Early this week five tug boats were called out from Freeport Bahamas to pull the 93,300-ton cruise ship MSC Poesia from a reef just two miles from the port.
Passengers boarded the just days before in Ft Lauderdale Florida for Holy Ship, an electronic music festival featuring popular musicians including Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Fatboy Slim. The star attractions were believed to be aboard Sunday morning at 7 am when passengers where awoken by a “huge bang” followed by “screams of panic”.
The Broward Times reports that the hard grounding was followed by a day-long operation to pull the massive cruise ship from the reef, an exercise which lasted until 10 p.m that evening. According to one passenger “The entire time the tugboats were pulling and the ship’s engine was running in reverse, it was a constant rattling and shaking of the boat.”
A local diver has reported that the reef is located in 15 feet of water, far short of the ship’s reported draft of 26 feet. No reports on the extent of damaged caused by either the hard grounding or her forceful removal from the reef but company representatives report that the vessel will continue on schedule. “We are very proud of our crew and fabulous guests. The ship is continuing its regular Caribbean schedule.” reported one company representative on Twitter.
If you missed your chance to rock out aboard a ship, no worries, the Weezer Carnival Cruise starts next week and gCaptain has been informed that ship, the Carnival Destiny, will have all their charts & pubs updated prior to departure.
Incident Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZQKpFHbZ04#!
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