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Two people on board a cruise ship run aground in Greenland’s Alpefjord national park have Covid-19, according to an Australian passenger on board, but everybody remained in “good spirits”.
The Australian-operated Ocean Explorer, which is carrying 206 passengers and crew, ran aground while touring the national park on Monday, around 1,400km north-east of Greenland’s capital Nuuk.
The 104m-long ship, which departed from Norway on 1 September and runs until 22 September, remained stuck after the high tide on Tuesday failed to lift it free.
However, authorities in Denmark said that a scientific fishing vessel was scheduled to arrive later on Wednesday and would attempt to pull the Ocean Explorer free at high tide.
“A cruise ship in trouble in the national park is obviously a worry. The nearest help is far away, our units are far away, and the weather can be very unfavourable,” Cmdr Brian Jensen of the Danish navy’s joint Arctic command said in a statement on Tuesday.
“However, in this specific situation, we do not see any immediate danger to human life or the environment, which is reassuring,” he added.
Australia-based Aurora Expeditions which operates the ship, said that all passengers and and crew were safe. Many of the passengers are believed to be Australian, along with a mix of tourists from other countries including New Zealand, Britain, the United States and South Korea.
“We are actively engaged in efforts to free the MV Ocean Explorer from its grounding. Our foremost commitment is to ensure the vessel’s recovery without compromising safety,” Aurora said.
Gina Hill, an Australian who is on board with her husband, said they felt a shudder, then what sounded like scrape when the ship ran aground.
She said the passengers were in good spirits and were being entertained by lectures and stories of expeditions by the crew. .
“No one seems to be afraid, and they’re giving us updates quite regularly,” Hill said.
Hill said the passengers had been told by the crew that two other passengers had Covid and that they had been isolated. Some passengers had chosen to wear masks in the public areas, but others had not, she said.
Located across from the ice sheet that covers the world’s largest island, Alpefjord sits in a remote corner of Greenland, some 240km from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400km from the country’s capital, Nuuk.
Capt Flemming Madsen of the Danish joint Arctic command told Associated Press that the passengers and crew were doing fine and “all I can say is that they got a lifetime experience”.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters.