The Wanderer wandering

Last night's 8.45pm ex-Auckland sailing on the Wanderer puttered all the way at half speed to North Head when the captain made a sudden 180 degree turnaround and started puttering back to town.
No announcement from the bridge, nor the staff (probably too busy selling day-old fish curries - man, did that stuff stink up the cabin!).
It took the effort of a passenger (Go, Nancy!) to find out from upstairs what the hell was going on and she relayed the bad news that the power basically had failed (hence the no audio on the ship's tannoy) and that we were on our way back to town.
Then suddenly the engines kicked in at full force and they decided to make another 180 degree turn and continue to Waiheke. Only 20 minutes late.

It was a serious dereliction of staff duty, I reckon, when they annoyingly and cloyingly announce at the start of each sailing that "you are to remain calm, seated and await instructions from your crew". If it had been a serious emergency, we would still be none the wiser.

Ferry transfer mid-harbour

Cross-posted from CountryMike at Waiheke Radio:

Last night (Thurs 25 June) the 8.45pm Auckland to Waiheke ferry suffered a breakdown that resulted in pasengers being transferred mid-harbour to another ferry. The following is an eyewitness report from one of the ferry passengers.
"It was a normal 8:45pm sailing and I headed upstairs on the Wanderer. Shortly after departure I popped down to the bar for the obligatory Merlot, Without warning I felt myself falling backwards as the boat suddenly lost all power. A cruise ship had just departed Auckland so I assumed we had slowed down to let it pass.
You think something is wrong when the men with the stripes on their shoulders start running backwards and forwards, you know something is wrong when all the lights go out.
So there we were, just off the container wharf, drifting powerless and lightless toward the shipping lane and the path of the departing cruise liner...
I went back to my merlot, placed a few tweats on a rapidly flattening phone, observed other commuters texting and ringing loved ones, watched the cruise ship sail past; more men with stripes running backward and forward, now with torches, “shall I try restarting the genset?”, lights come on, drop anchor.
The Seaflyte returning from Half Moon Bay pulled alongside, we transferred via the wheelhouse and on our way back to Waiheke.
To the Fullers staff and crew: a big thumbs up for a well executed mid harbour manoeuvre in unusual circumstances and cheers for the free beer".