Unusual Experiences on HAL?

[ON cruiser]

Thank you, Don, for your post above which clarified terminology--we were told that it was the keel which was causing the yacht to heel over so that it had to be abandoned, thus I guess what I wrote above makes sense...I also seem to have recalled more detail, at least re terminology, than I thought from that event 3 years ago (described in above post). Will never be a sailor, other than a cruiser, however. :)

 

Anyway, having been on many HAL cruises, we have never experienced that type of event before, and again, were most impressed at how the crew responded to rescue the two men. I am sure they were glad to get off the small yacht, which was unsafe and un-maneuverable in the mid ocean!

[NoobCruise]

LOL, In defense of my sleepy question..... It was our 3rd typhoon that week (17-24 September 2011)...........

 

Hey, at least after the worst of the 1st one, I was not the one lying prone on the bed asking, "Where's my cell phone?" When asked why you wanted it, your reply of, "So I can call 911," was priceless. That was my most memorable part of that cruise:D

 

Joanie

 

That made me laugh out loud

[NoobCruise]

Another case of "Captain's Choice" but in College Fjord the Captain decided it was OK to get real close (or so it seemed) to Harvard Glacier. In his announcement he did mention he had to go slow due to so much ice in the water and something about Seattle not liking it if he scratched the paint. Close enough so when a city bus sized chunk calved the wave rocked the ship pretty good. We were far closer than other ships at Glacier Bay too.

 

We experienced this at Johns Hopkins Glacier on the Westerdam as well. I couldn't believe it rocked the whole ship!

[kazu]

At the Mariner ceremony on the Koningsdam Premier sailing they awarded a 100 Day Medallion to a service dog.

I got some great pictures of the dog with his medallion[emoji2]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Now THAT is cool :)

[mor mor]

Thank you, Don, for your post above which clarified terminology--we were told that it was the keel which was causing the yacht to heel over so that it had to be abandoned, thus I guess what I wrote above makes sense...I also seem to have recalled more detail, at least re terminology, than I thought from that event 3 years ago (described in above post). Will never be a sailor, other than a cruiser, however. :)

 

Anyway, having been on many HAL cruises, we have never experienced that type of event before, and again, were most impressed at how the crew responded to rescue the two men. I am sure they were glad to get off the small yacht, which was unsafe and un-maneuverable in the mid ocean!

We were on that cruise and thanks for the memories. The Captain said it was a broken rudder . Sailor friends of ours are amazed anyone would cross the Atlantic without a spare.

[NRFBQN]

We were on the Eurodam last November, on our way from Key West to Grand Cayman. It was just after dinner (late seating) and we were browsing in the shops when the ship sounded an alarm sequence. I had actually studied the various alarm sequence and this one didn't match any of them. We saw a bunch of officers come by walking very briskly, then shop employees started grabbing the tables out of the walkways and pulling them into the shops. It was clear that something was going on, so we got out of the shops before we got locked in and headed for our cabin to await news. Shortly after that, the Captain came on the speaker and said that we were going to investigate something. It turned out that the man on watch saw an erratic light, so our ship checked it out. It was a flashlight being held by one of the people on a small raft made of styrofoam blocks tied together.

 

There were seven Cuban refugees on the raft and it was starting to disintegrate. We actually saw some pieces of styrofoam in the water below our verandah. Also, this was all happening in the midst of a big thunder and lightning storm! Our ship sent a fast rescue boat over to the raft, rescued four of the people and brought them back to the ship, then repeated the trip and picked up the remaining three. There were six men and one woman, ranging from about 18 to 55. They only spoke Spanish and the crew on the rescue boat did not, so that made it pretty interesting for them.

 

The next day, we were near the dock on Grand Cayman, waiting for our excursion, when we saw the Cubans come off the tender. They were given to Caymanian authorities and we don't know what happened after that. It was said that the Caymanian authorities were unlikely to keep them there, but no one knew if they would be returned to Cuba or taken to another country.

 

During the rescue the Captain was great about keeping us all informed and it was all quite exciting. Over the next couple of days we attended the Captain's Talk and the Mariners Brunch and the rescue was a big topic. At the brunch, the captain invited the First Officer, who piloted the rescue boat, to talk about the experience. The Captain also said that had we not rescued them, they would certainly have perished that night.

 

It was very exciting and everyone on board was very proud of the Captain and crew for saving these people!

 

Best regards,

Priscilla