MV Reef Endeavour Home to More Than 90 Medical Staff
Captain Cook Cruises Fiji in partnership with the Government through the Ministry of Health is providing accommodation and catering services to more than 90 medical professionals serving in Lautoka. This is done on Captain Cook Cruises MV Reef Endeavour 63-room small cruise ship. This was confirmed by Captain Cook Cruises Fiji general manager Bob Speed.
“MV Reef Endeavour will be utilised by the medical team on board Hospital Ship MLC Veivueti,” said Mr Speed.
“The hospital ship has also been relocated to Lautoka to serve the people and communities of Lautoka.”
He said the request from the Government for this assistance to support medical frontline team was quickly actioned resulting in the ship being berthed at Lautoka Port on Friday evening May 7, 2021.
“Captain Cook Cruises Fiji are willing and able to be of assistance in these challenging times and are very proud of how quickly our staff and crew mobilised to make it happen,” he said.
Why Lautoka
With the lockdown of the Lautoka Hospital, Captain Cook Cruises was approached to provide accommodation and meals for 90 to 100 medical professionals who were being relocated to Lautoka working from the MLC Veivueti within Port Lautoka.
“Captain Cook Cruises Fiji and the Fijian Government reached an agreement that includes the ship’s accommodation and catering for three meals a day for the medical team on board,” Mr Speed said.
How many onboard
Captain Cook will be accommodating and catering for more than medical professionals as required by the Government.
Captain Cook Cruises currently has 14 marine operations crew which includes Navigation, Deck, Engineering and Technical staff members.
On the hotel side of the operations, they have staff from the Food and Beverage Department, Cabin and Galley crew.
The crew are under the leadership of Captain Kenneth Ballentine and hotel manager Ilisoni Vibose.
How many vessels in the operation
Mr Speed said: “We currently are using our flagship, the MV Reef Endeavour.
“If needed, we also can deploy and use another vessel, MV Fiji One which is currently based in Suva.
“At this time, we are only required from 7 to 14 days, but this will be determined by the Government and the needs of the Ministry of Health.
“We at Captain Cook Cruises Fiji, are very pleased that we can assist and be part of the Government led fight against the pandemic by way of assisting the medical team to service the general needs of the communities here in the west.”
Ministry of Commerce, Tourism, Trade and Transport Permanent Secretary Shaheen Ali said it was heartening to witness public-private partnership spirit in supporting the containment efforts.
“Vinaka to Captain Cook Cruises Fiji for committing MV Reef Endeavour as accompanying accommodation to the vital operations of MLC Veivueti (our medical ship), and Fiji Ports for facilitating safe harbour.”
Mr Ali also thanked some fo the key stakeholders for their collaboration to making this possible in such a short time frame: Tourism Fiji, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport, Fiji Ports Authority, Port Denarau and Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji.