The new cruise ship for British Saga Cruises, Spirit of Discovery, will probably leave Papenburg on Sunday, May 26 2019 to be conveyed on the river Ems to Emden. The ship is planned to arrive in Emden on Monday, May 27, at 08.00 am. Later on the ship will go through several days of technical and nautical sea trials on the North Sea.
The Ems barrier will be helping Spirit of Discovery to pass through the river Ems, a procedure which will be kept as short as possible. The following schedule has been drawn up for the conveyance of the new cruise ship, with changes possible at short notice due to the weather and tidal conditions:
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Approx. 09.00 pm: ship in waiting position (Papenburg)
Approx. 10.00 pm: ship passes sea lock (Papenburg)
Monday, May 27, 2019
Approx. 00.30 am: ship passes Friesenbrücke (Weener)
Approx. 02.30 am: ship passes the Jann Berghaus bridge (Leer)
Approx. 05.00 am: arrival at the river Ems barrier (Gandersum)
Approx. 06.45 am: ship passes the Ems barrier
Approx. 08.00 am: arrival Emden sea lock
!! All details are subject to the wind, weather and water levels and are therefore without guarantee. Timings can be changed at short notice!!
Once again, a team of river pilots from Emden will be responsible for manoeuvring the ship to Emden. The pilots on the river Ems also looked after the MEYER WERFT ships during their passage to the North Sea in previous years. The whole team trained the conveyance at the computerised simulator in Wageningen (Netherlands) to be better prepared for the task.
Spirit of Discovery will proceed in reverse up the river Ems to the North Sea. This approach has proven successful in the past as it makes it easier to manoeuvre the ship. Two tugs will be providing assistance in the process.
Spirit of Discovery is the first of two ships for the successful British cruise line. The ships each have an overall length of 236 metres, a width of 31.2 metres and a tonnage measurement of 58,250 GT. The sister ship, Spirit of Adventure, will be completed by MEYER WERFT in summer 2020.
Meanwhile, MEYER WERFT continues to work flat out on other ships: building dock II currently houses the Norwegian Encore which is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2019 for Norwegian Cruise Line (USA), while Iona for P&O is planned to be completed in spring 2020.
For more information and photos, please go to www.meyerwerft.de; www.facebook.com/meyerwerft and www.youtube.com/meyerwerft