Lately , catamaran purser Mariella Francica has been getting a lot more hugs than usual.
As Libya became a no-go zone for foreigners, scores of passengers have been expressing their relief and gratitude at reaching Malta after a gruelling eight-hour trip in rough seas from Libya aboard Virtu Ferries.
“On our first voyage to Libya we had passengers with us for two days as we were stuck in the port in Tripoli because of bad weather. They were of different nationalities and we got to know each other... When we finally got to Malta it was an emotional moment and some came to thank us crew members with hugs and kisses ,” said Ms Francica , who serves on the San Ġwann.
The ferry is one of two catamarans operated by the company that have been sailing to and from Libya to bring evacuees to Malta. The San Ġwann has made four trips over the past week and Ms Francica was on all of them. Crew members are not used to the eight-hour trips because the company usually operates to Sicily, just one and a half hours away.
“We feel part of this important evacuation process that is going on,” said Ms Francica, 46, who has been working with the company for 22 years.
Captain Noel Galea agrees there is satisfaction to the job although , unfortunately , he adds, the Libyan crisis happened at the worst time of the year when the sea is the roughest.
“We faced three to four-metre waves... and it was like the vessel was hitting a sloping concrete wall each time.. . She (the catamaran) moved around but it’ s not that sort of movement that passengers are being thrown about. Mind you, most people got sea sick,” he said.
Ms Francica , who works directly with passengers, has first-hand experience of this. “ It’s not a nice scenario . . . They’re sick... you give them a cold napkin and try to be with them as much as you can,” she said confessing that even her stomach played up although things stopped there.
Perhaps understatedly, she said that, unlike on the Sicily trips, the passengers travelling from Libya seemed to have more of an urgency to leave although none of the people she spoke to had seen any of the violence depicted in the media.
But were the crew scared to leave the safety of Malta’s shores to travel to a country on the brink of civil war?
“I don’t get that feeling of danger as yet... To tell you the truth, I haven’t seen anything. We remain on board,” Ms Francica and Capt. Galea agreed.
However, their families are not as relaxed as they are.
“I left my wife crying at home. We have a four-year-old daughter, Katrina, who does not understand what’s happening. My wife, Odette, just tells her I’m going to work,” the 33-year-old captain said.
This is not the first time he has helped out during an evacuation process. In 2006, he steered the same vessel to Beirut to evacuate Australian nationals stranded in Lebanon as a result of hostilities in the Middle East.
The voyage to Libya might be rough but crew members aboard the catamaran get affection in return. Apart from hugs by passengers, Ms Francica is also getting some from her 21-year-old son, Miguel, and 11-year-old daughter Alexia.
“My son keeps kissing me.. . The other day he asked me to wait for him before I left for work and I got a lovely kiss,” she smiled.