Cruise ship with hundreds of passengers stuck at sea due to “marine growth”

What is this mysterious mushroom that prevents a cruise in international waters between New Zealand and Australia? Since the Viking Orion left Wellington on Boxing Day, the hundreds of passengers on the boat who had begun to find the long time despite the many facilities to keep them entertained could not have stopped. In question, marine growth developed under the liner’s hull.

The cruise departed from Auckland on December 23 for the country’s capital, but from Wellington, the ship was refused permission to dock to clean its hull in Christchurch, Dunedin and Hobart before heading to Adelaide, the newspaper reported. Watchman.

Diagnostics were performed by the Australian National Maritime Coordinating Center who identified “biofouling”, a collection of marine microorganisms, plants, algae or small animals that had accumulated on the ship’s hull. Authorities ordered the Viking Orion to clean its hull before entering Australian waters to avoid any risk of contamination and spread.

If the operation is common, it is clearly not done before leaving. The divers had to clean the hull at anchor outside the territorial waters. The ship was able to resume its voyage on Monday, arriving at the port of Melbourne in Australia.

Enough to piss off cruise passengers. Someone tweeted: “I cried so many times because of the huge financial hit after saving for two years and losing the memories and experiences with my dad”.

The ship’s captain, Marco Snajdar, wrote a letter to passengers on Friday apologizing for the situation: We realize that the current cruise does not meet your expectations.He wrote indicating that a compensation offer would be made to them.