Rescue at Sea - Royal Princess - 3 Feb 16

[Southside Mike]

Thanks for the photos Lew it was nice meeting you and Nan at the Retreat Pool earlier in the trip.

 

Saturday on the Behind the Scenes Tour we learned that the sailboat and it's passengers were in the water for a couple of days. Luckily they did have a working radio and we're able to contact the ship with a May Day message.

 

On the Bridge there was some confusion at first because they were speaking Spanish and no one on the Bridge at that time spoke the language. However they quickly found someone who did and established communications.

 

Down below in the Engine Room, the Chief Engineer, who was working out in the gym when this occurred, confirmed that they train for this emergency manuver all the time and it was great to see that they all performed flawlessly!

[kwahl1]

Apparently the sailboat's owner has more money than sailing ability. Or maybe he has no money and is wanting to collect insurance. If he can't sail a sailboat without using the engine, he should not own it. If he lacked enough provisions to last until he could sail to a port, I am sure he could have gotten them from the cruise ship.

I believe I read once that a vessel abandoned at sea can be salvaged by whoever finds it without any compensation to the owner who abandoned it.

I would be that once the word gets out about the position of the abandoned boat, there will be a rush of people searching for it. Finds like this are probably a blessing to the drug runners.

 

 

The food was much better on the Royal. and sleeping accommodations.

[rahhar]

I went to SUNY Maritime in the late 70s, early 80s. On one of our summer sea terms we heard a distress signal for a very similar situation. A sailboat in distress, the only sailor aboard had broken their arm.

 

They were rescued by another ship. Since our ship had no real schedule (it was a training ship) we moseyed on by and took the sail boat in tow.

 

The college sold it to help fund the sailing team.

Edited February 9, 2016 by rahhar

[kanespbj]

we watched from our balcony as well - we were pretty impressed with how Princess handled this.

[UpcountryTravelers]

Watched rescue from our balcony. Sails were completely tattered and useless. They had been adrift for over two days.

 

We watched as well. The jib was completely snarled, even though it was obviously a self-furling system. Mainsail was also in pretty bad shape. I wondered why no spares (as I always had on my sailboat).

[Grego]

Apparently the sailboat's owner has more money than sailing ability. Or maybe he has no money and is wanting to collect insurance. If he can't sail a sailboat without using the engine, he should not own it. If he lacked enough provisions to last until he could sail to a port, I am sure he could have gotten them from the cruise ship.

I believe I read once that a vessel abandoned at sea can be salvaged by whoever finds it without any compensation to the owner who abandoned it.

I would be that once the word gets out about the position of the abandoned boat, there will be a rush of people searching for it. Finds like this are probably a blessing to the drug runners.

 

Kinda would have to agree with this assessment. Can't sail, don't leave the dock. Hope the insurance gives him a long hard ride without a sail.