Keith B.
November 16th, 2004, 02:25 PM
We returned from our Zaandam cruise 13 November and wanted to tell about our "excitement" on the cruise.
On Tuesday 16 November the ship left Grand Cayman at 5 P.M., yeah it was open again but that's another story, when the ship got a distress call. We spent the next 8 hours looking for the people who had placed the call. The coast guard instructed the captain to stay on sight and they sent a plane to help in the search. About 3 A.M. we found them. I didn't see what they were on.
It turned out to be 3 Cubans who had capsized 5 days earlier. All the had was water.
On Thursday they were off loaded to a coast guard cutter around midnight. Actually it was a rubber dingy which took them to the cutter. I got some pictures but all you can see is some small lights because I was taking them from Deck 8 and there were no spot lights lighting them up.
The word we got was they were taken to the states and were in good health. No word on where they came from in Cuba or where they were trying to get to or what was going to happen to them.
A lot of the passengers were watching the transfer and a bunch of cheers went up for the Cubans from the passengers.
We missed our port of call in Ochos Rio because of the rescue. I didn't hear any complaints from passenger about missing the port. Everyone seemed real happy rhat we were able to help the distressed seafarers.
On Tuesday 16 November the ship left Grand Cayman at 5 P.M., yeah it was open again but that's another story, when the ship got a distress call. We spent the next 8 hours looking for the people who had placed the call. The coast guard instructed the captain to stay on sight and they sent a plane to help in the search. About 3 A.M. we found them. I didn't see what they were on.
It turned out to be 3 Cubans who had capsized 5 days earlier. All the had was water.
On Thursday they were off loaded to a coast guard cutter around midnight. Actually it was a rubber dingy which took them to the cutter. I got some pictures but all you can see is some small lights because I was taking them from Deck 8 and there were no spot lights lighting them up.
The word we got was they were taken to the states and were in good health. No word on where they came from in Cuba or where they were trying to get to or what was going to happen to them.
A lot of the passengers were watching the transfer and a bunch of cheers went up for the Cubans from the passengers.
We missed our port of call in Ochos Rio because of the rescue. I didn't hear any complaints from passenger about missing the port. Everyone seemed real happy rhat we were able to help the distressed seafarers.