Live From Navigator of the Seas

We are rescuing 8 people in a raft just off the coast of Cuba! I'll post photos when I return home tomorrow!

Capt. Patrick and staff are doing an awesome job! We are waiting for the Coast Guard!

Can't wait to see your pics.

amazing.

look forward to photos.

hopefully everyone is safe.

What? That's crazy. Can't wait to see your pictures! :eek:

Once in a lifetime you get to see such things if your lucky, we rescued 6 people at sea on a raft on first week of december aboard the Monarch, amazing :)

I was on the Monarch in December when we picked up the cubans and I was on the Navigator 3/31 when we DIDN't pick them up, but waited for the Keys Coast Guard to come and resue them.

It seems it is happening more. I guess the Cubans don't understand the Gulf Stream Current and that the ship will NOT bring them to the U.S. as they keep trying over and over again.

I wonder how many boats made by the Cubans actually make it to the U.S.???

The ship will get close to Florida then they get transferred to a Coast Guard boat so their feet aren't on dry soil.

Looking forward to the pics.

Enjoy your cruise :)

Hi everyone:

We just got home a little while ago, the photos turned out well! There ended up being 9 people on that raft which included 1 woman and 1 child. Everyone appeared to be okay but a little seasick as you can imagine and unfortunately will see in the photos!

My family and I were on a four day cruise to Cozumel on Navigator of the Seas which left Fort Lauderdale last Thursday, April 28th.

On our last sea day, May 1st, my husband and I wondered out to the bow of the ship. If anyone has been up there before, it’s typically not crowded at 2:30 in the afternoon. There were about 50 people or so up there and we knew right away something was going on.

Eventually we learned that several passengers spotted a raft in the water just of the starboard side and they thought it had four people on it.

We noticed the radar was spinning faster than usual and the ship appeared to change courses over a forty five minute period. The seas were particularly rough today.

After about forty five minutes we all spotted a small raft in the distance and started jumping up and down, pointing our fingers, and yelling “there it is, there it is!”

Here is when we spotted them:

It was extremely difficult to see the raft because blended into the water and the waves were rolling. As the ship got closer to the raft we could see there were more than four people in the raft. Immediately after the raft came into view, the captain announced they were indeed Cuban Refugees and that they were awaiting word from the Coast Guard. He said he thought there were 8 people inside the raft and that's when I knew I'd have time to post for all of you!:D

Upon a closer look many of the people were seasick and can understand why.

It appeared that the raft was hand made out of barrels, tarp, and an engine that must have failed as we were about 40 miles north of Havana, Cuba. Parts of the raft looked like they were coming apart.

They were also taking on water, quickly.

It seemed only ten or twenty minutes passed when the decision was made to pick them up......

You can see a crew member speaking to them to the left of the photo.

One by one each refugee climbed up the ladder and onto the ship.

Here is a better picture of the "engine"......

I was also onboard. It was quite a feat picking them up. My pictures are very similar to sunandseagirl so I won't post mine.

I will say that I found it amazing that we turned back and searched for a good hour before we found them again. I went out to the helicopter pad to watch (before we found them). The ship kept turning circles and finally they turned on radar when we reached the point on GPS where they were first spotted. Captain Patrick is a great man and his crew worked hard to help save these people.

Their raft was not going to last much longer with the waves. I think it was very emotional for many people watching and especially the people onboard.

While I was at dinner (7pmish) the Coast guard met up with us and took them off our ship. Unfortunately for them, they will be returned to Cuba.

The Captain announced we would be meeting the Coast Guard just off of Key West and two hours later, we were there.