OREANDA-NEWS. December 01, 2009. The week-long voyage among Antarctic ice of the icebreaker "Kapitan Khlebnikov", Far Eastern Shipping Company PLC., under the command of master Victor Vasiliev, compelled an international attention. For 5 days the icebreaker was threading way through Antarctic permafrost ice blocks coming from all sides.

Now the icebreaker "Kapitan Khlebnikov" is carring out a regular cruise to coasts of Antarctic continent moving toward Ushuaia, Argentina port. There are more than 100 tourists on board, mainly from England.

Cruise time to the northeast-end of Antarctic Peninsula, near to Snow Hill’s island, which is one of sights of the local archipelago, was prolonged for several days because of the complex ice situation and unfavorable weather conditions. This Antarctic zone has an intensive cyclonic activity that has a direct impact on ice twitch and drift acceleration. It is impossible to avoid deterioration of ice conditions in fast changing weather at the start of Antarctic spring because of a big quantity of ice at the approaches to Antarctic.

However, the said conditions were not extraordinary, nothing non-normal for the icebreaker of Far Eastern Shipping Company occurred. Victor Vasiliev, the master of the icebreaker "Kapitan Khlebnikov", who has been carrying out Antarctic expeditions for 2 decades, successfully coped with next problem which is set by intractable and uncompromising nature before person.

— "The feature of the Antarctic tourism is: passengers are always warned of the possible delays of voyage" – Vyacheslav Naganyuk, the Director of Special Fleet Department of Far Eastern Shipping Company PLC., commented.

— "I think, passengers will remember this voyage, as tourists are confronted with real difficulties of the Arctic voyages among beauty of Antarctic Peninsula. And overcoming is a destiny of the professionals-icebreakers of Far Eastern Shipping Company PLC".