The plan was for the Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV) ships Vasco da Gama and Columbus to refuel, reprovision and swap passengers in the port of Phuket, Thailand before returning to their respective homeports to be temporarily laid up. When barred from entering Phuket and all other Southeast Asian ports over coronavirus concerns, however, CMV got creative. The two ships rendezvoused 12 miles off the coast of Thailand and transferred 239 passengers and over 500 pieces of luggage by launch. 

The CMV Columbus had been on a 120 night round the world voyage while the CMV Vasco da Gama had been on a 71-day voyage one-way from Fremantle to London Tilbury. On February 13th, CMV decided to temporarily cease operations given the concerns about the spread of the coronavirus and the challenges associated with port closures and restrictions.

Management decided to move passengers bound for the UK and Europe onto the CVM Columbus which will be returning to Tilbury in the UK and to move Australian and New Zealand bound passengers on to the CVM Vasco da Gama which is sailing directly back to Australia. When no port was available to swap the over 200 passengers, CVM made the transfer at sea. Provisions and bunkers were also loaded off the coast of Phuket before the ships’ onward voyages.

Christian Verhounig, CEO of CMV said, “We are tremendously proud of our onboard and shoreside teams for their fantastic job in delivering this safe and effective evacuation and relief operation. On behalf of the directors, staff and especially our hard-working crew, CMV would like to thank all our current passengers for their support, patience, and understanding during this repatriation operation.”

“These guys, who you never see, busted their guts out today transferring huge, heavy suitcases in very choppy seas. My hats go off to you,” said passenger Angie Browne on a Facebook page for Vasco da Gama cruisers.

No passengers on either ship have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.