For the first time in 10 months, the Norwegian Star failed to make its Saturday port call at Nawiliwili Harbor last weekend. Winds of 40 miles per hour created conditions that would have made it unsafe to try to get
For the first time in 10 months, the Norwegian Star failed to make its Saturday port call at Nawiliwili Harbor last weekend.
Winds of 40 miles per hour created conditions that would have made it unsafe to try to get into the harbor, said Steve Hirano, a spokesman for Norwegian Cruise Line.
It was only the second time this year, and third time since the Star began its weekly calls on Nawiliwili, that weather has kept the 965-foot-long ship out of the harbor, said Bob Crowell, Nawiliwili harbormaster with the state Department of Transportation Harbors Division.
The 745-foot-long Norwegian Wind, sister ship of the Star and also owned and operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, came in as scheduled on Sunday.
Seasonally, the Wind has been conducting 10- and 11-day cruises beginning and ending in Honolulu and calling on Nawiliwili for the day on the second-to-last day of the cruises, after calling on Maui ports.
Those cruises will continue until late April next year, when the Wind is repositioned for summer Alaska cruises.
The one-year-old Star last year began seven-day Hawai’i cruises, with a stop at Fanning Island in Kiribati, and calls on Nawiliwili for the day nearly every Saturday.
It is a source of around 2,000 visitors and over 1,000 crew members, who take shore excursions, rent cars and taxis, shop at local stores, and eat at area restaurants.
During those rare times when the Star isn’t able to make it into Nawiliwili, the ship cruises around Kaua’i and Ni’ihau before traveling back to Honolulu, Hirano said.
When a scheduled ship can’t make it into port, a DOT Harbors Division employee puts up a sign at the harbor gate near Matson Navigation Company informing people of the non-arrival, Crowell said.
It is up to the cruise line’s agent to inform representatives of ground transportation companies, shore tours and other businesses that their tour participants won’t be arriving.
