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M/V Geise - Polar Voyage

M/V Geise was appointed by Briese Chartering to carry out a voyage with supplies for an upcoming airport ex-tension (consisting mainly of accom-modation containers) from Dalvik, Ice-land to Ilulissat, Greenland.

Ilulissat is located 69°13.5’N hence within the limit of the Arctic: In gen-eral north of 60° but limited by a line from Greenland; south at 58° - north of Iceland, southern shore of Jan Mayen - Bjørnøya – Cap Kanin Nos and conse-quently the vessel needed to be com-patible with the Polar Code.

The ship was expected to stay in Po-lar Code-applicable waters for about 9 days (3 days sailing inbound, 3 days discharging, 3 days sailing outbound).

In order to comply with the Polar Code the Inspection Department prepared a Polar Water Operational Manual and carried out a Polar Water Operational Assessment where basic facts of the

voyage had been considered and nec-essary steps determined.

As this was an exemptional single voyage and was carried out in the warmest month of the year (mid-summer season) a minimum of re-quirements requested by the Polar Code were implemented.

The vessel was not planned to cross the latitude of 70° N; Thus the vessel was operating in Sea Area A3 only for which the vessel is fully fitted.

Ice Construction M/V Geise is classed with ice class, E3, which categorizes the vessel as a C ship (for first year ice to 0.8m). The ice situ-ation for the intended voyage was ex-amined and compared to the previous years. Consequently, no closed ice was expected on the route. The most critical part may have been entering the Disko Bay, where lose ice cakes from the calv-ing glacier may be encountered.

The approach was expected to be ice free for the months June/July until De-cember and the ship was supposed to get a local ice pilot on board for the passage through the arctic area.

Life Saving Appliances and Arrange-ments The weather conditions in Ilulissat (the utmost northern point of the voyage) are rather mild in July with average air temperatures of 5-11°C and water temperatures slightly above 2°C (due to the calving glacier in the Disko Bay).

Hence the ordinary immersion suits on board have been confirmed as conven-ient for the voyage.

The next ‘sunset’ occurred only an 24th of July, thus the ship will be operating in 24-hour daylight and no additional searchlights for the lifeboats had been necessary.

Outfitting Requirements ­ Safety of Navigation / Communication After careful considerations, a second non-magnetic compass as well as a GNSS compass has been installed for this single voyage.

An additional portable Aero VHF for on-scene communication with aircrafts on 121.5 MHz & 123.1 MHz was supplied.

The installed E-Mail and internet com-munication system is enabling the ship to receive ice and weather up-dates which have been provided from the office side on a regular basis, were working well in these latitudes and temperatures.

After the installation of the additional equipment and delivery of the protective

equipment (warm clothes, sunscreen, sunglasses, etc.) including survival kits the Class (DNVGL) conducted a sur-vey on board to check all installations / items and issued a Short Term Polar Ship Certificate.

Finally, the vessel was allowed to con-duct this single voyage.

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