Port Miami reopens 11 hours after boating accident left one person dead

Monday, June 26, 2023

An early-morning boat crash Sunday off Miami resulted in the death of one boater and left another seriously injured.

The resulting investigation and recovery of the vessel prompted the Coast Guard to enforce a “safety zone” at PortMiami, with the channel closed and cruise traffic halted. The Coast Guard said Sunday afternoon, some 11 hours after the accident, that the channel was cleared at would be reopened.

A port spokeswoman said the closure disrupted travel plans for 33,000 passengers scheduled to arrive and depart Sunday on three ships.

The spillover effects on scheduled Sunday afternoon departures were significant. The largest of the three affected ships, the Carnival Celebration, was scheduled to depart for its next cruise at 4 p.m. Sunday, but it didn’t dock from the arriving cruise until after 4 p.m. It takes a long time to turn around the ships, and Carnival told passengers their window to arrive at the terminal for embarkation was from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

PortMiami said on Twitter late Sunday afternoon that the three ships were all scheduled to depart “no later than midnight” — six to eight hours late.

The Coast Guard said the channel closure was to support crews clearing the channel of the obstruction from the fatal collision near Government Cut. By early afternoon, the Coast Guard said it had authorized the reopening of the south channel “to resume maritime transportation system operations into Port Miami.” Just after 2:30 p.m. The Coast Guard said crews had “successfully recovered the sunken vessel & removed the obstruction in the north channel.”

The port, in a separate statement on Twitter, said the closure of the PortMiami channel affected arrival and debarkation of passengers on Carnival Celebration, MSC Seascape and NCL Escape. A livestream from portmiamiwebcam.com showed the Celebration was arriving after 4 p.m.

The Escape, scheduled to depart at 5:30 p.m., and the Seascape, scheduled to depart, at 6 p.m., both were docked by 4 p.m.

Port spokeswoman Suzy Trutie said Carnival Celebration had 6,216 to debark and about 6,100 to embark. The website cruisemapper.com showed the Celebration ending an eight-day cruise to the southern Caribbean and scheduled to depart Sunday for a seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise.

The NCL Escape had 5,081 passengers scheduled to debark Sunday and approximately 5,000 to embark, Trutie said. Cruisemapper.com said it was returning from a seven-day Caribbean cruise on Sunday and scheduled to depart on the same itinerary.

The MSC Seascape had 5,358 to debark and about 5,250 embark, Trutie said.Cruisemapper.com said it was ending a seven-day cruise to the western Caribbean and departing for a seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise.

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