Cruise & Maritime Voyages? (CMV) ship Columbus has arrived in London Tilbury after completing month-long repatriation voyage to the UK which sailed from Phuket, Thailand on March 18.
CMV has recorded no COVID-19 cases with any passengers or crew members on board Columbus or any other ships in their fleet of six.
Columbus sailed back to the UK with 907 passengers including 602 British nationals and 619 crew members on-board. The voyage included a technical call in Colombo, Sri Lanka, transited the Suez Canal and five passengers were repatriated via tender to Malta and Gibraltar before Columbus arrived at the London Cruise Terminal at Tilbury.
CMV carried out a passenger transfer operation at sea, just off the coast of Phuket, to transfer British Nationals from CMV?s Vasco da Gama to Columbus to bring them home to London. At the same time, Australian passengers were transferred from Columbus to Vasco da Gama in order to repatriate them to Fremantle.
CMV confirmed that a strict phased disembarkation process incorporating social distancing measures is taking place (April 14-15). CMV has worked with the passengers of other nationalities on-board Columbus and their respective embassies to ensure their safe onward travel home.
All other CMV cruise ships have returned to their home ports except Vasco da Gama which is returning to London Tilbury with no passengers on board, due to arrive on April 30.
Christian Verhounig, CEO at Cruise & Maritime Voyages, said: ?We are proud of our on-board and shore-side teams for their fantastic job organising this repatriation voyage to bring our passengers home. On behalf of the directors, staff and especially our crew, CMV would like to thank all of our passengers for their support, patience and understanding at this time.?
