chengkp75

If you have a PFD, use the H.E.L.P. position to reduce heat loss, if not, use the "drownproofing" method to minimize exertion and consequentially heat loss. There are also ways to use pants or shirts to trap a bubble of air for use as a floatation device. The best method is prevention, and if you are in a profession where going overboard is a real concern, the use of a PLB (personal locator beacon), which uses the same SAR (search and rescue) satellite network that ships' EPIRB beacons use, and connects to governmental SAR assets. But, if you go overboard, know that the odds are far and away against your survival, so don't place yourself in a situation where it could happen in the first place. Seafarers know that any help from outside, for any situation, is likely days away, so you constantly have "situational awareness" to prevent emergencies in the first place.

No, it says that between 2009 and 2019, there were 212 total incidents, or just over 21 per year. The number of 48 rescued was for the same 10 year period, or about 5 per year, or 25%. As for the notion of "collecting garbage to make a signal", that is just so much rubbish (sorry for the pun). As someone who has spent a lifetime on the sea, and trained in man overboard scenarios, you would expend far too much energy (and therefore increase your hypothermia) attempting to find, collect, and control a patch of floating garbage to be worth anything. And for those who say that if this is in warm waters, it is shown that hypothermia will begin within hours even in 75-80*F water. And, this survival expert doesn't even mention hypothermia.

I don't think this will happen. Suits based on a man overboard are governed by the "Death on the High Seas Act", where the plaintiff has to prove negligence, and the bar for showing that the shipping line was not negligent is if a "reasonable person" would consider the actions of the victim "imprudent". It is very difficult to prove a case under the DOHSA.

My experiences as Chief Engineer for cruise ship dry dockings. Most cruise ships have special stations (much like the bunkering stations, where the fuel hose goes into the ship while loading fuel) to take sea water provided by the shipyard's pumps to cool a generator. There will be a special flange on the cooling water overboard, where the shipyard will connect a hose to take the cooling water away. This allows the ship to run one of its main generators, and keep all hotel services running (lights, AC, galley, toilets, etc). Nearly all work in the hotel areas (both front of house and back of house, like the galley and laundry), is done by sub-contractors hired by the cruise line, not the shipyard. As noted previously, this can range to over a thousand workers, and they will be housed onboard to keep cost down (no hotels, as these contractors are generally flown in from other countries) and to eliminate commute time (they are working where they live). These workers will live in guest cabins, so cabin stewards will still need to service these cabins (though not daily), galley staff will still need to feed them, some wait staff will be needed in the MDR and buffet, but for the most part, bar staff will be assigned other duties like fire watch and clean up. Crew like spa staff, shop staff, casino, etc, are hired by the concessionaire, and generally leave the ship, as do entertainers. Cruise staff may or may not remain. As noted previously, there are times where certain services are taken down for maintenance, repair, or inspection, like AC, toilets and fresh water, but these are pre-planned to minimize disruption. Shipyards do not normally work 24 hours a day. The maximum number of workers will work "day shift" (8-10 hours), and then there will be a "night shift" of about half the number, who work another 8-10 hours. Generally, there is no "graveyard" shift. The contractors work a 12 hour day. As Chief, I was the primary contact between the shipyard and the cruise line's technical supervisor (my boss, and in overall charge of the shipyard period) for doing much like what Andy stated above regarding Deck officer duties, but not only for the technical maintenance (engine room, hull, machinery), but also the mechanical aspects of hotel maintenance (new galley/laundry equipment, etc). This also meant that I was the one who the shipyard contacted whenever there was a problem. By the end of a 14 day shipyard, I developed a noticeable twitch whenever someone shouted "Chief", and my hair was grayer and there was less of it.

Even better than flares and smoke floats (though those raise visibility), is the ability to mark the ship's exact position at the time the overboard is reported, and then the ship can return to that exact spot and start the search from there. This is done on the ship's electronic chart system, it has a special button just for this. Again, you have to be virtually stopped to launch either a lifeboat or rescue boat, and you also need to be heading in the right direction to protect the boat being launched from wind and waves. So, at that point, the azipods would turn the vessel in place (after launching the boat), but whether a ship has azipods or rudders, trying to make a turn of more than 1-2* of heading while at full speed will result in damage to the ship and injuries to the passengers from "turn induced heel".

As stated, it would take about 6-8 miles to slow the ship enough to make a tight turn around. Going any faster than 6-8 knots will cause the ship to heel over to the point where dishes will fly, and passengers will skid across the deck. You cannot launch a lifeboat or rescue boat at any speed above about 2 knots ( for a lesson in this, there is an episode of "Whale Wars" where the inexperienced crew tried to launch a RIB boat while the ship was moving, and it ended up spilling the boat crew into the Antarctic sea).

Hawaii quarantine laws are very strict, but the quarantine period can be served on the mainland before transportation.

No. The only dogs allowed on cruise ships are service animals. The only cruise ship that allows pet transportation is the Queen Mary 2, which has kennels, but which does not do any West Coast to Hawaii cruises. There are no freighter services that I am aware of that would ship your dog by sea.

The only place I've seen that this is a problem is Canada, who treat DUI seriously, and won't let you disembark in Canada if you have one, ever.

Even a brand new surge protector can fail and start a fire, due to something elsewhere on the ship, and entirely out of your control. They are a fire hazard on ships, and are not needed either. While this was the general uptake from the USCG Safety Notice regarding surge protectors, they conflated two problems into one, and didn't elaborate sufficiently. A surge protector does not "kill" any circuit, it merely dumps voltage to ground, and then restores the power to the circuit when the voltage is normal again, and this function it can do on a ship as well. The problem with surge protectors on ships is that the semiconductors used to perform this surge protection are only designed to see high voltage in one direction, i.e. when the hot, or neutral, legs are higher than the ground leg. However, due to the floating ground on ships, a ground on a 480v circuit could produce a situation where the voltage on the ground leg is higher than the hot or neutral leg, and this causes the semiconductors to fail and go into "thermal runaway", and start a fire. The comment about only breaking one leg of the circuit is applicable to US consumer power strips, not surge protectors, as the little "on/off" switch/circuit breaker only opens the hot lead, and if the appliance has a ground fault, then the current could continue to flow from neutral to ground.

Bingo. Nearly every ship in the world uses one weather advisory service or another, there are many to choose from, look for who gives the best service. And, these are all specialist maritime weather routing and advisory people, not some TV personality.

It has always been NCL's policy that hair care appliances, whether dryers, curlers, or straighteners are allowed. As for the OP's question, I don't know anything about the Shark product, but the Dyson products are hit and miss, so if the Shark is a similar electronic device (in the case of a straightener, if it is a ceramic unit), it may or may not work. This is not ship specific, it has to do with the ship's wiring, and whether or not there is a ground fault anywhere on the ship at the time. Ground faults on ships, while not dangerous to life, can affect the electronic devices like Dyson dryers that are designed for land situations. I won't go into the more intricate details of why, unless requested, but anecdotally I have heard about the Dyson products, and ceramic straighteners of all kinds, working sometimes and sometimes not.

From my experience, alcohol was surely involved. (I did internship time with the USCG in Chicago and was involved in investigating boating accidents on the lakes. Fair share of fatalities) Boaters most likely figured they could cross in front of the ferry, and didn't calculate correctly.

What sensors? What transponders? How do they determine if a lifeboat is usable or not, or whether a pathway is blocked? When a fire alarm is triggered, all of the fire screen doors in that zone are closed, but there is no reason that the on-scene commander, or the Captain, could not authorize some to be opened just to facilitate the passenger muster. Why should the cruise line invest in them, if they even exist, when the regulations don't require it? Do you think they do anything regarding safety or health that is not required? Again, since you have never experienced a maritime emergency, or likely any real world emergency on a large scale, you have no idea what is involved. I can tell you that the cruise ships regularly get visits from the local fire departments in port, to see and discuss procedures, since they will tell you that they have no clue about fighting a shipboard fire, and don't envy us the difficulties they see in doing so. Ships are unique things.

It will be interesting to see the reply from the CSCOE regarding especially how the USCG has evaluated the efficacy of the drill format, and what feedback they are getting from the IMO. Yeah, everyone sees the USCG inspectors on the cruise ships and think that they are checking to see that the ship meets US regulations, which they don't (only US flag vessels do), when they are actually checking to see that the ship meets the less stringent SOLAS regulations.

"Shipping a greenie" means that a wave that was so deep the water was green, and not white like a wave on the beach, came over the boat/ship.

Wow, talk about creating confusion, rather than lessening it. How would each boat crew know who is boarding the boat, and how would the master muster list of all passengers be updated, if everyone is simply going to any boat. And, what of people who don't have smart phones? There are still some out there who post about it here on CC. By the way, what shipboard EMS system? And, what is a "type 2 emergency", and how does it differ from a "type 1"? And, confusion on confusion, you are directed to one location for a "type 1" emergency, but to a different location for a "type 2"? And, the "damage control systems" are not electronic, and would not be updated instantaneously. And, in fact, RCI started the e-muster drill first, long before NCL, and they were given a provisional approval for testing this format, and as far as I know, the e-muster is still under provisional approval.

It requires lab testing of fecal samples to determine if it is noro or not. Just like I can't help but notice that Jim Walker's article doesn't have the facts correct, I'll put in my personal experience. The fact Mr. Walker misrepresented (serious for an officer of the court, but he does it all the time), is that the cruise lines have to report GI illness when it reaches 3% of passengers or crew. This is not correct. The cruise ship has to report to the CDC, every voyage, even if there have been no reported cases. They then have to submit an updated report when the levels reach 2% of pax or crew, and finally when it reaches 3%, they have to report daily. In my time on cruise ships, I don't think I can recall a single cruise that did not have at least one case of GI illness And that was over a decade ago. It has been a fact of life on cruise ships for years. Why the sudden increase this year? Most likely because everyone is "Covid conditioned" for an aerosol virus, and not one that transmits via contact. Also likely that the mitigation measures employed to beat Covid, also lowered the immune level of many, so they are more susceptible to noro.

He can't. That's all he does is melodrama.

I have an e-mail into the USCG CSCOE (Cruise Ship Center of Excellence), which is the department that studies regulations and incidents for passenger vessels, and formulates the Safety Bulletins, with regards to their position, and possibly the IMO's position, on the efficacy and permanence of the e-muster. Will likely have a response in a week or two.

Why? Canada is part of the WHTI, which allows for cruise passengers to use the birth certificate and ID documentation. The only time Canada requires a passport for a cruise, is if you are taking the scenic railway from Skagway into Canada, which is a land crossing.

And, once again, you have completely misunderstood the purpose of the passenger muster, which has absolutely nothing to do with lifeboats. If it did, then the Star Princess would not have called for passenger muster when the fire first broke out, but would have waited hours until it was clear that the ship could not be saved (which didn't happen). But, your years of cruising experience has clearly shown you all you need to know. In fact, the last actual emergency muster that I have heard about, on an RCI ship, was due to a man overboard situation, so there was no earthly possibility of getting into lifeboats. And, from first hand reports, the muster was a shambles, because the passengers could not remember what deck their muster station was on, let alone where it was specifically. And, the excuse given was "well, it was 7 days ago when we were shown our muster station", so I guess that the e-muster drill has a "retention time" of less than 7 days.

And, what were the exact circumstances of the posters that allowed disembarkation, and how do those compare with the OP's situation? Enquiring minds want to know if you know the facts. And, I'm sure that Heidi13, who was an unlimited Master (just the same as any cruise ship captain), who skippered passenger vessels and cargo vessels (and later ferries) all around the world for decades, is not impressed with whatever credentials you bring to the discussion. But, you don't seem to hold the entire maritime industry in high regard anyway, just your opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oriana_(1959)

Of course a sick passenger would be allowed off for hospitalization, and the cruise line would swallow, or argue, the fine. I know of one case where the passenger died onboard, and his remains and spouse were disembarked early, and the couple were levied the fine. The cruise line did provide the necessary paperwork for the surviving spouse to contest the fine with CBP.

Since Heidi13 is a Canadian Ship Captain, he would be well versed in the CTA, which is a Canadian domestic cabotage law. Most Captains rely on local agents for possible local laws that may affect the ship, they are not subject matter experts on them, and the agents are not legal experts either. The laws that the Captains know intimately are the ones from the flag state, and the country that issued their license. The only people at the cruise line who are well versed in national cabotage laws are the compliance department (lawyers), which is why so many back to back cruises are booked by the call center customer service representatives, only for the passenger to be notified months later, by the compliance department, that their cruise is not legal, and they have to cancel part of the booking.