IONA IS UNABLE TO DOCK IN MADEIRA AND IS THE FOURTH STOPOVER CANCELED IN THREE DAYS

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

The cruise ship ‘Iona’, the largest that has ever docked in the Port of Funchal, after its debut in October last year, canceled its call in the Region due to strong seas. It is already the fourth stopover in just three days.

The giant of the seas was scheduled to arrive at 5:45 am this Wednesday. However, after two failed mooring attempts, he ended up canceling the stopover and is now on his way to the Canary Islands.

As reported by JM, the ship AidaNova canceled the stopover in Madeira last Monday. On Tuesday, in turn, the ships Mein Schiff 4 and AidaMar were prevented from docking due to bad weather at sea.

This morning, ‘Pontinha’ should receive Iona, who was scheduled to start at 4:30 pm this Wednesday. However, the difficult weather conditions dictated that he anticipate his trip to Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

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Tobi Hughes

6 Responses

  1. Watched it live on webcam this morning from a rather windy Grangemouth in Scotland and it didn’t appear to be rough seas after all the ferry managed to leave ok

  2. Was Iona trying to moor alongside a jetty, or is it too large for that and so was anchoring outside the harbour. [But then how would passengers disembark in numbers?]

    1. She can get in the harbour, she was in Funchal in October last year when I was there The sheer size of her is her downfall, the wind hitting her side on makes her hard to manoeuvre. Mein Schiff 4 had the same problem a day back whereas the smaller ship the Seabourn Encore managed to dock ok.

      1. A quick search says she runs on LNG, but not whether she has azimuth thrusters. Presumably has transverse thrusters of some sort. Thanks for the info.

        1. I know with these modern cruise ships that instead of long prop shafts connected to propellers they have two or three pods with propellers at the stern and each pod has a powerful electric motor and each pod can be swivelled for steering. Towards the bow they have side thrusters. These features make these ships incredibly manouverable and rarely ever need tugboat assistance. As I mentioned, their one drawback is that side-on they are like a giant sail in strong winds.

  3. I was on IONA in January, we were due to Dock in Madeira on the 18th ,but guess what the call was aborted due to strong winds .This is happening far to often ,when people book a cruise to these lovely islands especially Madeira they expect except on the odd occasion to visit them.It is all very well these cruise companies building these huge vessels but if they cannot Dock !!!WHAT IS THE POINT’EXCEPT MAKE LOADS OF MONEY BUT DON’T GIVE THE CUSTOMER WHAT THEY WANT .

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