News in this edition:

13-01. 'Rotterdam' expected to set new passenger record, but no landings planned.
13-02. 'Marco Polo' to focus on Antarctic Peninsula area from 2000-01.
13-03. Second edition of 'Lonely Planet' Antarctic guide due in September.
13-04. People.
13-05. Coming Meetings.

IN READING PLEASE NOTE: This newsletter is being produced in the interest of improved information sharing in the Antarctic community. Inclusion of information in it should not be taken to imply endorsement, by the publishers of ANAN News, of any company, program or associated activity that is listed, nor that the activity has necessarily completed all environmental impact assessments required under the legislation of the 'home' nation.

The cruise vessel 'Rotterdam', the fourth large tourist vessel to operate in Antarctica this austral summer, is expected to set a new record for the largest number of people carried on a single ship in Antarctic waters during a cruise along the north-west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from 28-30 January.

Operators of the 'Rotterdam', Holland America Line-Westours Inc. (HALW) of Seattle in the United States, say that 980 passengers and 650 crew, or 1630 people, will be on board their flagship when it heads south from Ushuaia, Argentina, on 26 January. This is almost double the current record of 630 passengers and 258 crew, or 888 people, which it was expected would be set late last month by the World Cruise Company's 'Ocean Explorer I' during a voyage to the South Shetland Islands (ANAN-11/03, 22 December 1999).

Unlike the 'Ocean Explorer I' however, no shore landings will be made >from 'Rotterdam', although a visit to Argentina's Ezperanza station at Hope Bay at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula was apparently considered by HALW during original planning for the voyage early in 1999.

'Rotterdam' is not ice strengthened and as a result HALW says that its schedule while it is in Antarctic waters has been planned with sufficient flexibly to allow adjustments to be made should ice conditions dictate. Two Captains with significant experience in navigation in Antarctic ice are to accompany the voyage to the Peninsula area.

Provided ice conditions allow, HALW anticipates that their flagship will be cruising in the area around Hope Bay by the morning of the 28th, with further sightseeing at Deception Island proposed later that day. On the morning of the 29th pre-voyage planning calls for the vessel to travel through Gerlache Strait and the Lemaire Channel, before returning north in the early afternoon to enter Paradise Bay. On the third day, 30 January, a northward transit of the Bransfield Strait is proposed, and then a cruise past Elephant Island is planned before she heads out of the Antarctic Treaty area bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Paradise Bay and the Lemaire Channel are both relatively small areas in which ice floes and bergy bits are often present even at the height of summer in late January. They are more likely to be the areas where ice conditions may limit the vessel's planned program. The Lemaire is a very narrow, ten kilometre long, gap between the almost sheer cliffs of the Antarctic Peninsula on one side and Booth Island on the other. It can often act as a 'choke point' for ice in the area which further limits navigation, particularly for larger vessels without ice strengthening. Good visibility will be required before the ship undertakes a transit of this channel.

Like the two large vessels operated by Canada's World Cruise Company over the New Year period, 'Rotterdam' is conducting a round the world voyage and the visit to Antarctic waters is only a small part of a much larger program. She left Fort Laurderdale in the United States on 6 January and has travelled through the Panama Canal and down the west coast of South America. She is currently expected to be in Punta Arenas, Chile, on 25 January and to arrive and leave Ushuaia, Argentina, the next day en route to the Antarctic Peninsula.

During her visit to Punta Arenas a number of day excursions are being offered to passengers, including an overflight of the Antarctic Peninsula area in a Boeing 737 provided weather conditions are suitable. The overflight is a charter operation and the route advertised takes passengers over the South Shetland Islands, then south to both Adelaide and Alexander Islands as weather permits. No information is currently available as to what heights these overflights are conducted at. In order to maximise viewing opportunities, the advertisement for the flights says that only window and middle seats are filled, with no one being placed in aisle seats or in seats over the wing areas. During the flight, which costs $US1,399 per passenger, cocktails and lunch are served. If weather is poor over the Peninsula on the flight day an alternate route over Terra del Fuego is provided but at a reduced price.

'Rotterdam'was built in Italy in 1997 and is the sixth Holland American vessel to bear that name. She can carry between 1316 and 1620 passengers depending on the cabin configuration used. She has two propellors and her normal service speed is 22.5 knots, maximum speed being 25 knots. Registered in The Netherlands, she is of 59652 Gross Registered Tonnes, is 238 m long, 32 m wide, and has a maximum draft of 8.1 m. She is thus nearly fifty metres longer than two of the three other large tour vessels that are working in Antarctic this season, the 'Ocean Explorer 1' and 'Marco Polo' (both of whom have a GRT around 20000 tonnes), and almost 100 m longer than the other vessel 'Aegean 1' (GRT of 11,563 tonnes).

HALW has been in been in the passenger and cargo business for almost 130 years. It currently operates twelve passenger ships which are engaged in cruises to places such as Alaska, the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, South-east Asia, the Pacific and South America. According to the company in 1998 it operated six cruise ships on 120 cruises and carried over 163,000 passengers. 'Rotterdam' normally undertakes an annual world cruise during which it visits ports in all continents except, until now, Antarctica.

[ANAN-13/01]

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Orient Line's vessel the 'Marco Polo' is expected to make her fifth and possibly final voyage to the Ross Sea area early next month as part of a semi-circumnavigation between Ushuaia, Argentina, and Lyttleton, New Zealand.

The ship has carried around 1600 passengers on the same route since 1994 as part of an operation to reposition her for austral winter cruises in the South Pacific and elsewhere. From 2001 however, the company's newest vessel, 'Crown Odyssey' (currently the 'Norwegian Crown'), is expected to be used for South Pacific operations, and 'Marco Polo' will combine Antarctic Peninsula voyages in the Antarctic summer with visits to the Chilean Fjords. For the remainder of the year it is expected that she will conduct cruises in the South American, Atlantic Ocean, and Medditearannean regions, with voyages to the Arctic a possibility sometime in the next few years.

'Marco Polo' is scheduled to depart from Ushuaia on 29 January and operate along the north-west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula until 2 February. She will then spend nine days at sea travelling westwards to the Ross Sea and is expected to cruise along the coast between Ross Island and Cape Adare from 12-17 February, before heading for Lyttleton where she is due on 20 February. A single AS350b 'Squirrel' helicopter will be carried on the voyage but it will only be used for ice reconnaissance operations and no passengers will be flown from the vessel.

If conditions permit landings in the Ross Sea area may be attempted at locations such as Cape Bird, Cape Hallett and Cape Adare. In previous seasons between one and five landings have been achieved from the vessel along the Victoria Land coast. The vessel, which can carry up to 850 passengers, is likely to have only around 470 on board for the semi-circumnavigation plus just over 300 crew members. Orient Lines normally operates the vessel at reduced capacity for its Antarctic operations.

[ANAN-13/02]

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The second edition of the Lonely Planet (LP) company's "Antarctica: A Travel Survival Kit" is due to be published in September in time for the 2000-01 tourist season. According to author Jeff Rubin, the guidebook has been fully revised and updated throughout and expanded to 380 pages. The 362 page first edition, which was also written by Rubin, was released in November 1996 and is said by LP to be the best-selling guide to the continent.

According to the publisher the new edition will list every major Antarctic tour operator, providing for each contact information, sample itineraries and fares, and details of their IAATO membership status. In a move that reflects the rise in the number of private yachts who take paying tourists to Antarctica, edition two is to list contact details, sample itineraries and prices for some twenty yachts, said by LP to be the most comprehensive such list available anywhere.

The chapter on the Antarctic Peninsula will be more than doubled the size of that of the first printing, as is appropriate given the area's importance as the major tourist destination in Antarctica. Several new maps will highlight the most-visited landing sites in the Peninsula region, as well as other heavily-visited sites in the South Shetland Islands.

Also to be included is information on how to visit Antarctica as a tourist aboard Chilean and French government resupply vessels; on Qantas overflights of the continent; and on flights made by Chilean regional airline Aerovías DAP to Chile's Frei station on King George Island. There are also new contributions by experts on a number of matters, including Antarctic paleontology, scuba diving, volcanoes, icebergs, philately and meteorites, which aim at giving readers improved insights into aspects of the continent's natural and human history.

[ANAN-13/03]

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Orient Lines vessel 'Marco Polo' is expected to carry a range of people with considerable previous Antarctic experience on its semi-circumnavigation voyage from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Lyttleton, New Zealand, in January and February (see ANAN-13/02 proceeding).

Naturalist Nigel Sitwell, who has led Orient Lines' Antarctic programs since 1995 will again lead the voyage. He will be accompanied by the following people who will present talks to passengers during the twenty-six day voyage: Peter Hillary, who walked to the South Geographic Pole (SGP) as part of 'Project Icetrek' last season and has previously climbed Vinson Massif; Edith Ronne, wife of Finne Ronne who took part in her husband's 1947-48 expedition to the South Atlantic sector of Antarctica, and whose father-in-Law was a member of Amundsen's party; former U.S. Navy pilot Bill Kearns, a member of the U.S. Navy's 'Operation Highjump' in 1946-47; Briton Geoff Somers who was a member of both the 1989-90 International Trans-Antarctic expedition led by Will Steger which crossed Antarctica from the Larsen Ice Shelf to Russia's Mirny station in Queen Mary Land via the SGP, and the 1996-97 trek from the SGP to the northern part of the Ronne Ice Shelf with Crispin Day and Robert Swan (the latter who finished at the Thiel Mountains); Dr Beau Riffenburgh editor of 'Polar Record' since 1991; Captain Dick Taylor who commanded U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers in the Antarctic and Arctic over a twelve year period; and biologist Malcolm MacFarlane former Operations Manager of the New Zealand Antarctic Program.

Ruriko Lindblad, wife of the late Lars-Eric Lindblad a pioneer of Antarctic tourism, will also accompany the 'Marco Polo' voyage as translater and coordinator for a Japanese group who will be on board. Felicity Bloor from the Antarctic Policy Unit of New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is scheduled to join the ship from Scott Base when the ship reaches the western Ross Sea to carry out observing duties. She is expected to be transferred to the vessel by the ship's helicopter.

[ANAN-13/04]

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25-28 June 2000. IAATO annual meeting. Hobart, Australia.

[ANAN-13/05]

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