Coronavirus The crew walks around the empty cabins to open the water taps and flush the toilets – This is what everyday life is like on the anchored Silja Serenade in Hernesaari, waiting for the pandemic to end

Champagne bottles do not pop in the bar, and the announcements do not attract cheap sea shopping. The Moomin figure taps behind closed glass doors from a gift shop.

The party at Silja Serenade is over for now.

The Swedish ship, which normally runs daily between Helsinki and Stockholm, is now moored at the Hernesaari pier.

The reason is an old familiar coronavirus. The pandemic, which is shaking society in an unprecedented way and the restrictions imposed as a result, have expelled cruise passengers from ships.

Yet the fall looked promising. On the weekend departures, the number of passengers was already approaching the usual figures, says the curator of the ghost ship Silja Serenade Oskar Lehmusniemi.

Then came the virus variant omicron, and the end is history.

The sister ship Silja Symphony is still in traffic, as is Gabriella from Viking Line. Gabriella, though, will be replaced by Cinderella until February, bringing the 1990s Passport and toothbrush cruise ship familiar from the quiz program. Gabriella scratched the piers of the South Harbor in mid-January while leaving for Stockholm.

Read more: “The shortest cruise of my life” – Viking Line’s ship collided with a pier in Helsinki near the Pool Sea Pool, passenger video shows events

There are a few departures a week from both shipping companies, but the ships sail quite empty, especially on weekdays. Most of the time there have been only a hundred passengers on board and even a thousand people on the best days. There would be room for up to three times the crowd.

Prior to the pandemic, the situation in which passenger ships were idle in ports for a month was not known to have existed during Finland’s independence.

Here, On the serene promenade of the Serenade, Harri Hylje would wave the cruisers to the ship. In the evening, acrobats would make passengers gasp for winding above the promenade.

Now more than a hundred meters long and six storeys high, the space is yawning deserted. The hum of the air conditioning tells you that the ship is alive.

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The ship also has a crew at all times.

The heart beats below sea level in the engine room. A diesel-powered auxiliary engine generates electricity for the ship and keeps the systems operational, as shore-side electricity, which reduces the ship’s climate emissions in the port, is not available in Hernesaari.

Even if the ship doesn’t move anywhere for a couple of months, it has to be constantly ready to go. That is why the ship also has a crew at all times. The strength varies between 20 and 40. Most of the crew has been laid off or transferred to the company’s Turku line ship.

During the standstill, a wide range of maintenance work is carried out on board, which would not be possible in traffic. Today, the program number is the replacement of the main bearing frame bearing. The operation must be done about every ten years. In the Serenade, the age comes 32 years in the fall.

The ship’s machinery is of a different class than in a passenger car. Service technician Jari Pelkonen peeks inside the engine made by Wärtsilä, where a slender man has slipped out of a small hole.

On the bridge first officer Stefan Ölander hopes the pandemic is over. He is next to the captain, and this is the place from which the ship is led.

Instead of changing seascapes, the outlook will remain the same for the coming weeks: Lauttasaari obliquely on the left, Jätkäsaari in front and Eira on the right on the horizon.

Sometimes sailors get to steer the ship at berth as well.

“The ship has to be tilted at times, and yesterday there was so much wind that a bow thruster was used that not all the weight is on the ropes,” Ölander says.

The deck crew also includes changing windows, painting, washing the car deck and pulling toilet bowls.

Colleague of Ölander, chief security officer Juha Rauhion standard work includes monitoring crew credentials and coordinating rescue drills. Now he runs water in the luxury cabin toilet.

Water must be recycled regularly to prevent stumps from nesting in the piping. There is plenty to do for the masters as well, as there are three thousand taps on board alone.

Hanoi is able to twist, for the ship is eaten four times a day. Chef Juha Tamminen says that in the first weeks the crew enjoys the delicacies acquired for the passengers, such as shrimp and steaks.

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For the first few weeks, the crew delights the passengers with gourmet food.

When the stock is exhausted, move on to home cooking. The crew can hope for dishes. One of my favorite favorites is the flygande Jacob.

The Swedish 1970s classic is an exciting combination of chicken, banana, bacon, nuts and cream. On Sundays, a real set of sailors is placed on the table: blood sausage, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, tansiness and beans in tomato sauce.

Today, Tamminen serves a sauce breaded for lunch. A guy familiar from the bridge is already sitting at the fair’s table.

“The highlight of the day,” says Chief Ölander, spooning the soft.

Crew stays on board for one week at a time, followed by a period of leave of the same length. During the work week, they also spend the night on an otherwise desert cruiser.

Leisure time on the ship is largely spent moving. In addition to the gym, Serenade has a badminton hall, which may well be one of the largest in Finland.

Lehmusniemi and Tamminen look. They pull the badminton net across the pedestrian street and settle on the field marked with air conditioning tape next to the reception. Normally, tunnelbana tickets would be queued here and euros would be exchanged for crowns.

The sailors take turns badminton to the heights and hope that soon the ship will be able to watch just the right show. However, the shipping company has no plans to sell tickets for the floating hotel and entertainment center.

– – Badminton training in the middle of the ship’s promenade starts at seven in the evening and usually involves about ten employees.