A luxury cruise ship that charged passengers $33,000 has run aground in a remote area of Greenland — and will be stranded for days in the freezing Arctic awaiting for help to arrive, according to reports.
Aurora Expeditions’ Ocean Explorer, an Australia-based cruise operator carrying 206 passengers and crew, got stuck Monday while navigating through Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northern-most park situation between two glaciers.
To make matters worse, several cases of COVID have been reported on board among the mostly elderly passengers, most of whom are Australian, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We do have a couple of cases of COVID, but there’s a doctor on board,” Steven Fraser told the outlet, adding he contracted the virus aboard the ship.
Fraser, a retired Aussie traveling with his wife, and the rest of the passengers may have to wait several more days before being rescued.
The earliest a vessel can reach the Ocean Explorer is Friday morning, according to Danish authorities.
Representatives for Aurora Expeditions did not immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
The three-week cruise left on Sept. 1 and was slated to return to port on Sept. 22.
Aurora Expeditions, which specializes in polar trips, touts the Ocean Explorer as a 342-foot Nordic vessel with 10 different types of suites and staterooms, each spanning anywhere from 122 to 600 square feet, as well as a gym, wellness center and spa, glass atrium and observation deck.
The ship, which was completed in 2021, was “purpose-built for expedition travel to the world’s most remote destinations” that’s “outfitted with the latest cutting-edge technology.”
“It’s a cruise that a lot of wealthy older people do because they can get out into these wilderness areas,” Fraser told the Australian news site.
However, the Ocean Explorer hasn’t been able to free itself since it ran aground in Greenland’s ocean floor around noon local time on Monday — nearly 900 miles off the coast of Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.
Running aground, which happens when waters aren’t deep enough for a vessel to float, typically occurs accidentally when crews have incorrect information about water depths, there’s operation errors, or a waterway’s bottom suddenly changes structure, according to boating education company BOATERexam.
Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said in a statement that no one on board has been injured, and the ship hasn’t sustained any damage, according to Arctic Command Commander Captain Brian Jensen.
As of Tuesday morning, Arctic Command’s closest inspection vessel, Knud Rasmussen, was 1,200 nautical miles (1,381 land-measured miles) from the cruise ship, JAC said, meaning the rescue boat would arrive at Ocean Explorer by Friday morning.
Before then, Jensen said it’s possible that Ocean Explorer could free itself once the tide becomes high.
JAC shared another update on Wednesday morning assuring that Ocean Explorer is still stuck, though “the atmosphere on the ship is good and everyone on board is fine.”
Fraser, one of 90 Australians aboard, told The Morning Herald that the crew had already attempted to lighten the ship and dig itself out from the ocean floor, which is a mix of sediment, sand and silt left by a nearby glacier.
“They’ve offloaded the anchor … and they’ve taken the lifeboats, so they’re floating in the water but they’re still attached to the boat, just to try and lighten the load a bit,” Fraser told The Morning Herald.
On Aurora Expeditions’ website, 30-day cruises will run passengers as much as $38,895 per person.
It’s next voyage, a 12-day trip set to depart from Argentina on Oct. 30 and travel throughout Antarctica, costs $13,395 per passenger.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
