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The National Geographic Explorer was well-tested on its positioning trip from Gothenburg to Las Palmas, Canary Islands. The vessel encountered difficult weather all the way to the coast of Spain before finally encountering friendlier conditions the last two days of the voyage.

Captain Olaf Hartmann had this to say about the vessel after the one-week voyage:

“Without any doubt National Geographic Explorer is a strong, healthy and excellent seagoing vessel with very high potential. After the conversion she will make an exquisite expedition ship. Even with of the bad weather and sea conditions, we always felt safe on board this ship. In this context I also like to mention the remarkable average speed made, given the fact that there were gale force winds ranging from Beaufort 8 to 10 and very rough to high seas for the first 5 days of the passage.”

The ship arrived at Las Palmas on Sunday morning. It’s currently alongside at Astican Shipyard, and in the past two days work there has begun in earnest, with the yard workers and subcontractors marking steel to be removed, laying down the lines of cabin locations, verifying actual measurements against drawings, and coordinating the different stages of work. The officers and crew who brought the ship down from Sweden are very happy to be under blue skies, with temperatures in the seventies.

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