Covid News

Disconsolate passengers stuck on a cruise ship moored in Lisbon's port for five days due to a COVID-19 outbreak began disembarking early on Monday, focused on clearing the final hurdle of a negative test before boarding homebound flights.The AIDAnova, carrying 2,844 passengers and 1,353 crew, had docked in Portugal's capital on Wednesday.The ship was en route to the island of Madeira for New Year's Eve celebrations, but its German operator decided to cut the cruise short after COVID-19 was detected among what it said was a fully vaccinated crew…

As the maritime world laments the treatment of seafarers during the COVID pandemic, and the general public generally ignores the call to designate seafarers as "key workers" to help facilitate efficient crew changes globally, one British seafarer recently trained onboard his ship for months to prepare for the London Marathon, a race he recently completed to aid maritime welfare charity, Sailors’ Society. George Belcher is a third engineer who has served as a mariner for more than seven years.

When MS Otto Sverdrup departed Hamburg, Germany, on itsmaiden voyage on August 24, Hurtigruten marked off three milestones: Introduction of Hurtigruten Expeditions’ third battery-hybrid powered cruise ship; Introduction of the first year-round expedition cruises from Germany; and a return of expedition cruises after more than a year of pandemic pause.Since the very first expedition cruise in 1896, Hurtigruten Expeditions has helped to define the expedition cruise category, with today a growing fleet of smaller…

"I've seen grown men cry," says Captain Tejinder Singh, who hasn't set foot on dry land in more than seven months and isn't sure when he'll go home."We are forgotten and taken for granted," he says of the plight facing tens of thousands of seafarers like him, stranded at sea as the Delta variant of the coronavirus wreaks havoc on shore."People don't know how their supermarkets are stocked up."Singh and most of his 20-strong crew have criss-crossed the globe on an exhausting odyssey: from India to the United States then on to China…