A corona outbreak on the sailing training ship Gorch Fock stops the planned training of around 100 officer candidates.

During the Gorch Fock’s first foreign training voyage after years of renovation, the training of the officer candidates on board the sail training ship came to a standstill. The sail training ship is currently in the port of Santa Cruz on Tenerife and the first officer candidates should actually arrive on Tenerife this Wednesday. However, several members of the permanent crew were infected with the corona virus, most likely during a shore leave in Tenerife.

The German Navy has now confirmed the infection of several soldiers. Since all soldiers on board the Gorch Fock have already been vaccinated, according to a spokesman for the navy, the infected soldiers are doing well and only mild symptoms have appeared so far. In addition, the test results to determine the virus variants of the infected crew members are still awaited.

Of course, the COVID-19 outbreak on the Gorch Fock also has an impact on the training of the officer candidates on board and the further course of the foreign training trip with further stations in the Mediterranean. In addition to the Gorch Fock, there have been an increasing number of corona outbreaks at sea or on ships, for example on several cruise ships, in the past few days. Among other things, ships of the AIDA fleet and “Mein Schiff 6” of the shipping company Tui Cruises were affected.

November 19, 2021: Gorch Fock starts the first training trip

Hallo, ich bin Christian und lebe in Kiel.