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Cruise ship looks to make clean journey through Northwest Passage
theglobeandmail.com ^ | 08/19/2016 | Alex Migdal

Posted on 08/20/2016 10:40:13 AM PDT by BenLurkin

Crystal Cruises has spent three years planning the Serenity’s voyage to prevent Titanic-like scenarios (and is requiring $50,000 in evacuation insurance for passengers). The Canadian and American coast guards and federal bodies including Transport Canada are also overseeing the trip.

Such preparation is “unprecedented,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “We’ve seen a level of planning that suggests to us the company is taking seriously the conditions they’re going to face.”

The British RRS Ernest Shackleton icebreaker is escorting the ship, along with two helicopters to assess ice conditions. The Serenity is outfitted with a forward-looking sonar, searchlights and a navigation system that displays near real-time satellite ice imagery.

Two veteran Canadian ice pilots will also accompany the captain and his team, who have been trained to navigate far-northern regions. Under regulations, the Serenity is required to debrief daily with the Canadian Coast Guard.

The Serenity’s sprawling month-long itinerary includes three Canadian stops: Ulukhaktok, a community of 400 mostly Inuit people in Northwest Territories, as well as Cambridge Bay and Pond Inlet in Nunavut. Vicki Aitaok, cruise-ship co-ordinator for Cambridge Bay, will see the population of her 1,600-person hamlet double when the Serenity docks on Aug. 29.

“This one is huge,” said Ms. Aitaok, who oversees five cruise-ship visits over a tight two-week window in late August. The hamlet typically welcomes 100 passengers from small cruises for an afternoon visit. But the Serenity’s stop will require a 13-hour block scheduled to military precision, with 100 passengers passing through each half hour.

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...


TOPICS: Travel
KEYWORDS: arcticice; canada; globalwarming; northwestpassage
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To: BenLurkin

bump, so that I can watch the bridge cam later when they’re stuck in the ice.


41 posted on 08/20/2016 2:35:02 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Once is happenstance. Twice is circumstance. Three times is enemy action.)
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To: Don Corleone

Shackleton and Scott got stuck the Discovery in the ice in the Antarctic in the summer of 1903 through their own stupidity...

had to be rescued...

not exactly leadership material...


42 posted on 08/20/2016 2:36:46 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: az_gila

Do you have a link to track their position (assuming their AIS is working)?


43 posted on 08/20/2016 2:51:56 PM PDT by CedarDave (Democrats, socialists, progressives all hooked on OPM - Other Peoples Money.)
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To: P-Marlowe

Important safety point!


44 posted on 08/20/2016 4:38:55 PM PDT by Gamecock (There is always one more idiot than you counted on.)
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To: CedarDave
Do you have a link to track their position (assuming their AIS is working)?


Yes, someone has a blog going...

https://my.yb.tl/CrystalSerenity

45 posted on 08/20/2016 5:31:19 PM PDT by az_gila
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To: CedarDave

Update - two simpler links.

To the cruise ship Serenity -

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=C6SY3

And to the Ernest Shackleton, the supply ship/icebreaker mentioned in the article which seems to be heading from the East to meet the Serenity.

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=ZDLS1


46 posted on 08/20/2016 5:55:17 PM PDT by az_gila
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To: batterycommander
There are no penguins in the Arctic.

Of course not,...Not after global warming...and the blood thirsty SUVs ravaged their breeding grounds.../s

47 posted on 08/20/2016 6:01:16 PM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: BenLurkin

48 posted on 08/20/2016 6:08:04 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (It is a wise man who rules by the polls but it is a fool who is ruled by them)
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To: az_gila
Looking at NASA imagery, it seems like they run a pretty significant risk that ice could be pushed down from the north in a big storm. They have a window to make it through but it's far from guaranteed. [Not that I claim to know anything about traveling through the Arctic....]

A Nearly Ice-Free Northwest Passage August 20, 2016

"What’s left of the ice in 2016 is opening up fast. Meier expects that the Northwest Passage will open up completely in the next couple of weeks. Moreover, a strong Arctic cyclone appears to be approaching the archipelago. It could push the ice around and further open up still-blocked channels. Or, it could have the opposite effect and push in ice from the north."
49 posted on 08/20/2016 6:29:28 PM PDT by Enchante (Hillary's new campaign slogan: "Guilty as hell, free as a bird!! Laws are for peasants!")
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To: BenLurkin

It is an advertisement disguised as an article, Canadian and Russian specially built ships have been selling cruises through the Arctic ocean for years. It is an amazing experience but very expensive.


50 posted on 08/20/2016 8:06:53 PM PDT by free_life (If you ask Jesus to forgive you and to save you, He will.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE


51 posted on 08/21/2016 3:46:55 AM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: SamAdams76; JoeProBono

That is a photo of the first “ship of fools”. The passengers are tramping down snow above the sea ice that has trapped them in the antarctic sea ice. the packed snow will be used for a helicopter landing pad to carry the tourists/passengers/propagandists out, rather than ferry food and supplies to the real scientists in the antarctic camps who need it.

Bloody foolish waste of time, fuel, and effort - But only propaganda for the CAGW crowd who need to see “no sea ice due to global warming”


52 posted on 08/21/2016 9:54:25 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: JoeProBono

How many penguins had to die for that ship to crash into the ice?


53 posted on 08/21/2016 9:56:32 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
I know but that photo cracks me up everytime I see it.

Clueless libs booking passage to Antartica to see "proof" of global warming - only to get stuck in ice. I believe even Russian icebreakers had to get involved to save their sorry asses.

Truly a "ship of fools."

54 posted on 08/21/2016 9:59:46 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (It is a wise man who rules by the polls but it is a fool who is ruled by them)
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To: publius911

Poorly written articles.

Poor grammar and spelling by posters on most websites, including F.R.

Foreigners given free reign in our nation.

Everything we buy is a cheap piece of junk.

We’re on the HIGHWAY TO HELL.


55 posted on 08/24/2016 7:37:18 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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