The change in weather conditions and the arrival of the trade wind at the port of Granadilla forced the docking of the ship Hondius on the Canary coast, despite the reluctance and outright rejection shown by the Government of the Canary Islands at all times for the cruise ship to come ashore. Shortly after docking, the ship set course for the Netherlands.
Shortly after the cruise ship set sail, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, assured that “the mission has been accomplished” and concluded the operation “successfully, efficiently, with commitment, transparency, and humanity, and that is a source of national pride.” She also emphasized that “all safety measures” had been taken, including when docking the ship.
The waves that rose in the area forced, for safety reasons, the disembarkation of the last passengers from the ship upon docking. At that moment, 28 people remained to disembark from the cruise, including 24 travelers and four crew members. The operation was to take place early in the afternoon, but for unknown reasons it was delayed. All passengers will be distributed among two planes to the Netherlands and two others to Australia and New Zealand, as there are four Australian citizens and two New Zealanders.
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, received a call from the Minister of Health, Mónica García, to inform him of the mooring of the Hondius in Granadilla to disembark the last passengers. Clavijo agreed, as he pointed out in a message on the social network X, “the priority is that the operation is carried out with all guarantees, in the shortest possible time, and that the cruise ship can depart as soon as possible for the Netherlands.”
The tone of Clavijo’s message coincided with the statements of the spokesperson for the Government of the Canary Islands, Alfonso Cabello, who assured this morning that the regional government did not seek confrontation at any time, but rather to provide the greatest security to the island population. As he pointed out, the problem has been that the Government of Spain is not used to being contradicted.
Also read
The docking of the Hondius, although accepted by Clavijo, was carried out with the total opposition of the Government of the Canary Islands, which from the first moment it was known that the ship was heading from Cape Verde to Tenerife demanded that it anchor to minimize any risk of hantavirus contagion. The State accepted their request, but the commitment ended up being broken for safety reasons, according to Maritime Captaincy, which stated that the disembarkation would be done quickly.
The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, requested that the ship stay as little as possible in the port and leave the same Sunday. Finally, its stay was extended one more day, until today Monday, and also docking, something that was a “red line” for the Government of the Canary Islands and was crossed. After leaving the passengers, the Hondius set course for Rotterdam, where it will be disinfected. This morning it refueled and stocked up for this last part of the journey that has triggered a health and political crisis.
