ORIANA and the rough seas in Funchal - 20/12/2010

The month of December 2010, was in Funchal bay, a period with rough seas, as it's normal in the Season. In the first days of the month, 5 cruise ship calls were canceled, one of them being P&O's Arcadia. Some days later, on the 17th, Cunard's QUEEN ELIZABETH delayed her berthing for 8 hours due to bad weather.On the 20th of December, the bay was again having rough seas and strong winds blowing from southwest, a great nightmare for any captain to dock his ship in Funchal. So captain Ian Hutley, in ORIANA at the time, was in charge to berth the ship in these conditions. ORIANA arrived in the bay about 11 am from Southampton, and the captain went for the most reasonable atempt in this weather, to berth by portside. A tugboat went to assist her in this operation. However the first atempt was a failure as ORIANA changed heading south to wait for an opening.About midday, ORIANA went for a second atempt, the tug was nearby and after a carefull manouver, she managed to berth nice and safely, with lot's of eyes observing from the shore.Also in port that day were the 1983 built THOMSON SPIRIT and the most recent AIDA ship, the 71.000 gross tons AIDA BLU.Scheduled to arrive by late afternoon, her fleetmate AURORA, also experienced rough seas at the arrival. ORIANA left her moorings by 6 pm, and afterwards AURORA on a first atempt made her safe berthing. Next followed a nice overnight in Funchal after the voyage from Southampton.AURORA prepares to berth while ORIANA on the background leaves for Tenerife.
Photos by João Abreu.