A cruise ship has been stranded at sea off the coast of Australia after breaking down early this morning.

The Vasco da Gama, travelling from London, lost all power and was drifting in the St Vincent Gulf near Adelaide for hours.

About 900 passengers were stuck on-board without food or even working toilets.

Shot of Vasco da Gama from the news chopper. Passengers telling @9NewsAdel “Fiasco De Gama” is listing at 15 degrees & more tug boats are on their way to help pic.twitter.com/e8gdR1Jg5U

— Sam Okely (@samokely) December 5, 2019

Listener Ian called Steve Price from his cabin saying it’s been “absolutely horrific”.

“We’re drifting. We’ve got no power, no water, no toilets, no cooking, nothing!

“They’ve got auxiliary power to light the corridors but that is it. It’s like a ghost ship, mate.”

Click PLAY below to hear Ian’s call

Ian and his wife have been on the ship since London, saying it was supposed to be the “cruise of a lifetime”.

He tells Steve it’s turned into the exact opposite.

“The ship’s just going around in circles, it’s being blown around by light breezes.

“We’re just completely buggered.”

Image: Marine Traffic

The cruise company, CMV Australia, confirmed there was a problem but initially refused to say what it was.

CMV Australia now says the outage was part of a “controlled precautionary blackout” and the boat is now sailing again.

Full statement from Cruise & Maritime Voyages:

“Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) cruise ship MV Vasco da Gama went into a controlled precautionary blackout early this morning at approx 0545hrs whilst sailing in the vicinity of the Port of Adelaide. Local authorities were notified of the incident as a precaution by the ship’s Captain.

An alarm light on the engine control room’s panel led the vessel’s officers to initiate a controlled blackout as a precaution against damage to systems onboard and in order to investigate the alarm.

All precautionary post-incidents checks were completed with no causes for concern identified. Power was fully restored later in the morning and the vessel resumed sailing towards the port of Adelaide per its scheduled itinerary.

The 55,877 GRT Vasco da Gama is currently on a East Coast Discovery cruise with 828 passengers on board. The ship has an excellent record of reliability and all passengers on board were kept informed of the technical problem experienced.”

 

Feature Image: CMV Australia