17.05.2025 - NEWS LETTER MAY 2025
End of Season Update - Amundsen and Vinson Cape Town Refit - Opportunities in 2025/2026
Towards Cape Town
It is quite a sight to see both Vinson and Amundsen berthed bow to stern down at the East Quay Boatyard in Cape Town. The image is an accolade to the vision of my colleague Nicolas Ibanez that this fleet of sisterships will provide capacity and flexibility for our myriad expedition and educational operations far into the future. They are in demand. Both vessels arrived within a few days of each other at the end of April, inbound from the Falklands on their RYA cruises, having successfully landed on the island of Tristan da Cunha, the icing on the cake of that passage. 
On arrival the two crews got straight into offloading gear into our container to facilitate an end of season clean up and making room for the servicing of all the equipment. And, tied up to Amundsen is Kirsten Neuschäfer’s Minnehaha, the winner of the Golden Globe Race. South African Kirsten is a Pelagic veteran of many seasons in the far south and she is now north on a delivery, back to her roots, her boat safely at home in Cape Town.
Gloden Globe winner Kirstin Neuschäfer’s Minniehaha berthered alongside Amundsen
We certainly dominate Manuel Mendez’s boatyard in the Silo District of the Waterfront. This little quay is the jetty of choice for the kaleidoscope of racing and cruising yachts rounding the Cape that need help. With the Royal Cape Yacht Club full to capacity and the inner basin of the Waterfront unsuitable for a work programme, this quay is essential for us transients, and in addition as a commissioning jetty for Southern Wind Shipyards and Two Oceans Yachts. Long may it last! Hang in there Manuel!!
Within the two and half months of our service period our team of six crew members will be flat out with help from our technical partners Marco from Grandi Maufacturing, Karl from of 1st Mate Electronics, Chris Boock our rigger and Ullman Sails in addition to Manuel and Fabian from the shipyard. This is a team we have been using for not years, but decades now and this is why Cape Town is so attractive for us. As always it is all about the people.
View slide show of the team at work below
Make sure you also visit the Vinson blog site for a flavour of what we do. This is not about frivolities and what we had for breakfast – it is hopefully more cerebral and thought provoking than the run of the mill stuff we are inundated with online. https://www.vinsonofantarctica.org/en/blog
On or about July 15th the two vessels will sail in tandem back across the pond to start the 2025/2026 season.
TRIPS ON OFFER FOR THE 2025/2026 SEASON
Go to the Programme page at https://www.pelagic.co.uk/programme.asp for the full listing with details of each trip.
11 Oct - 8 Nov 2025 - South Georgia – Amundsen - 28 days. 3 places available
29 Nov - 20 Dec 2025 - Falklands Pelagic Adventure Sailing RYA Offshore Training cruise - Vinson - 21 days. 6 places available
1 - 29 Jan 2026 - Antarctic Peninsula 28 day ski randonee expedition with Stephen Venables. One place available.
7 Feb - 7 Mar 2026 - Antarctic Peninsula 28 day "Ice with Everything" Tour. 3 places available
14 March - 26 April 2026 - Pelagic Adventure Sailing RYA Offshore Yachtmaster Theory Course followed by 10 day Falklands Cruise then Delivery Passage from Falkland Islands to Cape Town on board Pelagic 77 Amundsen. 6 places available
March 21 to April 20 2026 - Pelagic Adventure Sailing RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Course followed by Southern Ocean Delivery Passage from Port Stanley in the Falklands to Cape Town on board the Pelagic 77 Vinson of Antarctica. 5 places available
29 Aug - 26 Sept 2026 - South Georgia 28 day ski randonee expedition with Stephen Venables on one of our Pelagic 77 expedition sailing vessels. 8 places available
