French cruise company Ponant, specializing in Antarctic expeditions has two of its vessels in the port of Ushuaia, extreme south of Argentina. L'Austral and Le Boreal twin vessels are 142 meters long with a capacity of 246 passengers and 140 crew.
Busy weekend for Ushuaia with seven cruise vessels and some 12.000 visitors, including passengers and crew members. According to port authorities, the vessels calling were the Celebrity Eclipse, Star Princess, Norwegian plus Le Boreal, Ortelius and Island Sky.
No one likes a dull wedding, but one father-of-the-bride's speech was a little too electrifying at his daughter's ceremony last weekend. JP Nadeau was reportedly struck by lightning mid-sentence in his apple orchard in New Brunswick, Canada. But this was not the first time Nadeau faces the challenge of death, in 2015 he was air rescued from a crippled French cruise vessel in Falklands' waters.
Approximately 63,000 cruise ship passengers arrivals are expected in the Falkland Islands this season which is slightly up on the previous season when just over 56,000 passengers were received from 105 ship visits. Staff at Sulivan Shipping are looking forward to the start of the 2016-2017 tourism season, with the arrival of the first cruise ship passengers on next Saturday’s flight, to board the M/V Sea Spirit.
Lord Penguin is in town. Actually he's no Lord or penguin, but ”I was after an intriguing headline for the meeting between Mike Summers, member of the Falklands' Legislative Assembly, Malouins in French, who this week is in Montreal to see his friend...the dragon (software programmer) Serge Beauchemin. I hope he forgives me for this fantasy”.
The smallest but possibly most exclusive cruise liner to visit Gibraltar this year pulled into port on Thursday. The L’Austral, a French liner, is also the first to make an inaugural call this season. The captain of the ship, Olivier Marien, was met by the Minister for Tourism and the Captain of the Port on board.
A serious fire on board a cruise ship in November led to a large-scale rescue operation off the Falkland Islands and means that three visits to South Georgia in the new year are likely to be cancelled, according to the latest South Georgia Newsletter.
In a Christmas message to Falkland Islanders, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is hopeful that the election of a new Argentine president “will allow us to move towards a more mature relationship”.
Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel based in the Falkland Islands have conducted a long range rescue of a British man from a Russian cruise ship. The MV Akademic Sergei Vavilov was visiting South Georgia, 800 nautical miles to the east of the Falklands, when the man was bitten by what is thought to have been a fur seal at Salisbury Plain Beach.
The Falkland Islands Government confirmed on Friday that travel arrangements are now in place for the crew and passengers who were evacuated from the stranded cruise Le Boreal on Wednesday 18th November, to return home. Two flights have been coordinated, one departing Saturday and the following on Sunday.