Cruise Lines

Noble Caledonia has sent me news of an additional cruise to Antarctica it is selling for next year.

Roughly the same time as footage of Clelia II battlilng over the Drake Passage reached me. It reminded me of when I rocked and rolled to the White Continent on Discovery, owned by Voyages of Discovery, a few years ago.

Noble Caledonia's 22-night voyage, from November 11-December 3 2011, is on German cruise line Hapag-Lloyd's 160-passenger expedition ship Bremen, and is designated "international", which means programmes, menus, lectures and expeditions ashore are guaranteed to be in English as well as German.

You'll visit the Falkland Islands and South Georgia before reaching the Antarctic Peninsula.

Prices start from £6,995 per person including flights, two nights' bed and breakfast in Buenos Aires, 18 nights crusing on Bremen and all gratuities. There is no single supplement for category 5 cabins.

And now, just when I've whetted your appetite for Antactica, here is poor old Clelia II, soon to be Orion II for Aussie exploration line Orion Expedition Cruises, pitching about in 100mph winds and waves of up to 40 feet high.

The report says waves broke a window, causing electrical problems that knocked out the ship's communications channel.

I believe the other ship you see is National Geographic Explorer, owned by Lindblad, which was in the area and able to provide some communication equipment after the storm had eased.

Before you look, I have to tell you that although the cruise I did to Antarctica was awful - not quite as bad as this but I endured 36 hours of being tossed about like a cork - it was so worth it. And the Passage was like a mill pond on the way home. So it can behave itself.