The Horizon leaves for New York City this afternoon following repairs to a ventilator fan blamed for spreading noxious fumes through parts of the ship.

Close to 100 passengers were taken off the boat on Monday and Tuesday and placed at the Hamilton Princess because the fumes had made some of them ill.

And while many have decided to return to the vessel, others have decided to stay in Bermuda and fly home on Saturday instead.

One such passenger is Mr. Stephen Reiss, whose problems on board the ship were reported in Wednesday's The Royal Gazette .

He said he received a call from the ship around 1.30 p.m. yesterday afternoon and was given a choice.

Either he could finish his cruise on the Horizon now that it had been fixed or he could stay at the Hamilton Princess until Saturday and Celebrity Cruises would pay for his family's meals and airfare back to Long Island.

He has decided to stay in Bermuda and go home on Saturday.

Meantime a Government team which included Marine and Ports director Mr. Ron Ross and chief medical officer Ms Estlyn Harvey went on board the ship yesterday morning.

The source of the fumes turned out to be a ventilator fan which should have Horizon to return to New York today smoke stack and out of the ship.

Since the ventilator fan was broken, the engine room air was being sucked back into the ship which affected one of the zones where passengers were living.

Consequently, all passengers on those decks were subjected to the acrid odours from the engine room which caused their eyes to become red and irritated and made their clothes reek of diesel.

There were 1500 passengers on the ship at this time, but 100 were disembarked and put up in the Hamilton Princess.

Government Information Services director Mr. Gavin Shorto said the problem had been corrected and the vessel will leave at 3 p.m. today.

Although the fumes did bother many guests and forced them to leave the boat temporarily, others like retired Police detective Mr. William Bunka of Long Island stayed on the vessel.

He had difficulties getting around the deck. Mr. Bunka, whose room is on the tenth floor, wanted to go for a walk around the deck on Monday night because his wife was unwell.

Both the port and starboard side doors were locked and he said the ship's staff were would not say why or how this happened.

He pursued the matter further and they opened the doors one and a half hours later.

"This is unacceptable,'' he said. "We could not get out. I remember the first thing they did was to emphasise safety when we got on the boat (Saturday). They told us where the life boats were and how to get to them in case there was an emergency,'' he said. "But if there was an emergency, we would not have been able to get out.'' When contacted yesterday, the Wor. Henry Hayward, president for Meyer Agencies the local agents for the MV Horizon , said:"We will probably have something tomorrow, (today). I have nothing to say right now.''