Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage

Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage

Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage, Semester at Sea, MV Explorer, Ralph Tribbery
Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage, Semester at Sea, MV Explorer, Ralph Tribbery
The MV Explorer made an unscheduled arrival at Portland Harbour (about 50 miles from her final destination) at 5:30 yesterday afternoon (April 27).

This former Royal Navy base is one of the largest man-made harbors in the world and the MV Explorer is sitting at anchor smack dab in the middle of it (technically, the floating campus is still at sea).

At least the farewell Captain’s Dinner was calm for all souls.

Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage, Semester at Sea, MV Explorer, Ralph Tribbery


At some point this evening the MV Explorer will hoist anchor and make the two-hour jump to Southampton … the students, faculty and staff are set to disembark at 8:00 AM local time on April 29.

This will end the MV Explorer’s 11-year service as our floating campus. During that time she has logged 652,718 nautical miles (give or take) during 35 voyages (11 Summer, 2 Maymester, 11 Fall and 11 Spring).

During her service she made 455 port calls (including embarkation and debarkation ports), spent 1,643 days at sea and 1,460 in port.

Ports of call were in 60 different countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Crete, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam. (Technically-speaking, Scotland and England are both part of the United Kingdom; ditto for Crete and Greece and the Canary Islands and Spain … so for purist, 57 different political units, but who is counting).

The MV Explorer is the only floating campus to visit Diego Garcia (medical emergency during Spring 2011 voyage) and the only floating campus to cross the International Dateline in both directions in the same day (Spring 2005 voyage).

She made five transits of both the Panama Canal and the Kiel Canal and two passages of the Suez Canal.

Semester at Sea: Spring 2015 Voyage, Semester at Sea, MV Explorer, Ralph Tribbery
A sharp turn into the "gas" station and then back on course to Casablanca ... The MV Explorer bunkering for fuel in the Canary Islands today (Las Palmas) ...