Carib Queen Passengers get a scare
By Cherisse M. Sutton-Jeffers
Reporter SKNVibes.com
~~Adz:Left~~BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: A frightening experience at sea has left a bitter taste in the mouth of some Ferry passengers who traversed the waters from St. Kitts to Nevis on the Carib Queen Ferry on Saturday February 16.
SKNVibes.com spoke with one passenger who claimed her nerves were still on edge after the incident.
According to the young mother, she boarded the Carib Queen at about 1 p.m. headed for Nevis when about ten minutes into the journey, the boat started experiencing some difficulty.
“Soon after we left the pier the boat suddenly came to a stop and then started spinning around in the water. Workers on the boat started moving back and forth but nobody told us what was going on. You could see that most of the passengers were kinda worried at that point,” she said.
The woman continued to say that it was only after the boat had been at a standstill for approximately forty-five minutes that the captain told one of the crew members to announce that there was a problem.
“It’s only after passengers started to get irate and demanded to know what was going on that they told us the boat was experiencing difficulties. They said that we should not worry, they were just experiencing steering problems."
She said that after some tinkering by the crew, the boat started moving once more. This didn’t last long, she said, since the boat encountered the same problem again off the coast of Nevis near to the Four Seasons Hotel.
“We were there again for some time and we saw the Four Seasons boat approaching. The passengers thought the boat was coming to offload persons but instead they brought a kit with what seemed to be oil or something. By this time it seemed most of the passengers were more frustrated than frightened.”
She recounted how in the end, the boat started running again and finally made its way to Nevis, arriving just after 3 p.m.
The woman said that the ordeal caused her much inconvenience and she, along with other passengers, vowed never to travel on the Carib Queen again.
“A lot of passengers were asking back for their money and some said they wouldn’t travel on that Ferry again. Imagine a forty five minute trip turned into more than two hours. That had to be a record for the longest trip ever to Nevis on a Ferry.”
