Passengers stranded on a sandbank

//Passengers stranded on a sandbank

MV_Athena.jpg
When a cruise ship visits a port of call where it is not possible to tie up at a quayside or pier, passengers are ferried ashore in tenders – usually part of the ship’s complement of lifeboats.
That’s how passengers from the MV Athena (above) were being taken ashore, on the ship’s first visit to Kangaroo Island, South Australia, until the boat’s engine failed and it was carried by the tide until it ran aground on a sandbar.
A second ship’s tender, returning from the island after safely delivering its passengers, headed for the stranded boat to rescue the 50 people on board.
But that got stuck as well, and the two boats both had to be rescued by a local boat – with a flat bottom. They were all back on the ship after about three-and-a-half hours.
A spokesman for Classic International Cruises, operator of the Athena, “While the passengers were on the stranded tender boat, we brought them extra food and water from the ship to make them more comfortable,”
The MV Athena will be familiar to British cruise passengers from the time it was operated by Travelscope. It sailed to Australia in December.

By | 2017-06-15T16:00:49+00:00 3 February 2009|Cruise News|1 Comment

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

One Comment

  1. marius lee 9 February 2009 at 5:03 am - Reply

    Hi,
    I was one of the unlucky passengers stranded on that tender, the real story is the tender was not in the correct channel as shown by channel markers, it ran aground on a sand bank then while attempting to free it the engine overheated. We were stranded for 5hrs, not 3. And no food was brought to the tender, when we asked for water the tender crew said there wasn’t any onboard. A few hours later when the crew radioed the athena to ask for water they were told of emergency water under our seats. And two tenders that tried to help us got stranded, not just one.

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