Today 7/5, SVITZER Salvage succeeded in refloating the passenger vessel MONA LISA from her grounding location off Latvia. Sunday May 4, the Bahamas registered passenger (cruise) vessel MONA LISA (28891 gt, built 1966) ran aground in the Irbe Strait, which is the main route from the Baltic Sea into the port of the Latvian capital Riga.
Several earlier attempts using upto 4 tugs without salvors being appointed did not have the required result. SVITZER Salvage dispatched a salvage team including a salvage master and following the failed attempts yesterday 6/5 afternoon were requested to take over operations, also incorporating the SVITZER NJORD, 60t bp, that had been sent in from Denmark. The first attempt under SVITZER Salvage control started earlier this morning upon the arrival of the SVITZER NJORD and this afternoon at 15.12 LT the casualty was finally refloated. At present she is escorted into port of Ventspils for safe delivery.