Tobago businessmen grateful for Cabo Star's return

TOBAGO BUSINESSMEN say they are extremely grateful for the return of the MV Cabo Star to the seabridge.

The cargo vessel, which was pulled from the inter-island route owing to a fire on board on August 23, resumed sailing on Tuesday. During its absence, the ferry was replaced by a smaller Venezuelan vessel, the Emprendedora

The Cabo Star was scheduled to set sail from the Port of Port of Spain at 2pm, but did not leave until around 6.15pm, former Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce head Demi John Cruickshank told Newsday.

“Some paperwork from Maritime Services had to be finalised and the captain said he was not loading the vessel until he got the authorised paper,” he said.

Cruickshank said the vessel reached Tobago around 12.30am on Wednesday and was restocked shortly afterwards. He added there were no hiccups after that .

“We all loaded back the vessel by 4am (Wednesday). The port gave people time to go an offload and return to the port. So they took all of the trucks and nobody was left back in Tobago.”

The Cabo Star left Tobago at 5.06 am.

“We are hoping that by Saturday, we can come back to the normal schedule. The only reason why the schedule was thrown off was because the boat departed about 6.15 last night (Tuesday) from Trinidad.

“But we want the vessel to sail on Saturday so that we can clear off most of the backlog that we have so people could start stocking back, because as the goods come, it goes out one time. There is not time to go to the warehouse. Is just to replenish the shelves.”

Cruickshank expects businesses will be fully restocked by next week. He said businessmen are breathing sighs of relief.