SOUTHAMPTON FREIGHT SERVICES LTD

Christmas is no holiday for SFS

Our extensive involvement in the cruise and marine industry throws us a few surprises from time to time. Christmas Day, 2009 was a day like no other.

Our partner Tefra Travel Logistics GMBH of Hamburg had a request from their client – a Tui Cruises’ passenger vessel “Mein Schiff”, or “My Ship”. The vessel was on a Caribbean New Year Cruise, full of expectant and jubilant passengers celebrating the turn of the year, with lavish menu’s displaying some of the worlds most exotic and expensive foods, which incidentally required a particular type oyster from the West Coast of Ireland.

Because the Donegal oysters have a 10 day life period from harvest, our task of flying 1200 of the shellfish into St Lucia over the holiday period was a challenge our operations team handled with absolute precision. The oysters must be maintained at a specific temperature throughout their exciting 96 hour journey from Donegal, on the far west coast of Ireland, to Castries Port on the North side of the island of St Lucia, a bumpy two hour drive from Hewanorra International Airport.

Our specialist temperature controlled SKYCooler LD3 air units carried the oysters for 3 days of the journey, using dry ice, a battery operated power unit, and a multi thermostat system feeding into an electronic control unit, maintaining a constant temperature throughout, providing the delighted guests with fabulously fresh Atlantic oysters during their celebrations.

When the oysters were delivered alongside the vessel in St Lucia, there was a German Television crew filming the unloading as part of a programme following the logistical requirements of a German cruise vessel. Of course we were delighted that the product was received in perfect condition!