Hurricane Earl blows Oleander off schedule

Hurricane Earl left Bermuda relatively unscathed but it put a heavy dent in the Oleander’s schedule.

The storm was just off New York on Friday when the container ship was due to set sail across the Atlantic.

Many of the ports along the east coast of the U.S. were closed while the hurricane passed. The Oleander was not able to leave New Jersey until Saturday morning at about 8am.

She arrived in Bermuda on Monday at noon — nearly 24 hours behind her scheduled arrival time.

The Labour Day holiday meant the Oleander’s cargo was only unloaded yesterday.

The vessel brought in more than 150 containers of supplies along with five Peugeot cars and five trailers of construction equipment.

The Oleander left the island yesterday afternoon and is expected to be back on her usual Sunday arrival schedule next week.

Earl also affected the Norwegian Spirit’s visit to Bermuda. She was due to arrive in Dockyard on Sunday at noon but the cruise  ship was forced to leave Boston late so did not dock at the west end until Monday morning. She stayed in Bermuda for an extra day and was due to leave the island first thing this morning.

Two regular cruise callers, the Norwegian Dawn and Summit, are due to arrive at Dockyard today.

Both are in the town until Friday when they head to the U.S.

The Veendam should arrive in Hamilton this morning after spending the night off St. George’s, while the Bermuda Islander is due to dock in Hamilton tomorrow morning before heading back to Salem, New Jersey, on Friday morning.

The same day you may catch sight of the liquid natural gas tanker, Maersk, just off St. George’s. The ship is calling in briefly so her chief engineer can fly home to India on compassionate grounds.

The tanker, on her way from Canada to Peru with a cargo of methane, is due to stop at Five Fathom Hole at about 6am.

A second chief engineer for the vessel is being brought into Bermuda.

Finally, the Norwegian Spirit should be back on schedule by the end of the week and is due to return to Dockyard on Sunday morning.