Pacific Sky Isle Of Pines - Too Close to Shore?

I was viewing the WebCam shot of the Pacific Sky at Isle Of Pines late this afternoon, and it just seemed a little too close to the shore for comfort.

I then went to the official P&O site and the WebCam for Pacific Sky is not showing at all.

More Problems?

I seriously hope not!

Sorry, couldn't get the image to load properly. So here is the url where I saw it:

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/pacific_sky/pacific_sky.htm

Yes, that's been intriguing us this afternoon as well. also, yesterday it was docked at the Container wharf in Noumea, not at the passenger terminal.

So it is another problem - Oh Dear!

Got the following from a "Google" search

Cruise ship runs into reef

Sep 5, 2005

An Australian cruise ship with more than 1,700 people on board has run onto a reef in the south of New Caledonia.

Maritime authorities in Noumea say the Pacific Sky suffered engine problems and drifted onto the reef of Bayonnaise near the isle of Pines.

Oh no, that's not good. Poor Pacific Sky.

:(

From the TVNZ News website;

An Australian cruise ship with more than 1,700 people on board has run onto a reef in the south of New Caledonia.

Maritime authorities in Noumea say the Pacific Sky suffered engine problems and drifted onto the reef of Bayonnaise near the isle of Pines.

Police divers have checked the 240-metre long vessel and found it suffered no damage.

The incident occurred in calm conditions and all on board are safe.

Two tugs are due to arrive from Noumea on Monday to free the ship which is owned by the Australian company P&O.

More concerning about that, if the report is accurate, is that the ship suffered engine problems again.

The latest news from me is that I was just speaking to a friend who is booked to cruise in a few weeks and actually rang P&O about all this.

They deny any engine failure at all, and also stated that the ship is not on a reef but drifted onto a sand bank. No damage has been discovered but divers will still ensure there is no external damage prior to her sailing. They don't anticipate any cruises being cancelled.

If you are about to cruise on Sky, let's hope all that is correct and you still get to enjoy your holiday.

10AM Australian Time and Krooz-Cams shows Pacific Sky free and sailing, tugs disappearing in the distance.

I found this item early afternoon, again through a Google search:

Cruise ship refloated

A cruise ship with nearly 2,000 passengers and crew on board has been refloated, after running aground in New Caledonia.

P&O Cruises says the Pacific Sky hit a sandy area near the Isle of Pines yesterday afternoon. The company says she was re-floated early this morning and is currently anchored at the Isle of Pines for an inspection.

The cruise company says the ship and passengers have been safe at all times. The ship was three days into a South Pacific cruise.

Pacific Sky refloated after running aground

5/9/2005

P&O Cruises Australia’s resident Pacific Sky was refloated this morning after running onto sand at New Caledonia’s Isle of Pines yesterday.

 

The 46,000gt ship, which left Brisbane September 1 on a nine-night South Pacific cruise, was due to arrive at Vanuatu’s Mystery Island at 8 a.m. today.

 

However, a company statement issued today said the ship, which is carrying 1,289 passengers and 615 crew, was at the Isle of Pines anchorage where local divers were inspecting her hull.

 

‘All passenger services are available and a tender service to the island will enable passengers to enjoy the facilities ashore today,’ the statement said. It went on to say ‘the ship and passengers have at all times been safe.’

 

Seatrade Insider understands that the divers have reported there is no apparent damage and that a Lloyds surveyor is en route from Brisbane to certify the ship is fit to sail.[/Quote]

 

http://www.cruise-community.com/ShowStory.asp?ID=8127

Thanks for that Goldryder. Actually, your news report is more comprehensive than most I have found and read "Down Under" or throughout Oceania. Thanks for taking the time to pass it on.

How does a 'modern' ship simply get grounded on a sandbank? Then again, the Pacific Sky is actually the last of the steam ships. I think I am right there. With fuel prices as they are these days, maybe it is a good thing.

Finally, I am envious of your cruise ship experiences. What a list! My best cruise experience was on the Superstar Leo, now renamed and sailing off Alaska. That said, our "Funships" here is Oz are a real hoot and the cruise staff are just fantastic.

From other sources it is said that the ship experienced engine problems while she was at the island. This might have been unhelpful if she started to drift, however, it does seem strange that this would have a bearing as she would have been at anchor at the time. Its seems highly unusual that she would not only drag her anchor but have engine problems together in a calm sea causing her to run aground like she did.

Very strange.

In regards to the past cruises, I was lucky enough to do those as a child/teenager with parents who had the cruising bug. I was able to go on Norwegian Jewel on one of her two mini-cruises before she entered full service. My next cruise will be a big one, to me at least, 21 days in total - 2 nights on planes (6 planes - 3 each way), 4 nights in pre/post hotels and 14 nights aboard NCL Crown. Definately looking forward to seeing South America and celebrating Christmas/New Year aboard ship.

so.....looking at your countdown ticker there is only 100 days left till christmas. Hadnt even thought about that yet. Christmas will be upon us before we know it.

It must have been lovely sailing on the queen mary and elizabeth years ago. Can you still remember them, must have been very gracious.

karon

so.....looking at your countdown ticker there is only 100 days left till christmas. Hadnt even thought about that yet. Christmas will be upon us before we know it.

It must have been lovely sailing on the queen mary and elizabeth years ago. Can you still remember them, must have been very gracious.

karon

My Christmas holiday starts :) on December 15th and ends :( on January 4th.

From what I can remember, the old Queens were gorgeous, very gracious and they epitomised cruising. At the time my family lived on the Isle of Wight, right opposite the entrance to Southampton Water, my Dad built a platform at the bottom of the garden so we could watch the liners arrive and leave. We saw the Queens, Michelangelo, United States, France, the Union Castle ships, original Oriana, Canberra and many other ships when cruising was THE way to holiday. Thankfully, after a while where only a few ships used Southampton, they are back in large numbers again and the little pleasure craft go and meet the ships, just as I used to as a child.

How do you get the countdown ticker to work? I am going on the Sun in 4 days!! I am so looking forward to it after the disaster that was Easter not on the Sky!!

Don't worry I found the instructions on the Countdown ticker!!!!

Hey Chaz Cruiser

Am going on the Memory Maker as well. Going with 5 friends. Not long to go now. Made my list of things to pack last week. 2 of my friends are already packed!:eek:

Looking forward to it!

Have you cruised before? This is our first time! :D

Hey Chaz Cruiser

 

 

Am going on the Memory Maker as well. Going with 5 friends. Not long to go now. Made my list of things to pack last week. 2 of my friends are already packed!:eek:

Looking forward to it!

 

Have you cruised before? This is our first time! :D

Hi Shorty,

Yes I have cruised before. This will be my 5th cruise. I too am looking forward to it. I think I will pack on Friday night! Just kidding. I usually put my suitcase on the spare bed and when I think of something I want to take I put it in the suitcase.

I am travelling with my family. It should be great. At least we aren't going on the Sky which looks to be having problems again. We missed out on an Easter cruise thanks to the Sky!

Cheers,

Chaz

Hey all , this is my first time here and i saw this thread so i thought i might add my two cents worth.

I was on the sky when the ship hit the reef , not only was there no engine trouble but the ship was actually gaining speed as it hit the reef, i was on the tender boat still attached to the mighty sky when it suddenly started to steam forward, the call then came " Get that tender off the side NOW" with that we hurried from the side of the ship, only to watch it head straight for the island.(I have photos of this happening, showing the anchor was down and being dragged underwater)

We were stuck on the island for approx 1hr with the crew telling the 60 or so stranded that the ship had run aground and the crew were at muster stations , all was well with the passengers.

Upon returning to the sky i managed to capture some film and photos before we were hurried onto the ship.

The crew handled the situation excellently and i would have no quarm about rejoining the mighty sky for another memorabile cruise

:)

Chevman, thanks for the info. Would love to see the photos, can you put them up on the web?

I was on the sky when the ship hit the reef , not only was there no engine trouble but the ship was actually gaining speed as it hit the reef, i was on the tender boat still attached to the mighty sky when it suddenly started to steam forward,

Thanks for the info. Did they explain to the passengers why this happened? Sounds like someone pushed a wrong button or something doesn't it?

Can't wait to see your photos..Please!!!

I was also on the Sky when it grounded. What Chevman says about the ship gaining speed is correct. It was under engine power for 10 minutes or so before it hit the island. What he says about the crew handling the situation excellently is completely wrong. He was on a tender when the incident happened. Also, the ship was stuck for about 16 hours on the reef.

There was panic on board the ship. I have the videos to support this. The wrong emergency alarm was sounded, so the passengers had no idea if it was a real emergency or not. The crew all had their life jackets on & were running for the deck. The passengers believed the crew were saving themselves and didn't give a damn about anyone else.

I was in a stair well when the captain announed "brace, brace, brace" and the ship began to roll. We had no idea we were on the ground and thought the ship was going to capsize. People were panicking. Some crew were screaming at people to go up on deck, other telling us to go to our cabins & other telling us to go to our muster stations. We were confined to our cabins like prisoners for several hours.

The way the whole incident was handled was disgusting and very frightening. We were told the ship drifted onto the island, which was a total lie. We were offered a $100 rebate as compensation which goes no where near compensating us for the trauma or the island we missed out on as a result.

Chevman's wife here,

I was on the ship when my husband was on the tender, and at the time I was in my cabin putting our 3 year old down for a sleep when the incident happened, we were on Caribe deck and the staff on this deck handled themselves with the utmost professionlism I have ever seen. There was no panic on this deck, however yes the alarm going off was a bit frightening and yes it was a bit disturbing not knowing what was happening, but not once did I feel like I was in horrific danger. The boat shattered for a couple of secs, which I found out later that the boat was put in reverse to try and stop then the alarm sounded and the announcement was made "passengers and crew Brace Brace Brace" then all you could feel was the boat move on a lean of about 25 degrees then stop. We were only in our cabins for only 2 hours not what you stated and really we were not confined as there were around 10 lots of people (cabins) all having a few drinks in the coridor on the cabin chairs and pofaas. Admitedly we had to put the chairs back for emergency reasons, which is understandable, then we even got photos with Kenny our cabin steward as he was dressed like gilligan, so really I can't see much panic there. The $100.00 seemed fine as do you really think you would have spent that amount of money on Wala anyway. Maybe if you think you need to seek advice for trauma reasons fine. But my 3 year old continued to watch The Polar Express on the Laptop whilst I and our friends had a few wines.

May I please ask what deck you were on and love to see the distress video??

Our Uncle and Aunt were on the Promenade Deck when it all happened, they noticed the boat moving obviously then an announcement for them to sit down and hold on was given then once the boat had stopped they were moved back to there cabin. The only reason that the forward cabins were removed from there areas and to their muster stations was just in case the ship may had a hull breach and it would be safer for all concerned there. At no time there was any mention about panic or anyone running around screaming, and if there was you certainly would have heard and noticed it at the shows or even at meal times.

I was on the pacific sky when it ran aground,we had just come back from isle of pines and were having lunch in the verandah lounge when she started moving ,slowly at first then rather fast.The message that came through the loud speakers wasnt clear enough for anyone in the lounge at the time to understand or make heads or tails of.I went onto the deck to see what was happening & asked the crew that was out there what was going on and all they did was speak in their own language and ignore myself & the other passengers that were asking.When the message came over "passengers brace" the crew just ran into the kitchen and left us out there wondering what was going on. We hit the island and it was like bedlam with people panicking etc.My boyfriend who was in the lounge said that people fell over and bottles fell off the bar.Then we were told to go to our muster areas,then told to go to our cabins and every crew member we spoke to had a different idea of what we should do.We ended up in our cabin waiting for anything concrete as to what to do,yes,we were there for 2 1/2 hours and i will say it was a quite stressful 2 hrs,especially when the captain was saying"i am lowering the lifeboats as a precautionary measure"..It didn't make us feel safe, especially as the crew were all wearing life jackets and some people weren't allowed into their cabins at all.We spoke to quite a few people over the next 5 days and found out some elderly passengers hadn't even left their cabins after the "incident".. We too were disgusted with the way the crew handled the incident and insulted with the $100 we got... apart from the fact that we only chose that cruise for wala as it was my birthday on the day we should have been there,its moreso the whole stress thing... i wasn't able to sleep for 2 days after that and then every day that we sailed i was a nervous wreck everytime the ship hit a wave.We feel that there was something more than an anchor dragging or a chain snapping or whatever they are saying the problem was,because how can a cruise ship that has anchored at that spot a multitude of times suddenly have an anchor drag or a chain snap,nothing makes sense at all,even an engineer who was on the ship at the time said to us "in all my 36 years working on cruise ships i have never known one that just drags an anchor"

how horrible for all onboard. I just hope that everything works out ok on my cruise. Do u think you will cruise again? if so would u go on the Sky again?