On April 13, 2017, the office of the Hon. Premier Donaldson Romeo announced, “it had received a go-ahead from DFID Officials, to begin the ferry procurement services for the 12 months starting October 2017.”
This follows up on the final successful procurement of ferry services from last December 2, last year after no service from April 2016. That contract for the Jaden Sun, with Jaden Inc. of St. Vincent and the Grenadines owners of the vessel, was a 10-month contract ending in September, this year.
A press release from the Office of the Premier stated that “the Ministry of finance, in co-operation with other Departments and with DFID, will be initiating an open bid process for ferry service to Montserrat for the period October 2017 – September 2018.
“This will ensure,” the release states, “that Ferry services will be in place for the upcoming Christmas Festival and for next year’s 250th Anniversary of the 1768 St Patrick’s Day uprising and the wider St Patrick’s Festival Celebration.”
The Ferry Services run a six-day week schedule but operated a seven-day week schedule for a two-week period March 13th through to the 26th this year to facilitate persons travelling to Montserrat during the St Patrick’s Day Festival.
Jaden Sun delayed service because of fishnets
On Saturday, May 6, past the Jaden Sun ferry suffered an unusual three and a half hour delay from port Little Bay because of fishnets that had been laid around the jetty.
It was 9.55 a.m. following an attempt to leave bang on time at 6.30, ferry operator officials said that the captain had to shut down his engines when they had sucked in fishnets with the balls disabling any movement by the ferry.
Only one passenger who had early onward travel in Antigua suffered from the delay after they were unable to get onto an early flight which was fully booked from John Osborne airport in Geralds.
Reports suggest that steps have been taken by port officials to ensure that fishermen if not just for safe and good functioning of the area, protect their gear from severe losses, as they did when they caused great inconvenience to the port, the ferry and passengers.
