June 7 - Two car ferries, each capable of carrying 1,500 passengers and up to 65 cars, are being shipped on a two-week voyage from Germany to Kenya on a vessel from the Beluga fleet.
Likoni and Kwale were transported the 9,000 nautical miles from the Dradenau Terminal in Hamburg to Mombasa on the Beluga Singapore, the third of a total of 16 newly-built vessels of the super modern P1/P2-series that the Bremen-based company will bring into service by 2011 - each providing 800 to 1400 tonnes tandem crane capacity.
The Likoni and Kwale are being eagerly anticipated in Mombasa as they replace two aging ferries that are no longer suitable for the traffic between Mombasa and the Kenyan mainland.
Following construction at a shipyard in Dresden, the two ferries had to travel along the Elbe to Hamburg without their wheelhouses to allow passage under a number of low bridges.
Before loading for the deep water voyage, the wheelhouses were replaced, taking the overall height of each ferry to 13m.
