Wild weather has forced passengers to remain on board the Coral Princess another night
A cruise ship with 2000 people on board that was forced to spend another night in rough seas is expected to dock in Brisbane on Sunday.
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A cruise ship with 2000 people on board that was forced to spend another night in rough seas is expected to dock in Brisbane on Sunday.
The Coral Princess, which was scheduled to dock on Friday morning, remained off Caloundra overnight as the remnants of the East Coast Low the port of Brisbane closed.
Offshore swells between five and six metres prevented a pilot boarding the vessel, on eof more than 20 stranded off the coast.
Princess Cruises spokesman David Jones has confirmed the Coral Princess has begun its four-hour transit from the pilot station to the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal and is due to arrive around lunchtime today.
“Coral Princess is one of more than 20 ships that have been awaiting the reopening of the Port of Brisbane following the recent East Coast Low weather system,” Mr Jones said.
“The Captain has thanked guests for their patience and understanding after the strong weather system closed the Port for an extended period.”
Once the Coral Princess docks and everyone has disembarked, guests for the ship’s next abbreviated voyage will begin with an amended itinerary involving an extended call to Airlie Beach with scheduled calls to Cairns and Port Douglas unavoidably cancelled.
Friday should have marked the conclusion of a 12-night round trip of the Queensland and New South Wales coastlines for the Covid-19-hit vessel, which had reported about 120 cases of the virus when it docked in Sydney on Wednesday.
A note distributed to passengers on Friday morning said that crew anticipated that the ship would commence disembarking around noon Friday, three hours later than the original time of 7am.
Owned by Princess Cruises, part of Carnival Corporation, the Coral-class ship is among several vessels that have been forced to move in circles off the coast of Caloundra after the Port of Brisbane was closed because of wild weather.
The port failed to reopen Saturday, as first anticipated.
A Caloundra Coast Guard radio operator Friday said a lot of ships had been driven further out than they would usually sail because they were battling five metre swells and gale force winds.
The Sunshine Coast had copped flooding, heavy rain and damaging winds with more than 150mm of rain recorded in 24 hours by Friday afternoon.
Wind gusts of up to 90km/h had also been recorded as a monster low kicked up the ocean across the southeast.
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