Boskalis has successfully loaded cruise ship Carnival Vista on its semi-submersible heavy lift vessel BOKA Vanguard and transported it to a shipyard facility in Freeport, Bahamas for a unique dry docking operation.

The giant cruise ship, which can carry nearly 4,000 passengers and has a length in excess of 300 meters, is having technical issues with its azipods, the ship’s main propulsion system.

The system can only be repaired in a dry dock, but such a facility is currently not available in the Bahamas region, where the ship is operating.

Boskalis has offered a unique solution to facilitate this dry dock repair anyway, by deploying the world’s largest semi-submersible heavy lift vessel Boka Vanguard. Commencing last Saturday 13 July at sunrise, the BOKA Vanguard loaded and lifted cruise ship Carnival Vista a few miles off the coast of Freeport. The mighty heavy transport vessel then safely transported the cruise ship to the Grand Bahama Shipyard where repairs will take place whilst the cruise ship is resting on the BOKA Vanguard.

The entire loading operation including the refloat took twelve hours. Upon completion of the repairs, Carnival Vista will be offloaded in time for its next scheduled cruise voyage from Galveston in Texas on 27 July.