Vikramaditya & John Wilbert
Port Blair, July 19: MV Coral Queen vessel which sailed for Nancowry yesterday night with 340 passengers had to sail back to Port Blair nearly four hours after sailing, due to adverse weather conditions and rough sea.
As per details, the ship sailed from Haddo Port of Port Blair at around 7.00 PM and when it reached near brother Island at around 11.00 PM, the decision was taken to take the ship back to Port Blair because of unfavorable weather conditions, considering the safety of passengers.
The ship reached near Port Blair by 3.00 AM and later the ship was berthed at Haddo Port. In morning all passengers were given free breakfast and by 10.30 AM passengers were informed that the sailing has been cancelled because of adverse weather and details of next sailing will be informed to them in coming days.
The Indian Coast Guard has already issued a weather advisory mentioning that the recent weather forecast indicates likely formation of low pressure area over northwest Bay of Bengal & it’s neighborhood from today. “Under it’s influence, squally weather with high wind speed and rough sea conditions are likely to remain over Andaman sea from 19 to23 July 2021,” the advisory added.
As per details the Directorate of Shipping Services will plan next sailing only after improvement of weather conditions.
Meanwhile according to passengers they had a terrible time onboard MV Coral Queen as sea was unbelievably rough. “It was like we were jumping on the bed due to the choppy sea. The captain took a very sensible decision to return back to Port Blair considering safety of passengers,” said a passenger talking to Andaman Sheekha this morning.
