Hurtigruten cruise to Franz Josef Land cancelled

Maritime News
1

As has been reported the planned two sailings by Hurtigruten’s MS Spitsbergen was cancelled at the last minute when Russia withdrew the sailing permit.
It was originally speculated that this was because of military exercises in the area, but the latest is that the forecasted ice situation does not allow vessels with low ice class to navigate safely there:


This is a blow to Murmansk, which would have been starting and ending point for the two cruises.
At the same time it is speculations about why Poseidon’s Sea Spirit, with lower ice class, has been permitted to conduct cruises there all summer.

The fact that it is Forecasted ice situation that is given as reason for the withdrawal, not past ice conditions, seams to escape the attention of the critics.

2

I have never liked the ice class “1D” offered by some classification societies. It is not recognized by the Finnish-Swedish ice class system; an ice class 1D ship entering a port in either of these countries is assigned ice class “2” i.e. steel-hulled, self-propelled ship with no additional strengthening for ice.