News / ‘Bad combination’ of fouled propeller and poor weather leaves Hrossey stranded outside Aberdeen harbour
THE ARRIVAL of the Hrossey into Aberdeen has been delayed by many hours after the lifeline ferry with 83 passengers and 21 cars on board fouled one of her portside propellers.
With the vessel partly incapacitated, she is not allowed to enter Aberdeen harbour without a pilot on board.
However, due to the current weather conditions outside Aberdeen harbour it has not been possible to transfer a pilot to the Hrossey.
NorthLink chief executive Stuart Garrett said the company was in discussions with a number of ports to find a suitable place for the vessel to come alongside to allow divers to inspect the damage.
The vessel can currently be seen on the marinetraffic.com website heading north.
Garrett said: “The rules of harbours are generally that when a ship does not have all its power then it should use pilots and tugs to get in.
“The weather is such at the moment that we can’t get in anyway, nor is the weather safe enough to transfer a pilot from the pilot boat to the big ship. It is a bad combination.”
Garrett said the main task at the moment was to get the vessel to somewhere safe to allow divers “to find out what the issue is.”
“We just need to get there and have a look at it,” he said. “We really need to get alongside somewhere; we are speaking to various ports.”
He said there were currently no plans to disembark passengers elsewhere.
Tonight’s scheduled sailing of the Hrossey from Aberdeen to Kirkwall and Lerwick has already been cancelled.
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