SCH has supported the ships of major cruise customer Royal Caribbean Cruise Line throughout the pandemic and the latest operation was a major exercise in discharge operations when the Explorer of the Seas called into Southampton.
Using two mobile cranes in challenging weather conditions, SCH personnel took 1700 rolls of carpet from the Voyager Class ship after moving them from inside the ship to two deck levels.
Like several ships of the RCCL fleet, Explorer of the Seas has spent much of the past few months moored off the South Coast, occasionally calling into port to load supplies.
RCCL has also used the downtime to carry out maintenance work on its vessels and the carpet is set to be fitted when the ship gets closer to a return to service.
In the meantime, SCH off-loaded the flooring and placed it on a fleet of lorries for onward haulage to warehouse facilities in Europe.
Cruise Manager Paulo Oliveira explained: “Cruise lines and ships’ crews have made good use of this time and we have fully supported them in their port calls in Southampton and Portsmouth. Heavy rain and winds added to the complexity of the operation on the Explorer of the Seas but we managed to complete the discharge of all the carpet rolls over a two-day weekend period.”
