Romantic ‘meeting’ in the Indian Ocean

When cadet Magdalena Pieniążek and her true love Bartosz Cenarski went to sea, both on different LNG carriers of the shipowner Flex LNG, they expected to face months of separation. However, an unexpected opportunity arose for a slightly earlier, fleeting, meeting.

The Croatian captain of the LNG carrier Flex Artemis (built in 2020), on which Cenarski works, decided to allow the lovers to “meet”. At the end of June, after the ship had stopped off Reunion Island for a crew swap, it was passed, with Magdalena on board, by sister ship Flex Constellation (built in 2019), which was sailing with a cargo to China.

Croatian captain Nenad Martinovic made a small, shipowner-authorised course change to allow the young couple to meet romantically, albeit at a distance of the ships passing safely.

The two young cadets – future merchant navy officers who met at the Naval Faculty of Gdynia Maritime University – could see each other for a moment through binoculars. There was the waving of flags, the sound of ship’s sirens and the joy of the crew on the bridge, who celebrated the long-distance encounter together with the couple.

The crew is proud and extra motivated and our young cadets are happy,” Captain Nenad Martinovic told local Croatian media. – Family, friends and colleagues, both on board and in the office, make us better. This is our way, the Flex LNG way,” he said.

Flex LNG is an LNG ship owner controlled by shipping magnate, one of the richest men in Norway – John Fredrisken.

The romantic story of the Polish cadets was presented, among others, in the daily mainstream press in Croatia and in a well-known professional shipping news service of international scope.