Hundreds Of Tourists From Karimunjawa Were Returned By PELNI Ship

JAKARTA - Due to bad weather that hit a number of regions in Indonesia, the shipping of tourist ships from Jepara-Karimunjawa has stopped operating. This made hundreds of tourists who were in Karimunjawa sent home using ships belonging to PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Persero) or PELNI.

The Head of Corporate Secretary of PT PELNI (Persero), Yahya Kuncoro, said that on Sunday, January 5 the Kelimutu Motor Ship (KM) sailing from Semarang-Karimunjawa carried around 664 passengers and nine toddlers, where the majority were tourists.

"Since being present five years ago, two PELNI ships, namely KM Kelimutu and KM Lawit, have been navigating the Semarang-Karimunjawa area every week," said Yahya in his statement, Monday, January 6.

Extreme weather events that have disrupted shipping to and from Karimunjawa have not only occurred at the beginning of this year, but have already occurred several times.

The two regular ships have sailing schedules every Friday, 23:59 from Semarang and return on Sunday, at 1:00 p.m. from Karimunjawa and arrive in Semarang at 6:00 p.m. Not only when the weather is clear, even when the weather is bad, the 1,000 pax type ship is still able to sail against waves as high as 2.5 meters, so even though the weather is bad the PELNI ships can still operate.

"In connection with the rainy season, PELNI currently has not sold tour packages to Karimunjawa. The last tour was carried out on December 20-22, 2019," he explained.

With regard to safety and comfort factors in sailing and traveling, PELNI will again sell marine tour packages to Karimunjawa in late March or early April. "It is estimated that in that month the sea will begin to calm down," concluded Yahya.