Costa Pacifica

The Costa Pacifica left Savona in the north west corner of Italy on the 18th April and will arrive in Kiel, Germany on the 28th April. This morning her guests enjoyed Guernsey having last sailed from Porto in Portugal.

Unbeknown to the guests on board they were going to be the first real test for the new pontoon and tendering area in St Peter Port. The Costa Pacific with a capacity for 3,500 guests was the largest to visit so far this year, and on a half day visit, which squeezes the tender traffic into a very short period, it was always going to be a challenge.

The new crossing point on the Albert Pier proved a problem as local officials wished to keep the road clear. This pushed queues back towards town, and stopped the more orderly queuing arrangement of previous years. One of the advantages of the new area is that there are cafes close by which some guests took advantage of, rather than spending their time in Guernsey in a queue.

Speaking to a Costa shoreside crewman, there seems to be a limit to the number of tenders allowed to be used at any one time causing a tailback of guests. The local Sark ferry, Sark Venture, was chartered which helped to ease the situation and speed up the process. The Costa Pacifica left early afternoon for Amsterdam where she should arrive at midday tomorrow.