PONANT Explorations’ Le Commandant-Charcot (pictured), the world’s only luxury icebreaker, arrived in Hobart this week, marking her first-ever visit to Australia (CW yesterday). The ship docked on Sat afternoon, concluding a landmark half-circumnavigation of Antarctica, sailing through some of the continent’s most remote and rarely accessed regions. Le Commandant-Charcot visited...
PONANT Explorations’ Le Commandant-Charcot (pictured), the world’s only luxury icebreaker, arrived in Hobart this week, marking her first-ever visit to Australia (CW yesterday).
The ship docked on Sat afternoon, concluding a landmark half-circumnavigation of Antarctica, sailing through some of the continent’s most remote and rarely accessed regions.
Le Commandant-Charcot visited Adlie Land, Wilkes Land, the Shackleton Ice Shelf, and Queen Mary Land, which she will again visit in two years’ time, when she sails a full Antarctic Circumnavigation (CW 15 Feb), which will depart from Australia.
“This is a deeply personal moment for me,” Captain Stanislas Devorsine said.
“I spent many years in Hobart and had the privilege of commanding L’Astrolabe for a decade, at the heart of the long-standing French-Australian collaboration in Antarctica.
“When Ponant Explorations launched this project in 2018, I was proud to share my icebreaker experience as Le Commandant-Charcot was being designed,” Devorsine added.
The ship will now sail to Cape Town via Antarctica, before heading off on a 20-night voyage to her home nation of France.
Le Commandant-Charcot will then proceed on her northern hemisphere polar season. MS
