Sick passengers keep crew busy

Sick cruise passengers dominated the beginning of the week for the Pilot Boat crew.

They were in action three times in just two days ferrying stricken voyagers from their ship to dry land.

The Carnival Splendor had arrived in Bermuda last Thursday and chose to go 30 miles offshore when there was no space for her in Dockyard because of ongoing work to Heritage Wharf. But she was forced to come back into Five Fathom Hole in the early hours of Sunday morning to deliver a sick passenger, who was then relayed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The Splendor went back out to sea but had to come in again to Five Fathom Hole just 12 hours later to deliver yet another sick passenger.

And then on Monday the Norwegian Epic was forced to divert to the same spot off St David’s on her way to Madeira after a passenger fell ill on the trans-Atlantic journey.

The passenger was brought into St George’s on the Pilot Boat at around 3:30pm and transported to hospital while the ship continued on her way towards Europe.

Elsewhere this week the Swedish training ship HMS Falkan is scheduled to arrive in Hamilton tomorrow.

Later this week the gravel ship, White Pearl, will head into Penno’s Wharf in St George’s to drop off 10,000 tonnes of aggregate that will be used in various island construction projects.

The Old Town has also hosted a couple of interesting motor yachts over the last week. The distinct frigate-like greyness of ‘Skat’ together with its ‘9906’ project number emblazoned on the hull could be seen off Ordnance Island before it left on Monday bound for Europe. The 232ft vessel is owned by Charles Simonyi, a former software engineer for Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Fountainhead and its cluster of white radar antennas has been anchored in St George’s Harbour since last week and is due to head to Europe soon.