Power cuts prevented the tricky task of nudging a newly-built cruise liner

[proud_ionian]

Power cuts across Europe prevented the tricky task of nudging a newly-built cruise liner, the Norwegian Pearl, down a narrow German stream to the open sea early Sunday. The dockyard had hoped to shift the 294-metre vessel, which can accommodate 2,400 passengers, down the Ems river during the night. But with electricity companies desperate to restore power in Europe, a high-voltage line that crosses the river could not be switched off.

A spokeswoman for German power generator Eon said Sunday in Munich: "We still don't know exactly what caused the cuts." A full analysis of what happened could take several days.

The Saturday night power cuts had a chain-reaction effect as far away as Spain.

Since the line overhanging the Ems was considered a danger, the ship's delivery run was cancelled at 11 pm Saturday. The inland dockyard in Papenburg specializes in building luxury passenger vessels, but it is difficult to tug them to the open sea.

"It would have been too much of a risk to the ship to take it under a live high-tension line," said dockyard spokesman Peter Hackmann. The operation would resume in the daytime Sunday.

The vessel is set for delivery to Norwegian Cruise Line in Southampton, England at the end of this month.

source: The Raw Story

[proud_ionian]

A Black PEARL?

November 5: The rolling blackouts that swept through Belgium, France, Spain and even touched Morocco today were blamed on Germany, some experts blamed the outages on the temporary disconnection of a 380,000-volt trunk line which hangs over the River Ems. The line was powered down to allow the delivery of NCL's NORWEGIAN PEARL from Meyer Werft shipyard at Papenburg. After the outages occurred the electric company re-activated the line thus cancelling the transfer of the 294-meter ship down the narrow waterway to the sea until tomorrow or later. Other experts said the trunk line closure was but a piece of a more complex problem arising from a surge of power from Germany's wind-power turbines. The new vessel is set for delivery to Norwegian Cruise Line in Southampton, UK at the end of November.

maritime matters

[rd77]

I just saw pictures of this ship doing trials at sea on November 7th, so I take she was successfully moved out in the end....

Brgds.

rd77