Tender accidents?

Just wondering - has anyone ever heard about any accidents occurring as people were stepping from the ship to the tender and vice versa? Surely someone in the history of cruising has somehow slipped and fallen into the ocean... I've tendered several times and usually I feel very secure stepping between the two vessels, feel that even if I somehow slipped the people holding onto my arms would keep me up, but there has been a time or two when the water was rough enough to make the step a little difficult...

the only accidents I have heard on tenders have been while employees were practicing(one was killed when he fell) or during maintenance. Otherwise they have been few and far between....I have heard of accidents while people were getting off a ship on a gangplank...

I've on occasion read about people not being able to tender to shore because of rough seas and are disappointed. Believe the captain when they make that decision, I had a quite painful occurence making the transfer in the past.

Even though the crew had ahold of me, the tender boat bobbed downward when I was stepping onto the ship and I pulled a muscle in my hip. I thought I'd just take some Advil and be done with it by the next day. Instead, the pain was my companion for several months, not much could be done for it since it was a muscle strain. I did the ice, heat, massage therapy but it just took several months to heal.

On a HAL sailing years ago, the seas were rough and the gangway ramp that is attached to the ship and tender broke free of the ship while a passengers was trying to board the tender... they fell inbetween the ship and the ganyway ramp into the ocean.... two crew members dove into the water w/ life preservers and rescued the passenger. Never heard what happened afterwards regarding passenger injury (other than rampid rumors, i.e. law suit, broken arm, required stitches, among the many other stories that could not be verified), but we saw it happen while on our balcony.... it was very scary. :eek:

When we were on the Island Princess in January of 2006, the harbour pilot was killed when he slipped climbing down the ladder after leaving Nawiliwili, Kauai. Apparently, he had over 30 years of experience as a harbour pilot. Accidents do happen.

Pearl

Accidents do happen. We have a family motto. "If it looks dangerous, don't do it." We've cancelled doing a tender run when we had elderly family members traveling with us and now use the same caution for ourselves.

Most of the time, it's simply a step onto the tender...not a big deal! If it's rough, don't go!!!!

I had a little bitty one... a long time ago... the tender lurched as I was being helped on or off (hey, we're talking back in the 90s, I can't remember all the details!). Got a cut on my heel. Big enough to be a pain in the butt but not big enough that stitches were needed.

In Dec our entire family my inlaws, my parents, hubbie, my son, and myself went on a 7 day. The day we were at the private island we had to tender over, first on the tender my son (20 months at the time) in his stroller, they just took him stroller and all over and gave him to a woman. Then it was my turn, by then the ramp was moving from the ship and I could see water where there was to be ramp. So they picked me up( 5' 9.5" 190 lbs of woman here so I am not light) and put me on the tender, then they got the rest of us on. If James had not been on that boat I would not have gone, I was so scared that I would fall and get smushed between those boats. It ended up being the best day of the cruise(wish on next trip had a private beach day).

At Grand Cayman a couple years back a man in a wheel chair got his knees banged up pretty badly as his nurse and he tried to board a tender boat in pretty rocky waves.

My husband is the one who witnessed the event. He told me about it because we had spoken to the nurse that same morning and he was really looking forward to seeing the blue iguanas in Grand Cayman.

I felt really bad for the man and the nurse both because they seemed like nice people.

I was stepping onto a tender from RCI's Legend when it suddenly lurched up about 2 feet and I fell onto the tender breaking my foot. I also know of a former football player (in his 70's) from my alma mater, Wisconsin, who was trying to get from the tender to the ship in pretty rough seas, when he lost his grip on the guys who were trying to help him off the tender and he fell into the water, and his arm was broken when it slammed into the side of the ship.

A couple of years a man was attempting to get off our tender and it moved away from the pier -- he fell and caught his leg between the tender and the pier.

Then last year in Sitka the tender that I was getting on, suddenly rocked and I fell into the tender and hurt my knee. I was hanging on -- but the rocking motion was a BIG one.

Well, that answers that! My sister is traveling with me to the Mex Riviera next Feb. She's a bit older and has knee replacements and not very good balance. We've thought about taking a sailing excursion but she was worried about the transfer to the tender and then again to the sailboat. I think after reading all these posts that maybe it's not a great idea. The ship is in Cabo for only several hours so she may just want to stay on the ship.

eggypann Well, that answers that! My sister is traveling with me to the Mex Riviera next Feb. She's a bit older and has knee replacements and not very good balance. We've thought about taking a sailing excursion but she was worried about the transfer to the tender and then again to the sailboat. I think after reading all these posts that maybe it's not a great idea. The ship is in Cabo for only several hours so she may just want to stay on the ship.

I would decide that day. It may be quite easy to get on to the tender. I have sailed 9 times and can only one time were tending was a problem. We were in Grand Cayman. We didn't get off early because we didn't have an excursion we were just going to walk around. The tendering got so bad that the ship stopped it for a few hours until the captain could move the ship. Once they did that it went much better. I have never herd of anyone getting hurt, but I'm sure it can happpen.. like some have already said.

Well, that answers that!

My sister is traveling with me to the Mex Riviera next Feb.

She's a bit older and has knee replacements and not very good balance.

We've thought about taking a sailing excursion but she was worried about the transfer to the tender

-- and then again to the sailboat.

I think after reading all these posts that maybe it's not a great idea.

The ship is in Cabo for only several hours so she may just want to stay on the ship.

You should stay on the ship. ;)

.

Most of the time, it's simply a step onto the tender...not a big deal! If it's rough, don't go!!!!

My incident happened getting back onto the ship, so I would have had to stay on the very distant Fanning Island until....the next week??? You don't always have a choice, but if the captain says it's too rough, believe them. There have been a couple instances over the years where people have been stranded at port because of too rough a sea for tendering.

Sometimes it's as smooth as glass and no problem at all. In all our cruises, we've only had the rough seas once.

There have been several incidents that I have heard about. If a person's balance is even slightly off, they can fall flat on their face. Extreme caution, particularly in rough seas, is important!

About 5-6 years ago we were in Grand Cayman and a man got his foot caught between the tender and shore. The seas were really high. We heard it was pretty bad breaking off his toe. Now we are extra careful when entering and exiting a tender!

Our tender in Cabo caught fire...does that count?

It was Electrical, smoke everywhere...

all ended fine, but they did pass out life vests

Our tender in Cabo caught fire...does that count?

 

It was Electrical, smoke everywhere...

 

all ended fine, but they did pass out life vests

Definitely think that should count!:eek:

I wonder if it has ever been so rough that they had to have the passengers stay inside the tender/lifeboat while they hoisted it back aboard? Now that would be interesting.

Cheers,

Peter

peterv I wonder if it has ever been so rough that they had to have the passengers stay inside the tender/lifeboat while they hoisted it back aboard? Now that would be interesting.

 

Cheers,

Peter

I have seen cruise ships use there own lifeboats for tendering.. I guess it is possible. But I have never seen that happen. I was on Celebrity one time were they did stop tendering for about an hour and half because it was getting hard to get people on and off.

I know this isn't what your talking about, but it reminded me of the time DH and I went on an excursion...speed boats, and I fell in. To this day we both laugh about it. The same cruise I had another accident were I fell in...and can you believe I wasn't drinking!

Transferring between tender and ship in other than calm seas can pose significant peril, which is why the decision to permit it is such a serious consideration.

Any transfer to a ship at sea can be dangerous. Though somewhat unusual, there have been incidents of bar/harbor pilots maimed/killed making that move.

And then there are the unique "tender" type transfers like this one where pretty much the entire population of Pitcairn Island (except for several elderly residents) made their way aboard Oceania Marina (Sorry for the poor image):

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

It's not all that unusual to have a few minor injuries on rough seas.