La Serenissima

I’m feeling a little disloyal.

Here we are, enjoying a wonderful trip on MS Fram,  a star of the HX Expeditions fleet, and I’m posting a blip of La Serenissima.

MS Serenissima was originally a part of the Hurtigruten Coastal Postal Boat fleet. Depending who you listen to, she was the Harald Jarl way back in 1947. 

She’s had quite a few names, and owners, and been chartered out a lot. She was owned by a Russian before Covid and there were rumours that she’d been scrapped. Last year, on my Scottish cruise with Noble Caledonia, there were suggestions she had been reprieved.

I sailed on her, with Noble Caledonia, to the Azores. It was a magnificent trip. We had a major storm in Sao Jorge and the harbourmaster wouldn’t let us out, so we missed Flores and Corvo. 

Noble Caledonia travellers either adore her, or write complaints and moan. The most usual word used is “quirky”. You’ll have guessed. I love her.

Her lifts were rarely used: they were metal cages so the stairs, a bit rickety, were generally preferred. 

Our sailing from Santa Maria to Lisbon was one of the roughest I’ve experienced ( apart from Maud but that’s another story.)

I was so excited to find that she has returned to her original company, Hurtigruten, and is now doing five day mini cruises around Svalbard.

With our emergency return to Longyearbyen for our medical emergency, I’ve had the chance to see her again. Marvellous...

Edit. 
We were getting ready to go ashore when two flares were shot into the air ashore. Some campers/kayakers suspected a polar bear was close. Our zodiacs went to check. Everyone OK. 
Then our landing restarted.