed by Ernest Shackleton (1907-09), Japanese explorer Nobu
Shirase (1910-12), and another attempt of Scott and Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen who reached the pole in 1911. Many of the relics (such as
the huts of Scott and Shackleton) of this golden period of exploration
still exist, preserved by the cold, ready to be visited by modern-day explorers.
The
expedition
Very
few expeditions have ever ventured this far south to the Ross Sea. Oceanwide
Expeditions tries to land passengers in such areas as the rarely visited
volcanic Peter I Island, the huts of the British explorers Ernest Shackleton
and Robert Falcon Scott on Ross Island, McMurdo Station, the Dry Valleys
- where the conditions are the closest you get to the conditions on Mars
- and Campbell Island, home to the Southern Royal Albatrosses.
The
voyage contains one of the last wildernesses on earth, hardly affected
and visited by humans. Passengers will experience the largest ice-formations
in Antarctica and will encounter an astonishing diversity of life despite
its incredibly harsh conditions. The Ross Sea is home to minke whales,
orcas, weddell and crabeater seals, adelie and emperor penguins, petrels
and skuas.
Contest
Oceanwide
Expeditions is offering everybody the chance to win
a free cruise passage on their ship the Ortelius with a Ross Sea contest
they are currently running.
About
Oceanwide Expeditions
Since
1996 Oceanwide Expeditions
has offered small-group polar expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.
They own, manage and operate the vessels m/v Plancius (116 pax), m/v Ortelius
(116 pax), s/v Rembrandt van Rijn (33 pax) and s/v Noorderlicht (20 pax).
The vessels comply with the highest international safety standards for
passenger vessels such as SOLAS (Safety-Of-Life-At-Sea) and allow the crew
to navigate safely through pack-ice and remote narrow waterways.
Oceanwide
is the market leader in the Arctic and is the four-time award winner of
the World Travel Awards for being the World’s leading Polar expedition
operator. The Dutch “Plancius Foundation” (1981-1996) was the predecessor
of Oceanwide Expeditions. Starting in 1983 it was the first cruise operator
to organize yearly expeditions to Spitsbergen.
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Media
Contact:
Oceanwide
Expeditions
Michel
van Gessel
+31-(0)118-410-410 |
