This year is full of horrible news. The most recent one is about the Little Red Lady been sunk in the Antarctic Ocean. It is heartbreaking to watch MS Explorer sinking. I had an unforgettable experience sailing on the lovely Little Red Ship from Dec 16th 2005 to Jan 3rd 2006 doing the same tour "Spirit of Shackelton" the ship was doing now.
I met wonderful people on the Little Red Lady. The crew and guides were fantastic. Three of the fellow passengers became close friends. It is a relief to read that the crew and passengers are safe on Norwegian ship. I feel bad for the crew who must had lost all they personal belongings for which they work so hard. They are mostly Filipinos, Ukrainians or Russians who stay on the ship the entire year. They keep their belongings on the ship and must have lost all of it.
I met wonderful people on the Little Red Lady. The crew and guides were fantastic. Three of the fellow passengers became close friends. It is a relief to read that the crew and passengers are safe on Norwegian ship. I feel bad for the crew who must had lost all they personal belongings for which they work so hard. They are mostly Filipinos, Ukrainians or Russians who stay on the ship the entire year. They keep their belongings on the ship and must have lost all of it.
I am not sure if the crew on the ship is still the same as almost two years ago. I know that the tour guide Aaron Russ and the assistant tour guide Sarah McElrea continued to work with Gap. Left: Aaron (sitting) and Gus on the zodiac
Dinner with the First Officer and Sarah
I occasionally get an email from Sarah. Last time when I heard from her she was back home in New Zealand. I pray she and Aaron are well. Few photos of the crew are below. I have warm memories of Edgard, Kosta, Svetlana, Dr. Vlad, Gus and of course Capt. Paul Heslop.
Dinner with the First Officer and SarahI occasionally get an email from Sarah. Last time when I heard from her she was back home in New Zealand. I pray she and Aaron are well. Few photos of the crew are below. I have warm memories of Edgard, Kosta, Svetlana, Dr. Vlad, Gus and of course Capt. Paul Heslop.
Capt. Paul Heslop was amazing. His nick name was "Pack-Ice Dancer" as he could superbly navigate through heavy ice.
Toasting 2006 with Capt. Paul on Drake. Note: Capt toast with water.
Left: Passengers watching ship navigating thorugh pack-ice around Antarctic Peninsula
Capt. Paul was very funny, approachable. He took his job very seriously and superbly navigated through heavy ice and other perils we encountered during the journey.
With other three Spices I had such a great time on the Little Red Lady that I wanted to repeat the experience. I had a dream that once I will be on Explorer again with my friends I met on the Red Lady. The dream was to do the Arctic tour and look for polar bears and enjoy aurora polaris sipping JD.
Left: Spicy B and Rockhoper Spice enjoying snow in Paradise Bay
The dream got a first dent when Gap in the cost cutting exercise fired Capt. Paul Heslop in September 2006. Some fellow tour passengers wrote a letter to Gap trying to understand why Gap is firing such an amazing Captain. All of us who contacted Gap got just a bland, bureaucratic letter. It was all about cost cutting. So Gap chose for - "paying peanuts and getting....". I do not know where Capt. Paul is now. I am sure he must be heartbroken about the Red Lady.
Following that event I had a fantasy that Capt. Paul will be back on MS Explorer and four Spices will have safe sailing on the Red Lady again.
Now it turned out the Gap’s short sighted policy of reducing costs ended with sinking a wonderful, extraordinary, unique jewel of a ship. I am really curious how an experienced captain with iceberg-enhanced hull run into "a submerged ice" in calm waters and sunk the Lady.
I feel for the crew and passengers who had to go through a nightmare of being evacuated and suffering hypothermia for about 5 hours until they were rescued.
I do not feel anything but frustration for Gap who by hiring a "less expensive" captain put profit before lives and safety of passengers. Such shortsighted profit driven policy destroyed an amazing and wonderful Little Red Lady.
The Little Red Lady definitely deserved to have a better captain. And she did not deserve unfortunate fate to sink in the Antarctic Ocean.
The dream got a first dent when Gap in the cost cutting exercise fired Capt. Paul Heslop in September 2006. Some fellow tour passengers wrote a letter to Gap trying to understand why Gap is firing such an amazing Captain. All of us who contacted Gap got just a bland, bureaucratic letter. It was all about cost cutting. So Gap chose for - "paying peanuts and getting....". I do not know where Capt. Paul is now. I am sure he must be heartbroken about the Red Lady.
Following that event I had a fantasy that Capt. Paul will be back on MS Explorer and four Spices will have safe sailing on the Red Lady again.
Now it turned out the Gap’s short sighted policy of reducing costs ended with sinking a wonderful, extraordinary, unique jewel of a ship. I am really curious how an experienced captain with iceberg-enhanced hull run into "a submerged ice" in calm waters and sunk the Lady.
I feel for the crew and passengers who had to go through a nightmare of being evacuated and suffering hypothermia for about 5 hours until they were rescued.
I do not feel anything but frustration for Gap who by hiring a "less expensive" captain put profit before lives and safety of passengers. Such shortsighted profit driven policy destroyed an amazing and wonderful Little Red Lady.
The Little Red Lady definitely deserved to have a better captain. And she did not deserve unfortunate fate to sink in the Antarctic Ocean.
I wish all the passangers reach safety of their homes soon. I am very, very sorry for the crew who lost their home, belongings and jobs.
For details of the accident check: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/24/america/24ship.php?page=2
More photos of the Little Red Lady and its crew: http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/LittleRedLady
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