You’d think sailing off an island would be an easy task but JEAN CHRISTOU discovered otherwise)
CYPRUS may have eons of seafaring history behind it, but trying to get off the island by boat today is more tricky than it probably was a few thousand years ago.
Want to go to mainland Europe? It is possible to hop on a cruise ship, get off at a Greek island, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt or Syria and make your way to your destination. Want to take your car? Forget it.
For that to happen, there are now only two ways to do it. Drive to the north and take the ferry to Turkey. Then drive all the way through Turkey to Greece.
According to recent Turkish Cypriot press reports, many people, including some Greek Cypriots, are doing it that way since the ferry service between the north and Turkey is not expensive.
The other way is to use the one and only ‘freighter cruise’ out of Limassol, run by the Italian and Swedish-flagged Grimaldi Lines, once a week. It will only take you two or three weeks to go all the way to the UK by ship via Italy, Spain and Portugal. You could get off the same ship in Italy after a week or so on board, and drive from there.
So no matter what way you look at it, the absence of a direct ferry link to Greece, costs, if not in terms of money, then in terms of time, or both.
In a Catch 22, both the official side and businesses say it would also cost them, far more than they are willing to lose to provide such a service.
There were two pilot ferry services launched in recent but this year there is nothing.
Louis took up the mantle for two summers but the company said it proved disastrous. Louis spokesman Michalis Maratheftis said the The Princessa Marissa was operating a combined cruise and ferry service to Piraeus as late as 2007. It had room for 80 vehicles.
“We wanted to offer something to those who wanted to take their cars but it was not a direct link. It was stopping in Rhodes, and it did not have passengers who were not in cabins,” said Maratheftis.
He said there wasn’t much interest from Cypriots with cars, even in the peak season of July and August.
“Everyone is now so accustomed to going by plane and renting a car when they get there…,” he said adding that Cypriots were not the type to drive around Europe.
Maratheftis said the service did not prove viable financially for the company. “This was our experience. A direct link would have to be heavily subsidised, and part of the feasibility study we did included Israel. However the calculations didn’t look promising. We are interested if things change but only if it was financially viable,” he added.
The government has been discussing the issue lately but nothing has come out of the discussions as yet.
“Everyone agrees a service should be provided but we know well thee is a huge cost involved,” said Thasos Katsourides, from the Association of Cyprus Travel Agents.
“The problem is both of the companies who could do it, Louis and Salamis, know it’s impossible for the time being. Any service would have to be regular. Even if there was a demand, the costs are so high it would be impossible to have any profit out of it. Louis tried for two or three months and it was a disaster,” he said.
Alexandros Jospehides from the Cyprus Shipping Chamber (CSC) said there had been a lot of discussion on the reestablishment of a connection between Limassol and Piraeus.
“They called us to ask was would be required,” he said. “We did a preliminary study and based on today’s fuel costs, there cannot be a direct link between Piraeus and Limassol.”
Josephides said such a link would have to be combined with other places such as Rhodes to attract more passengers and even with all of that it would have to be heavily subsidised to the tune of around €5 million a year for an all-year round service.
He said to run a line between two destinations would cost €12-€13 million a year and even the optimum income under the most favourable conditions would bring on only €6-€7 million a year.
“After what the government saw [from the study], they had second thoughts,” said Josephides.
“It involves huge amounts,’ he added. “We have given the facts and figures and since then the government has gone quiet on the issue.”
Josephides said the CSC had talked with shipowners about freighter cruising services like those provided by Gramaldi Lines, but most were not interested, he said.
Makis Constantinides, the Permanent Secretary of the Transport Ministry said they were still studying the issue.
“We encourage the establishment of a sea connection but the government can’t subsidise such a move, even if we did have the money,” he said.
“It could be done on a small scale for a limited period of time, say three years, but we cannot inject the millions that would be needed.”
Trying to get from this island to Ireland
LOOKING FOR a way off Cyprus that didn’t involve a total of four flights and two airports, one website was offering a ‘freighter cruise’ that operates to Cork in Ireland, from Limassol.
The only problem was it would take a minimum of two weeks and was three times the price, since it would include full-board on the cargo ship.
As tempting as it sounded to spend weeks at sea, cut off from everyone with absolutely nothing to do except relax, it would have required taking five or six weeks holidays to go and come and to stay in Ireland for a bit.
Freighter cruising, which involves cargo ships taking up to 20 passengers at a time, is becoming more popular with the adventurous. You can also take your car.
And far from sounding like a form of hardship, it cuts out the usual annoying things associated with cruises such as hordes of passengers, screaming children, queues for everything, glitzy shows, greedy slot machines and morning bingo sessions.
According to Jane Ross-Clunis, whose business takes bookings for the Grimaldi Lines service from Cyprus, there is a weekly service from Limassol.
Ross-Clunis said that business is brisk at this time of the year.
“It’s full because it’s the only thing going,” she said.
“We are an island without a ferry. If you don’t like flying it’s the only way off the island apart from a cruise ship or going through the north.”
She warned however of the time constraints. The ships do not operate on a strict time schedule and can often be delayed in ports.
The ships start out once a week from Southampton on a five-week journey that includes Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Israel, Greece, Turkey and Egypt, and back again. In some ports passengers are allowed to disembark and in some not, so anyone bringing a car would need to check where they could disembark.
Grimaldi Lines warns potential passengers that travelling on a cargo vessel is different from any other kind of voyage. On a cargo ship, freight has the priority. The passenger is, in a certain way, a paying guest, that has to adapt to the life on board. The service on board is simple. “Sometimes your cabin may not be made up. During peak working periods, the master and the crew may not have much time to spare to look after the passengers. The food is prepared by a standard navy cook and is prepared for the requirements and the preference of the people working on board. The duration of the calls is determined by the volume of cargo to be unloaded and loaded and can be short or long, during the day or during the night,” it says.
“But travelling on cargo vessels will give you other satisfactions. You will learn about what working on board means, you will enjoy a journey on the high sea similar to what it was in the past while travelling with today’s comforts.”
Ross-Clunis said most of those travelling out on the freighter cruises from Cyprus were British, German, French, Belgian, and Israeli. The freighter usually has a dozen or so cabins for passengers who are not crew members, she said, adding that Cyprus really needed a ferry service of its own.
“We need a ferry that covers Athens, Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon and Israel and keeps going around like this,” she said. “There may not be a profit to begin with until it’s established but it won’t happen until enough people complain.”
She said Cyprus was missing out on a whole market of student backpackers who travel around the region but then have no way to reach Cyprus unless they book a cabin on a cruise ship, which most of them can’t afford.
“The backpackers of today are the rich tourists of tomorrow,” she said. “It’s all very short-sighted.”
