Seabridge woes 300 passengers stranded for 10 hours

One of the stranded passengers, Julius Kennedy, 87, said he never thought when he arrived at the port at five o’clock in the morning, he would be embarking on the trip after an excruciating wait of ten long hours.

Kennedy said he and others boarded the TT Express at 6.30 am only to be ordered to disembark after it was discovered that the vessel was experiencing “mechanical difficulties”.

“After 7 am we were advised that the sailing would be cancelled and the next available sailing would be a little after 4 pm,” Kennedy said. Another woman, who declined to give her name, said she was sailing to the sister isle to attend a funeral. “Thank God it’s tomorrow (today). We were told there were some technical problems. We were told to check in at 6.30 am. Passengers were on the boat already and then we had to disembark.

“This is damn nonsense. Every sailing there has been a delay.

I have some stuff that I need to take by boat. It was not convenient for me to fly,” the woman said. Kennedy, with soft drink in hand, took it all in stride.

“They say something wrong in the engine room. I am here since five this morning,” he said.

Contacted yesterday on the issue, Vilma Lewis-Cockburn, manager of public relations at the Port Authority, said that “traditionally”, June and September have been the months where there is low utilisation of the vessels and therefore this was the time when they are serviced.

The vessels would be dry docked between June and September.

Lewis-Cockburn said like with any vehicle, these vessels need to be serviced. “These vessels are entitled to these kinds of breakdowns,” she said.

Lewis-Cockburn said that the authority would be enlisting the assistance of the fast ferries to help with the transportation.