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Poseidon extends Sea Spirit charter, still planning newbuild

Sea Spirit.jpg
The 114-passenger Sea Spirit migrates between the northern and southern polar regions
Poseidon Expeditions signed an agreement to extend its charter of Sea Spirit from SunStone Ships by two years.

This will keep the 114-passenger Sea Spirit sailing for Poseidon until May 2024.

Newbuild plans 'still moving forward'

Poseidon Founder and President Nikolay Saveliev added that plans are still moving forward for a newbuild to carry fewer than 150 passengers, but an official announcement with details is to come.

Small-ship advantages

'With the Sea Spirit, we have a smaller-capacity, premium vessel that’s perceived as very desirable compared with most of the newly announced polar-class ships in the range of 200 to 500 passengers,' Saveliev said.

'Those wanting to go to Antarctica or to the Arctic understand the advantages that a smaller vessel can provide — better access to remote areas and landing sites, more "face time" with the expedition team and a camaraderie among guests and staff that is more difficult to achieve aboard larger ships.'

High performance in the polar regions

According to Saveliev, Sea Spirit has delivered a consistently high level of service and performance in the polar regions thanks to its officers, catering and hospitality team. SunStone, he said, has done a 'great job keeping the passenger areas renovated and the technical features consistently updated,' for example, by installing the latest Rolls-Royce zero-speed stabilizers in 2019.

'Combined with our exceptional expedition staff, which curates experiences for our guests that are engaging, educational and fun, it’s no wonder the Sea Spirit achieves a 4.9 ranking out of a possible 5 from TrustPilot, the well-established third-party review site,' Saveliev added.

Sea Spirit migrates between the two polar regions, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean from late October through mid-March and the sub-Arctic and Arctic regions of the British Isles, Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Greenland from mid-May through September.

Poseidon Expeditions has sales offices in the US, UK, Germany, Russia, Cyprus and China.