With so many cruise ship crew members from so many countries having been stranded overseas, the President of P&O Cruises Australia, Sture Myrmell, has given a specially thank you to Ni Vanuatu [FYi for those not in the know, that is what people from Vanuatu are called!] crew member, Serah Taravaki, who is just now being reunited with family and friends, after completing international arrival quarantine, having been hard at work selflessly helping to get many of her seafarer colleagues home.
P&O say that Serah could have gone home from P&O’s flagship Pacific Explorer on an earlier crew charter flight to Fiji and Vanuatu, but volunteered to stay on board to help in the complex repatriation project to get thousands of crew members home.
That meant that Serah became the last of 17,000 crew members in P&O’s group of cruise lines within Carnival Corporation to arrive home in the culmination of one of the biggest ever maritime repatriation operations following the worldwide suspension of cruising.
In a personal message to Serah, Mr Myrmell said, “I want to thank you for your contributions to seeing us through this difficult time. I want you to know that your hard work has not gone unnoticed and you should be extremely proud of how you have positively impacted those you work with, your management and the organisation as a whole.”
Mr Myrmell said all of P&O’s Ni Vanuatu crew members are valued highly and he understood the importance they placed on the career and work opportunities available onboard P&O ships during normal operations.
He added, “We certainly look forward to welcoming our Ni Vanuatu crew back on board when P&O’s pause in operations comes to an end with the anticipated restart of cruising,” and “In the same way, we also look forward to our ships again being able to visit Vanuatu’s beautiful destinations that are so popular with our guests.”
Serah thanked P&O’s shoreside colleagues in Australia “for working so hard to get my flights done to bring me home and also to my (maritime) manning agent South Sea Services”, adding as she was heading for home “Our shoreside team was never discouraged and worked 24/7 with us to make sure everything was under control, especially to bring the crew members home”.
Clarissa Jacobs at South Sea Services Ltd, praised Serah for her resilience, generosity of spirit and loyalty to her fellow crew members during such a stressful period, saying, “Serah was a wonderful role model and in volunteering to remain on board for an extended period she had acquired additional skills in administration that will stand her in good stead in the future when cruising resumes”.
In his message, Mr Myrmell also told Serah, “We very much look forward to having you back onboard with the P&O team.”
A report by John Alwyn-Jones
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