Cruise Ship Norwegian Star adrift off Victoria, Australia.

[Cody Williams]

All at sea: Norwegian Star cruise liner broken down and drifting near Melbourne
Article by Cloe Booker for The Age newspaper.

Distressed cruise liner passengers are in tears with the ship they're aboard broken down and drifting off the Victorian coast.

Preparations are under way to tow the Norwegian Star, carrying more than 2000 passengers, back to Melbourne from where it is about 70 kilometres adrift.

The ship, which departed from Sydney on February 6, lost power about 30 km off Cape Liptrap, near Wilsons Promontory, early Friday morning.

A man phoning from the ship, who did not wish to be named, told Fairfax Media "devastated" passengers aboard the ship were crying.

"It's a bloody nightmare," he said.

"We're stuck in the middle of the ocean. It's scary. Especially with Melbourne's weather being quite changeable." [MORE]

Additional Information

[Paul Finnigan]

As of 2200 AEST she is underway being towed by tug HASTINGS back to Melbourne.

[Stefan Niederer]

I have been on her from Dubai until Hong Kong. We also experienced propulsion problems with one of the azipod. Luckily we were in Singapore-Port when it happend. I know from the captain that it should being repaired on the cruise from Singapore towards Sydney. Looks like something went wrong there or more undetected problems came up. Sad for the people on board... But I know from experience, they will be treated well. But not every passenger looks at it the same.

[henryed]

Azipods do seem to have reliability problems.