NEW ROUTE BETWEEN SETE AND PALMA
The new service between Sète and Palma de Majorca has been inaugurated on March 7th by the Italian ferry DONATELLA D'ABUNDO. Linée Lauro owners of the vessel, launched their new MEDMAR branch using their larger ferries on International routes in Mediterranean from Italy to Sicily and Tunisia, but also from France to the Balearic Isles.
DONATELLA D'ABUNDO was completed in 1972 as part of a long series of identical ships built for Spanish companies Trasmediteranea and Ybarra. She was known as the CABO SAN SEBASTIAN, owned by Ybarra Line and used between Barcelona and Palma until the taken over of the company by Trasmediteranea as the CIUDAD DE PALMA in 1981.
She was later renamed CIUDAD DE LA SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA the same year, when the company incorporated her former sister ship and running mate, the CABO SAN JORGE as the CIUDAD DE PALMA.
In 1998, the ship was sold to Moroccan Limadet as the BENI ANSAR, and later to Medmar in 2000. She is likely to be replaced on the Sète Palma route by the newly bought JULIA D'ABUNDO previously known as Brittany Ferries QUIBERON, which served the Caen-Portsmouth route, having been replaced there by the newly built MONT SAINT MICHEL.
Strangely, the last brochure of the company shows the DONETELLA D'ABUNDO renamed as the JULIA D'ABUNDO! The former QUIBERON, completed in 1975 as the NILS DRAKE for Saga Line, later incorporated under the banner of TTSaga Line, sailed between Travemünde and Malmö.
She is an 11.813 tons ferry with a capacity of 1300 passengers and 275 cars. She is currently under refit in Brest and will join Medmar fleet from Sète in mid-May. DONATELLA D'ABUNDO is slightly smaller in capacity, with her 11779 tons for 1025 passengers and 240 cars.
