Monarch rescues 6 at sea

[Glendy]

A passenger's video posted on a local news station.

 

http://www.wesh.com/video/26035168/detail.html

[Eng23]

Greetings all. I was sailing on the Majesty of the Seas this past weekend. We also skipped Coco Cay due to the seas being too rough. We departed Coco Cay behind the Monarch and had the Monarch in sight for most of the day off our starboard quarter. Of course with the Monarch porting in Port Canaveral her course was heading more to the northwest comapred to the Majesty heading to Miami. The Monarch was no longer visible from the Majesty around 1600 to 1615 hours , so it was not too long after losing sight that Monarch came across these people. I am glad Monarch lended assistance to these people. Good Job!

[meggie711]

We were also on the Monarch during this cruise. I was in the hot tub (it was freezing out) and jumped out to run see what was going on. It's never a good feeling to see everyone in sight running to one side of the ship, fingers pointing, and people hollering "quick, where's the camera?" My husband had said there was a raft. I wasn't quite expecting it to be as rough and rickety. I was picturing a dingy (sp??) from a big boat. Not this. To look directly down and see wooden planks, cheap tarps, and people laying down unable to get up.. it was shocking to say the least. In addition, to know that we missed port at Coco Cay and to find these poor people was amazing. I was also shocked by some people's comments. It might has well have been dolphins, the way some laughed, talked casually, and snapped pictures as if it were a tourist attraction. It was heartwrenching to hear them yelling "please don't leave us" and to think that some would have been fine with us doing just that. There were some passengers who did speak of their concerns regarding terrorists or pirates, and those thoughts had crossed my mind too. I just prayed that the RCCL staff knew what they were doing and would make the right decisions for everyone involved. Glad that 6 lives were spared, and that we made it home ok.

[jmraggs]

Many of the refugees are brought from the Bahamas by human smugglers and then dumped in the ocean in small boats/rafts where they have to try and make their way here to Florida on their own. They necessarily didn't sail all the way from Cuba or Haiti on their own in that raft/boat and chances are they didn't if they're up this far North. These people place their lives in the human smugglers hands and many of them don't make it.

[Bound4Bermuda]

That's a very sad story all around: living under such extreme communism that they feel the need to escape, enduring being stuck at sea for so long, the loss of the woman's husband, the fact that after that entire ordeal they'll be sent back to Cuba, and then the dire consequences they'll face back in Cuba! :(

[ColeandAbby]

Well, we have a pretty good idea. One died.

 

When a Cuban raft is found that far north, it's never good. It means they were swept by the Gulf Stream. They spent a lot of time at sea on that little thing.

Just heartbreaking!