Rough Seas- what's the worst?

[ihavecats]

Just a curious poll ...

 

What are the worst seas you've personally experienced? What was it like?

[kruzerci]

I don't know how high the waves were, but it was on the Monarch. When sitting in the Viking Crown, my full glass of Chardonnay was sliding from one side of the glass table to the other and back. People were stumbling to and from the elevators and in the cabin corridors the ceilings were creaking and groaning.

 

Never again will I sail between Port Canaveral and the Bahamas in the winter. I never get seasick but even I was getting a little queezy seeing the waves splashing our ocean view cabin window.

 

The weather was beautiful, but the seas were terrible.

[agc291]

Our last cruise was during Hurricane Sandy- I will NEVER take another cruise during hurricane season. My BF & I were lucky enough to not get sick, our cruise mates however were in their rooms for most of the cruise. There wasnt a moment we were rocking and rolling, and it continued with me for a couple weeks after we returned. I would wake up and swear I was onboard.

[PCWalton1]

In 1983 my US Navy ship was skirting a typhoon in the South China Sea while shadowing a Russian spy boat. I was literally throw out of bed from the seas. Does that count? :D:rolleyes:

Bill

[ihavecats]

In 1983 my US Navy ship was skirting a typhoon in the South China Sea while shadowing a Russian spy boat. I was literally throw out of bed from the seas. Does that count? :D:rolleyes:

Bill

 

I sure as hell hope it counts! :eek:

[Eng23]

For me it was on Freedom of the Seas returning to Port Canaveral in Sept. 2011. I was fine but the seas were really bad, all the outside decks were closed due to high winds and high seas. Sea/wave conditions were in the 12ft-15ft range that night. We made it in but it was even worse for the next sailing that evening. All the other ships decided to stay in port until the storm passed but Freedom set sail and encountered seas so bad there was alot of damage to property inside the ship from the heavy rocking.

[PCWalton1]

If you had said thrown out of ur rack, I would have given you credit. You beat me to this one. :)

 

I translated for the civilians. :p

[Langley Cruisers]

Our last cruise was during Hurricane Sandy...

 

Us too, but on a different ship. The seas were very rough and many of the passengers were green when we finally left the port of Boston 2 days late. It was short lived but still nasty. This is the third hurricane we have sailed around; doesn't bother us to sail during hurricane season.

[DarthGrady]

My wife and I were on Carnival Inspiration a few years ago doing a B2B. The first leg went through the outskirts of Hurricane Gustav. That was a pretty wild ride. We were in E-1, which is all the way forward on Empress Deck (7). The waves breaking off the bow sent water up past our portholes. It was the first and only time I have ever felt seasick. I had to go to the atrium for awhile to calm my stomach. Normally I enjoy rough seas, but the prolonged extreme up/down travel in that forward room was a little much for me.

 

We were also on the Monarch's 3-night cruise to nowhere last year during hurricane Isaac. It was rough, but nothing like the ride on Inspiration.

[elleluv]

Brilliance - December, 2010....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1321096&highlight=brilliance+accident

[gaechann]

The biggest seas I have encountered was in the South China Seas whilst on the Legend OTS during October 2010. My very first cruise BTW!

 

We were supposed to be out-running a typhoon so were sailing full steam ahead to Hong Kong one day ahead of schedule.

 

Early during the evening our Captain was asked to partake in a rescue at sea as we were the closest vessel to a stricken cargo ship.

 

We had to turn around and sail back for about an hour to the vessel which promptly sank as we arrived - with 22 crew aboard.

 

As our ship was higher than the Coastguard vessel when they finally arrived, we were able to see the lights on the lifebouys and direct the coastguard to them.

 

The seas were about 10 metres - over 30 feet - so we were told the following morning and many onboard were very ill. Sadly, 3 crew were never found and one body was included in the 19 people that were pulled aboard.

 

The amazing thing was that next morning at breakfast a female passenger was berating a crew member in the Windjammer because there were no prunes available.

 

I just couldn't help telling her that I thought her little problem was insignificant compared to the tragedy that we had just been a part of.

 

Those around me cheered and clapped when I told her what I thought of her!

 

Gosh, I'm usually such a timid soul when it comes to making my opinion known!

Edited April 15, 2013 by gaechann

[chris_kelowna]

On Voyager of the Seas this Feb, we were in the Tasman Sea on our way to New Zealand. The pools - except for the Solarium pool - were closed and water was splashing all over the deck. Morning exercises in the Solarium pool were a lot of fun, a lot like being in a wave pool. That morning, I stayed in the pool after the exercises and just floated - letting myself be carried away by the motion. It was so much fun but I felt sick for the rest of the day!

[pspercy]

On a boat not much larger than those seen on "Deadliest Catch", southern (British) North Sea in a December, Beaufort Force 11 (full hurricane is Force 12) storm - with one prop fouled. Seas looked like you see in a top loading washing machine if you open the lid, great lumps of foam & water tho' actually at sea they were about 25-35ft high at minimum, wind had blown off the crests, but irregular. Nasty! We were lucky.

 

For those not familar with the Beaufort scale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

Edited April 15, 2013 by pspercy
added link

[kernow]

On Explorer going back to New York in 2009.

We hit a storm and had waves up to 35ft, we were sitting up in the Viking Crown lounge and spray was hitting the windows. The sight of the sea raging up there was amazing.

Many people were ill, including some of the crew but luckily all of us were OK.

We decided that if we could do that we could try a TA, something we'd always been a bit wary of.

We've since done 2 and never had seas any higher than 12ft:)

 

Julie

[ocean42]

Was mate on a reefer in the north sea, 42 degrees to port and 45 degrees to starboard for 3 rolls. It was very dangerous as we had deck edge immersion and had to alter course to escape the roll. On a 10000grt ship but scared me. Cruise ships seem to have so much stability that the roll is quite quick. The old man on a Princess ship said they had a GM of about 1.7m where on commercial ships we used to only have 0.3m so a lot slower roll.

[Sumisid]

As I only did two cruises in my life so far, I have little experience with really rough seas. I know from being on smaller vessels during divetrips (liveaboards) that fortunately, I don't get seasick. When everybody is sick, I can still read a book :D.

 

On AIDAsol in March 2012, the sailing from Tenerife to Madeira was quite rough. The restaurants were empty, sickness-bags hanging in the hallways and around the stairs and elevators, people looking green etc.

 

I went to the Gym and it was a whole new experience on that threadmill :p, I had hills without even choosing the hills-program.

[SUZCRUZ]

A few years back, we were on a Jewel Repositioning out of Boston, and there was a Noreaster (spelling?) We knew it was bad when they started closing the portholes but didn't realise how bad until I attended the Captains talk the next day. Apparently all the senior staff spent that night on the bridge with the Capt, for we HAD 40 FT SEAS:eek: Also had some hail the next morning, Thankfully, we had a cabin midship, on the hump:)

[ellie1145]

We sailed on Arcadia a few years back, from Southampton. As we left the shelter of the Isle of Wight we hit a gale. During the night as we sailed up the English Channel they storm grew into a force 10. The ship heaved up and down and rolled from side to side. As we tried to sleep we could feel the ship rolling to one side, coming back up a little and then rolling even further down. It was pretty scary as at times we wondered if it would roll right over, but of course it didn't.

 

We ploughed our way through the infamous Bay of Biscay very slowly, but it took so much longer that we had to miss our first port, Gibraltar.

 

Everyone was ill. My husband and two chldren were very sick, I not so bad, but we went to see the doctor who gave us all an injection, and I was well enough to go up for breakfast within an hour. Not so the rest of the family who didn't surface all day.

 

The waves were huge, and we did not get any calm water until we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. There were sick bags everywhere, and you couldn't walk down the corridors. The buffet was almost empty, which was great!

 

That is one reason we would never contemplate a cruise out of Southampton again, even thought the port is only 30 miles away from us. We have had bad weather on a couple of occasions in the Caribbean but never as bad as that cruise so prefer to fly out to the sun.

 

However, this experience did not put us off cruising!

Edited April 15, 2013 by ellie1145

[WetToes]

A couple years ago on the Pride we experienced pretty rough weather heading home.

The tv fell from it's perch, some of the plexiglass panels around the outer decks were ... GONE!

Shows were cancelled due to weather and damage. Left me a little green, but was exciting.

We arrived back in port 12 hours late.

Hurricane season ... hit/miss.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We were in the trailing edge of Sandy last year on the Oasis. It was the last night, so we were all packed. I had to take all the hangers out of the closet so that we could get to sleep. I love rough seas though.

[VFL Cruiser]

We were on the Freedom last October and the last day of an Eastern Caribbean cruise. It was a sea day and we were coming through hurricane Sandy with the seas running about 20-25ft high. The Captain had all the outside areas of the ship closed off due to safety concerns, this was a great call! With all the rocking and rolling going on, the crew did a fantastic job of dealing with this. We had a great time on the Royal Promenade.

This is why I love RCCL....I can't say enough about how great the crew and staff were.

[PattyG12]

Sailing the Grandeur out of Baltimore. All night, back and forth, the medicine cabinet opening and closing. About half of the people not making it to dinner. DH and I eating at a table for 12, just the 2 of us. :D

[Paul65]

Explorer of the Seas from Miami in October 2001. On the way back in to Miami at the end of the cruise, when went through a storm that had the ship rocking! It was during the night, so I didn't really see what the ocean looked like, but you could hear the clothes hangers in the closet sliding back and forth, and the next morning, you could see salt spray even up on the pool deck.

[sjb317]

We've been very fortunate to have mostly calm seas for our cruises. The roughest I think we've ever seen was on the Jewel Baltic cruise in 2004, high swells & very windy. The Captain announced we would be unable to port in Helsinki due to these conditions so, to make up for missing a port, he opened several bars for free drinks for several hours. I remember taking a long nap later that day and I don't remember anyone complaining about not getting any form of compensation!:D

 

We also had very rough weather in Toulon, it was referred to as a Mediterranean hurricane. The Captain announced that we would be staying in port for the night, no one was allowed off the ship. We could barely see the pier outside our balcony, very windy & constant hard rain. There was a small metal shed on the pier that we watched blow apart piece by piece. Even though we were still docked, you could feel the ship movement with the winds & waves. Next day was sunny & beautiful!

 

Sherri:)

[alfaeric]

I think I'm a relative lightweight...

 

Enchantment, out of Balitmore this past Feb- we were leaving as a mild winter storm was getting out into the Atlantic. Woke up, I was "ok", DW wasn't. We thought a spinning class would help. After which we spent the rest of the day sleeping in our cabin. :o

 

Never got really sick, but just miserable.

 

We used the patch the rest of the trip, but I found that the side effects of blurred vision were not all that enjoyable.