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From: Sophie stigfur, Linus Lindgren
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The Viking Grace ship has been stranded since Saturday afternoon.
Several hundred passengers have spent the night on the ferry, but they will soon have to go ashore.
– It went very well, we are very happy with the operation, says Christer Eklund, Maritime Surveillance Section of Western Finland, who announces that the ship is already in port.
The Viking Grace ferry has been grounded since 1 o’clock on Saturday just a few hundred meters from the edge of the harbor at Mariehamn in Åland. The ferry left Stockholm with a final destination to Turku.
Almost 430 people, 331 passengers and 98 of the crew, however, have had to spend the night on board the ship, as the winds were deemed too strong to start the massive ship.
Now the Western Finnish Maritime Surveillance Section claims they have managed to tow the ferry away from the base it was at at 04am on Sunday morning.
– It went very well, we are very happy with the operation. The divers went down and examined the boat and found no holes or oil leaks or anything like that. We will start evacuating people on board in about an hour, says Christer Eklund, a maritime rescue operator with the Western Finland Maritime Surveillance Section.
Have coffee on the ferry
Once passengers have been allowed to disembark at Mariehamn Pier, they will be checked in and then returned to Viking Grace.
– There they will have a coffee while they wait for the connection of the ferries, says Eklund.
Approximately 200 of the passengers on board will be transported on a new ferry to the final destination, Turku. There will also be a ferry back to Stockholm, where Viking Grace came from, during the day.
Photo: Western Finland Maritime Surveillance Section
Viking Grace on Mariehamn Pier.
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