davecttr

1 hour ago, sogne said:

Viking sky sensors in fuel tanks activated low oil pressure when ship rolled or pitched after they were exposed due to movement. Engines automatically  shut down.

... and there are reports that the sensors were exposed because the oil level was lower than normal which led to it sloshing around in the tank - allegedly

16 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Well, to be fair, it would normally be something on these lines:

 

’British pensioners hit by GIANT foreign killer waves as the BBC and RNLI stand back and refuse to help.’

And in the Daily Distress it would look like this

ps - read the Saga forum topic for a seasoned retired cruise ship chief engineers thoughts on the causes.

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I’ve been following this on a Saga group elsewhere.

 

One group member explained this in a very similar way - she had been on a previous Saga cruise and a captain spoke about this particular system 

Check here on the Saga forum for the most plausible reason

3 hours ago, crompton21 said:

You may already be aware of this one, if you are not do a google search on the 2019 Viking Sky incident.  Similar in the sense that the difficulties were caused by inbuilt safety systems causing unforeseen consequences.

I asked on the general question board and this reply from a retired cruise ship chief engineer is interesting. He is a fount of knowledge of the technical stuff

Sagas modern Spirit of Discovery was caught in a severe storm a few days ago resulting in the injury of about 100 passengers including several hospitalisations. Reports state that the sudden ship movement was the result of the activation of the "automatic propulsion safety system" making the ship veer to the left and come to a sudden halt. What sort of automatic system is this and why would it result in many injuries?

Very christmassy on Oceana years ago. They could not find the christmas music CD until boxing day 🙄

The 12 night cruise is actually 14 days so a fresh shirt a day means 14 shirts and no need to wash anything else. I will take a maximum of 9 shirts and launder 6 on day  7 from departure. Actually only rinse/freshen up if there is such a wash cycle.

7 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We are going at the late November / early December and have received an email saying that we should look forward to seeing the Christmas Decoratons on the ship when we board.

This is the extract from thd email

 

The greatest gift is Christmas spirit

Get ready for a huge, sparkling tree to greet you with dazzling decorations throughout the ship, decking all the halls. There’ll be a choir and carol services, festive photo opportunities, a huge variety of entertainment, and special Christmas gifts in the shops.

What ship is that? My Ventura cruise is late November early December

Just now, terrierjohn said:

Yes.

Great, that will help with getting rid of the £300 OBC I have on Ventura

Can you pay for the ships laundry fees with your onboard credit?

5 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Most believe you sail through the Bay, when of course you sail on the edge of it. In my years in the RN and cruising I found the English Channel and North Sea worse. Going around Cape Horn can be treacherous as well.

That's what did for the Cutty Sark, she sprained her masts doing a handbrake turn around Cape Horn.

1 hour ago, Capella Black said:

What's a pop up Glass House? Sounds interesting, and we have 2 sea days so lots of opportunity for this. 

 

And thanks, I'll see if we can get Arman!

 

Ocean Grill did look good - is the lobster worth the surcharge in your opinion? I'm a big lobster fan!

It opens at some sea day lunchtimes in Intermezzo opposite the Ocean Grill and uses the Grills galley. They only offered small plates and a limited selection of wines. I enjoyed it, you just walk up and ask for a table. Pity it is not open on all sea days.

9 hours ago, pete14 said:

Selbourne,

 

Thanks for your report so far. I wonder whether next time you see an ORCA person, could you please ask them if they know whether there will be somebody from ORCA on our upcoming Northern Lights cruise on Aurora which leaves Southampton on November 15th. Hopefully there will be, but maybe with the shortage of daylight in Norway at this time of year, it might be a waste of their time. 
Thanks

 

I will ask, BTW a senior moment and my Arcadia cruise was on Aurora

The famous snot storm of 2 Nov 23

Meanwhile

Brittany Ferries Galicia is making a dash from Portsmouth to Bay of Seine

Mein Schiff 3 and Freds Balmoral were following similar courses in the Bay of Biscay. Balmoral's course has become erratic and they are heading east with a gale and 8.8 metre waves. Hope they are OK.

4 hours ago, jh1809 said:

Boggle! The only thing I can think of is that instead of the standard mb they are using mm of mercury as their unit. From school physics lessons over 50 years ago, ISTR that "standard" atmospheric pressure is 760 mm of mercury (so 760 mm equating to about 1012 mb).

It is me not reading the key properly

Grey contours are sea level pressure in millibars (mb). The labels are "short hand" that show just the last two digits: 998 mb becomes "98", 999 mb is "99" 1000 mb is "00" and 1001 mb is "01" and so on.

so 76 actually means 976 

1 hour ago, jh1809 said:

There must be some mistake somewhere. 940 maybe, but 840 isn't really possible.

current eye of the storm pressure estimated as down to 720!, Obviously wrong or are we on a 'day after tomorrow' path?

Check out the current ocean weather on

https://www.oceanweather.com/data/

It has wave height and direction plus wind speeds and air pressures

Some of those pressures are about 840mB 😨

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Blimey. We had 6-8 metre waves in the Bay of Biscay and lots of people were suffering with that 🤢

Quick conversion, 3 metres is 10 feet so 15 metres is 50 feet 😱

Good to read that ORCA are on this cruise but of course it might mean they won't be on the late November one. There was a young lady on the Arcadia cruise and her talks were well attended, as were the watching sessions. We saw several species including my first view of a Sperm Whale. I think she must have been a Whale magnet 😀

I now really like sea days and spend several hours daily scanning the waters

18 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

It’s an odd one, as the port side exits to the promenade deck (forward and midships) have been closed most of the cruise so far, BUT most other exits were open and you could walk around the entire promenade deck other than the raised forward section, so the door closures were completely pointless! There are a lot of smokers on this cruise, so I suspect that they felt that they had to allow access to the starboard (smoking) side to avoid civil war 😂 

It is not just Ventura, both Aurora and Arcadia had similar issues recently. Crew members will not react to changing circumstances unless told to do so, it has to be this way. Those doors remain closed until an 'ossifer' says open them. Passengers started using their own initiative which could be dangerous.

1 hour ago, 9265359 said:

 

Meanwhile I am glad that the newer P&O ships have an 'always on' plug in the cabins, that doesn't require a card in the slot for the socket to be live.

Interesting, where are they on Iona and Arvia

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

No idea, but please save that story for when we are safely home 😂 

This topic has  a little image of the crack

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/1652963-ventura-cracked-whilst-crossing-bay-of-biscay/

2 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

The problem is that the batteries can be fine when new and would likely pass any quality control/assurance inspections, however several years/months later when they have been knocked about/dropped several times and hairline cracks etc start forming or the wrong chargers are used or they are left plugged in for longer periods than is recommended problems arise. A lot of these batteries contain several nasty chemicals and once the casing cracks the vapours escape and ignite. 

Nerd alert 🤓

I use lithium batteries for my model railway locomotives and you have to be careful with charging. including no trickle charging when fully charged. I had a fire a few years ago when there was a short in the wiring (my fault) It was interesting watching the loco doing a scale 60mph with 2 inch flames issuing from the tender. It stopped after a few seconds because the battery was only 0.6 watts. My largest batteries are 600mAh with 2.2 watts.

This video is informative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nz5ijXcckI

1 hour ago, ace2542 said:

I wonder if they will ban lithum batteries and ergo mechnical scooters and wheelchairs. Which would end cruising for some people?

No chance, what powers your smart phone, camera etc etc