Continuing record performance of providing safe & secure homeward passage for Indian seafarers through Mumbai Port, MBPT achieved rare feet of simultaneous sign-off of 912 crew from Cruise ship ‘Anthem of Seas’ and sign-on of equal number on another cruise ship ‘Celebrity Infinity’ in a single day on June 16, 2020 with advance planning of port, various government authorities and the shipping agent.
• Well, it all began with Royal Caribbean’s ‘Celebrity Infinity’ taking berth at BPX to disembark 910 Indian crew on June 15, 2020. The operation ended by the evening and next Indian port of call was Goa.
• Another vessel ‘Anthem of the Sea’ was already at the inner anchorage waiting to get alongside at OCT berth due to its mammoth size. Anthem had approx. 3000 odd Indian Crew to disembark and out of which 912 crew were for Goa & supposed to travel by road which was a challenge in this lockdown. Moreover, Anthem wasn’t scheduled to call Goa Cruise berth due to its size.
So, it was decided by all agencies that 912 Indian Crew destined for Goa to be shifted to ‘Celebrity Infinity’.
• Berthing & operations required to be well synchronized to achieve this mammoth task in short 8 hours.
• All necessary arrangements were pre-planned and CUSTOMS /IMMIGRATION procedures were completed at BPX terminal. 912 Indian crew de-boarded (Sign-off) ‘Anthems of Sea’ at OCT and boarded (Sign-on) ‘Celebrity Infinity’ at BPX which will sail to Goa to de-board these 912 Indian Crew.
Over all 1822 sign- off and 914 sign-on (Total: 2736) were achieved in two days flat i.e. on 15th & 16th June 2020.
Source: Daily Shipping Times
