The Danish navy’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC) confirmed after an inspection of the stranded vessel makes an attempt to free it had been profitable.
“The crew and passengers are in a difficult situation, but after the circumstances, the atmosphere on the ship is good and everyone on board is fine,” the JAC stated in a press release.
The precedence now was getting the Danish navy’s Knud Rasmussen inspection vessel to the location.
The JAC stated it was anticipated to reach by Friday afternoon native time.
Australian cruise operator Aurora Expeditions advised 9news.com.au about 90 Australians had been on board the Ocean Explorer.
Liz, from Wodonga in Victoria, was one in all them and advised Today this morning in regards to the lead-up to the cruise ship operating aground.
“We were standing on our balcony because we had just taken off from the glacier and we realised very quickly that we were about to get stuck in the mud,” she stated.
“So having been a bit of a boatie myself, you could feel the pull of the boat as we pulled up and realised we were in trouble straight away.”
The Northeast Greenland National Park covers 972,000 sq. kilometres, nearly as a lot land as France and Spain mixed, and roughly 80 per cent is completely lined by an ice sheet, in response to the Visit Greenland tourism board.
Alpefjord sits in a distant nook of Greenland, some 240 kilometres away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is sort of 1,400 kilometres from the nation’s capital, Nuuk.
The Ocean Explorer’s crew made two failed makes an attempt to get the ship to drift free by itself throughout excessive tide.
Aurora Expeditions stated on Wednesday the passengers and crew members had been protected and properly and that there was “no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel, or the surrounding environment”.
“We are actively engaged in efforts to free the MV Ocean Explorer from its grounding. Our foremost commitment is to ensure the vessel’s recovery without compromising safety,” the assertion stated.
Aurora Expeditions has been contacted about reported instances of COVID-19 aboard the ship.
Sydney couple Steven Fraser — who has come down with COVID-19 — and Gina Hill stated the expedition crew was occupying passengers with talks and the restaurant was nonetheless working.
“It’s a little bit frustrating, but we are in a beautiful part of the world.
“We’re sitting proper close to the glacier after we open our window.”
Dozens of cruise ships sail along Greenland’s coast every year so passengers can admire the picturesque mountainous landscape with fjords, musk oxen, and the waterways packed with icebergs of different sizes and glaciers jutting out into the sea.
The JAC said the passengers on the Ocean Explorer were “a combination” of tourists from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and South Korea.
The Ocean Explorer was built in 2021 and is owned by Copenhagen SunStone Ships, which is part of Denmark’s SunStone Group. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine. It has 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants, according to the Sunstone Group website.
The JAC said there were other ships in the vicinity of the stranded cruise liner and “if the necessity arises, personnel from the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol might be on the accident website inside an hour and a half”.
On Tuesday, members of the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, visited the passengers and explained the situation, “which calmed them down as some had been anxious”, Madsen, who was the on-duty officer for the Joint Arctic Command, said.
The command, which was coordinating the operation to free the cruise ship, said the nearest Danish navy ship was more than 2,000 kilometres away. It was heading to the site and could be expected to reach the grounded ship as soon as Friday.
The major mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to make sure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the world across the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, together with the Arctic Ocean within the north.
Source: www.9news.com.au
