ruben.maritime: Cruise vessel freed from Plate

Cruise vessel freed from Plate

BUENOS AIRES 19 January – Pullmantur’s 46,000-gt cruise ship Sky Wonder (until last year P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Sky) was refloated yesterday in a 20-hour operation in the River Plate. The vessel departed from Buenos Aires on Wednesday evening but was pushed out of the navigation channel by strong winds about 7km from the Argentine port. There were 570 crew and 1,612 mostly-Brazilian passengers on board. With the aid of three tugs and a favourable tide, the Wonder was freed at 1530 local time; after inspection, it continued its passage to Punta del Este, Uruguay. Argentine coastguards told Fairplay the grounded cruise ship did not obstruct the main channel – large container ships arrived at and departed from Buenos Aires unhindered. As Pacific Sky, the vessel ran aground south of Noumea in September 2005, lost cruises through gearbox failure in May 2005, suffered a blown boiler valve and engine breakdown in November 2004, and in March 2003 was found to have “very, very serious” corrosion that was so bad that some internal bulkheads had parted from the hull. Last year Pullmantur was taken over by Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Etiquetas: cruises, maritime incident