Cruise Ship MS Bremen's December Visit |
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Mid Summer Shipping Update MV Baltic Trader left for Cape Town on 9th December and is scheduled to return in January. |
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Final 2010 Arrivals with Christmas Post and Cargo MV Edinburgh arrived for the extended fishing trip around the outer islands of Gough, Nightingale and Inaccessible on 18th November and MV Baltic Trader arrived with the final mail and supplies on 2nd December. Official mail is only carried on ships scheduled to travel from Cape Town to Tristan da Cunha and so post needed to be dispatched by mid-November even by Air Mail from outside RSA. The provisional SA Agulhas 2011 trip dates have been announced and can be found alongside the planned Ovenstone schedule on our separate Shipping Schedule Page with fares and booking information. The 2011 Agulhas trip is significantly shorter than that for 2010, allowing up to 17 nights ashore on Tristan compared with 23 in 2010. Tristan also receives other visits from ships, but as weather conditions may not allow landing, they carry no official mail or supplies. MV Bremen heralds the start of the 2010-11 cruise ship season and fingers are crossed that Sunday 19th December will provide calm sunny weather for the passengers to come ashore. |
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Hello and Goodbye David Morley sent this last picture from The Residency on Friday 1st October 2010 showing MV Baltic Trader (left) which had arrived from Cape Town on 30th September, and SA Agulhas (right) , preparing to load passengers (including David and his wife Jacki departing after three years) ready to depart on Saturday 2nd October for Cape Town as scheduled. On David's departure Sean and Marina Burns will move into The Residency. |
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SA Agulhas's probable penultimate trip underway Left ~ Archive photo of SA Agulhas at anchor off Tristan with its helicopter coming into land on the American Fence field. |
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The 2010 trip may be the penultimate Tristan journey for South Africa's polar research vessel SA Agulhas as its replacement is being presently built in Finland and is scheduled to be delivered in April 2012. The new ship, like the SA Agulhas, will perform the crucial annual relief and supply function to the three remote stations Marion Island, Gough Island and SANAE (South African research base) in Antarctica. |
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1st 2010/11 MV Edinburgh Fishing trip news update MV Edinburgh left Cape Town on 24th August for her first extended fishing trip around the outer Tristan Islands (Gough, Inaccessible, Nightingale). The ship arrived at Tristan on 31st August, but passengers and cargo (including copies of the August Tristan Newsletter for all island families) were not unloaded until Thursday 2nd September. |
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MV Edinburgh's quick July turn-around Although held up by bad weather on the outward journey, MV Edinburgh arrived on Friday 22nd July, disembarked passengers and limited cargo, loaded out-going passengers and left the same day, arriving in Cape Town on 28th July, 3 days earlier than scheduled. This is believed to be the first occasion the ship has turned around in a day. Aboard the ship was the new Director of Medical Services Dr Shridar with his wife and two children. |
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2010/2011 Shipping Schedule Announced The annual provisional shipping schedule has been announced and is published as usual on our Shipping Page. There is a welcome return to 10 annual return trips from Cape Town, so in the coming summer there is a gap of less than two months between the last 2010 and first 2011 arrivals. The Baltic Trader is retained for additional trips during the fishing season when MV Edinburgh makes extended trips to the outer islands. MV Edinburgh's schedule has seen considerable slippage in recent months. It arrived on Wednesday 23rd June on its 3rd 2010 voyage, some three weeks later than planned. Passengers were landed safely on Thursday 24th June and unloading was well underway on a beautiful calm and crisp Friday 25th only a week after a storm caused severe damage to Calshot Harbour - see Storms Page for details. |
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FPV Argos Georgia's Confidential Mission Photograph from David Morley of FPV Argos Georgia off Tristan on 1st April 2010. |
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MV Edinburgh The Edinburgh arrived on the 23rd April and during her visit she went to Gough to do some fishing surveying. The ship departed on Sunday 2nd May with passengers who included diver Geoff Frijohn, Nicola McHugh, (who has completed her nurse training programme) and a fisheries team of Tanya Green, Warren Glass, Sarah Glass, Phillip Rogers and Rodney Green who will take part in a EU certification training course in Cape Town. |
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Professor Molchanov's final visit Regular cruise ship visitor Professor Molchanov made what is believed to be her last visit to Tristan da Cunha 9-11 April 2010. Arriving in bad weather on Friday 9th, it wasn't until Sunday 11th that the harbour could be used, but in weather that prevented any passengers landing. This was the final cruise ship visit of a most disappointing 2009-10 summer season The Professor was photographed right on 10th April by David Morley. See also a report on the ship's visit by Dawn Repetto on the separate Cruise Ship Visits Page. |
MV Edinburgh departed for Cape Town from Tristan da Cunha on Thursday 25th March and is scheduled to return from Cape Town on 15th April, arriving Tristan 22nd April. The next three Edinburgh trips (April-May; May-June; June-July) are passenger and cargo trips whereas the February-March trip and those later in the year (August-November; November-February 2011) are extended for fishing around the outer (Gough, Inaccessible & Nightingale) islands. See Shipping Schedule for details. |
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Revised Shipping Schedule There has been a significant update to the Tristan shipping schedule for 2010. The first MV Edinburgh trip has been extended for the outer-island fishing quota to be caught, so the ship is planned to make the return journey on 23rd March. This is the first outgoing ship of 2010 and therefore there will be great competition for the 12 berths available for passengers. Other 2010 sailings remain as published, but the August Edinburgh Cape Town - Tristan trip dates have now been confirmed. This trip is the first of the 2010 - 2011 fishing season and we await news confirming whether the MV Baltic Trader or a replacement vessel will be used for two trips in September - October and November - March. The full schedule is on the Shipping Schedule Page |
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MV Edinburgh Returns MV Edinburgh returned to Cape Town after the ship's second 2009/10 extended fishing trip, departing Tristan on 4th February and arriving late on 10th February 2010. The ship is due to return to Tristan from Cape Town on 24th February, and arrive on 3rd March. Aboard will be Chief Islander Conrad Glass and his wife Sharon after their sojourn in UK and South Africa. |