- UPDATE: For a detailed first-person report and pictures of the coming-together, take a look at John Heald’s blog. You’ll have to scroll through his opening remarks, his answers to dozens of questions, and an interview with fellow-CD Ryan Fitzgerald, but it’s well worth the effort.
Regular readers of the informative blog compiled by Prinsendam captain Albert Schoonderbeek will be well aware of the problems that winds, tides and currents can cause when a cruise ship is entering or leaving harbour.
And those problems became apparent last night when Carnival Legend was leaving port in the Mexican resort of Cozumel. Caught by sudden gusts of high winds, the 2,100-passenger ship was blown into the Royal Caribbean ship Enchantment of the Seas.
Passengers watched as a tug tried to keep the ships apart, but the Legend made contact and there was some damage to both vessels. No-one was injured.
A Royal Caribbean spokesman said Enchantment suffered minor damage to the stern of the ship and some railings, while the Legend sustained broken glass and other damage to some open deck areas.
A passenger on Enchantment, who blogs as The One Bob, wrote: “OK, so we’re sitting in port. A few of us are on the pool deck watching the Carnival Legend pull out of port. As we’re watching it, it’s getting closer and closer. It looked like the wind was pushing the other ship toward us. I looked down and saw a tug boat try to get between the two boats, but it was too late. Then the collision became inevitable. There was some crunching and breaking glass noises and the ship rocked to one side a little.”
After safety checks, both ships sailed to their next port of call. As it happens, they are both in Belize today – and hoping not to bump into each other again.
I recall a show on National Geographic dealing with the Port of Los Angeles, and they had brought a port Pilot on board to handle the docking. He was quite full of himself. The wind started blowing the RC ship towards a cargo vessel and they were only about 9 meters from hitting when the RC captain took control of the situation. She (YES, a female captain) took command, issued instructions regarding the thruster pods, and a crisis was averted. She had the cool head in that situation. She later said in an interview that the design of modern cruise ships make the decks act like giant sails. Hope your cruises are peaceful, now ON THROUGH THE FOG!