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Oooops, just hit the dock in Ketchikan (Several Threads Merged)

Phxazzcruisers

By Phxazzcruisers,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Wolfgirl29

Wolfgirl29

Posted
Posted

Glad everyone on infinity is ok! Saw the YouTube video showing the crash! Sorry to hear that cancelled ur excursions! Hope u were able to get off ! Any updates to changes? Ship sailable? Certainly added some excitement! Atleast they just hit the dock and not the other cruise ship!

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Lazz

Lazz

Posted
Posted
The bottom line is that the Captain is responsible for the ship and where it goes. If the wind was strong enough that the thrusters could not control the sideways motion, the Captain should have called for tugs or bypassed the port. It remains to be seen what the penalties will be for the Captain from Celebrity.

 

This happened to us on a cruise going into St Kitts a couple years ago on the Legend of the Seas. There was about a 40-50 mph wind blowing into the side of the ship. The Captain tried to dock two times and could not maintain adequate control of the ship. He took the ship back out of the harbor and bypassed the port.

 

If a cruise ship can not dock even though it is scheduled to, is there an option to tender people into port? Must they bypass the port?

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WrittenOnYourHeart Great Review Rare

WrittenOnYourHeart

Posted
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If a cruise ship can not dock even though it is scheduled to, is there an option to tender people into port? Must they bypass the port?

 

 

I have never heard of a ship scheduled to dock and unable to doing an anchor and tender thing in exchange.

 

Plus, when ports are missed due to rough conditions, tendering wouldn't be able to happen either. I have heard of tender ports being skipped because it was too hazardous to use the tender boats. That almost 100% sure would have been the case even if tendering was an option there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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Christine Frances

Christine Frances

Posted
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We were on last weeks sailing and Capt Berdos never came in "hot" to any dock!! In fact, we were remarking how delicately he docked at Ketchikan between a HAL ship and another one. Textbook docking at Juneau as well. The side of a ship is like a giant sail and strong, gusty, winds can overpower thrusters & pods.

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thyme2go

thyme2go

Posted
Posted

What was visible on the land side was the impending crash despite attempts by the Capt. to avoid the dock. What happened on the starboard side was the cumulative wind speed tipped the ships capacity into the danger zone. Wind speeds in Ketchikan are inconsistent and all it would take is for the winds to gust to the upper ranges during the time that the ship was making it's final approach to the dock. No different than a pilot having to abort a landing at the last minute.......although that's a lot easier to do than trying to extricate this ship from a cruise dock! The Capt was at the mercy of nature and lost...........no blame, no shame, but I'm sure others will now be more wary of conditions in Ketchikan. Also it's one of the only ports I can think of in Alaska where the ships are mostly perpendicular to prevailing storm/winds........

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Cruisercl

Cruisercl

Posted
Posted
I have never heard of a ship scheduled to dock and unable to doing an anchor and tender thing in exchange.

 

Plus, when ports are missed due to rough conditions, tendering wouldn't be able to happen either. I have heard of tender ports being skipped because it was too hazardous to use the tender boats. That almost 100% sure would have been the case even if tendering was an option there.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

This happened to us when we were on the Emerald Princess last January; we were at St. Kitts.

The Captain told us it was too windy to be able to berth the ship in the spot that was designated for us; like parallel parking but we did tender in. The ride on the tender was rough but it did happen without incident.

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Phxazzcruisers

Phxazzcruisers

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We moved the ship to another dock and by 5:30 guests were allowed to disembark in Ketchikan. We stayed an extra 2 1/2 hours in town so guests would get to see some of the town. No Hole in the side of the ship, just a scrape that can be fixed with some paint. Everyone on board was safe and sound.

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TeeRick

TeeRick

Posted
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Here is a list of Infinity officers and staff as of May 11 when I disembarked in San Diego.

 

Celebrity Infinity - current officers and staff:

 

Captain is Yannis Berdos.

Staff Captain is Xenakis Damianos.

Chief Engineer is Iaannis Nionakis.

Cruise Director is Sara Romera.

Guest Relations Manager is Ana Hura.

Hotel Director is Jan Willem Kuipers.

Food & Beverage Director is Sheldon C Martin.

Executive Chef is Victor Mancilla.

Michael's Club Concierge is Erick Guzman

Captain's Club Hostess is Alexandra Fataccioli

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clojacks

clojacks

Posted
Posted

Someone asked if there was a pilot in control? I believe that a Pilot is ALWAYS in control of the ship when docking in US ports, but I could be wrong. I see a ton of blame being thrown the Captains way, but I haven't seen anyone claim to be a USCG maritime incident specialist, so I guess I am curious about the expertise of all these people who appear to consider themselves "Experts". Must be a bunch of certified meteorologists as well, since there is so much "analysis" of the wind conditions and its affect on a ship attempting to dock. You gotta love keyboard experts!

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steamboats Great Review Rare

steamboats

Posted
Posted
Was a pilot in control?

 

No, pilots are usually only advisors. The captain is still the one who is the main power to decide. Steering is done by the helmsman.

 

There are only a few areas where the local pilots take over control like in the Panama Canal. But the pilot does not take over control in the US.

 

steamboats

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clojacks

clojacks

Posted
Posted
No, pilots are usually only advisors. The captain is still the one who is the main power to decide. Steering is done by the helmsman.

 

There are only a few areas where the local pilots take over control like in the Panama Canal. But the pilot does not take over control in the US.

 

steamboats

 

I stand corrected on an earlier post. I was under the impression, having lived on the Great Lakes, that a pilot took control, but I see through the help of Google that they indeed are Navigational experts.

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xlxo

xlxo

Posted
Posted

Here's a description of the hand brake parking...

 

About 1:30 the Pearl was leaving southbound in the big winds while the Celebrity Infinity waited patiently about a half mile north and astern of the Pearl. So with all the noise generated by the ships engines, thrusters, etc, we moved up to the pilot house to watch a professional un-docking and docking exercise.

 

The Pearl made a clean exit into the heavy winds. Then Infinity started approaching from the north. As she nosed her bow towards the City Float cruise ship dock, a big gust pushed her bow even further towards shore. Moored just to the north of City Float is the Zaandam. Having watched many a ship dock here in Ketchikan, it appeared to Alex, that Infinity was too close to shore, and too close to Zaandam! Alex stated this fact out-loud, but failed to start rolling the cell phone video. Darn!

 

Both the Infinity's stern and bow thrusters running hot apparently couldn't keep the ship from gaining towards shore and the moored Zaandam. A bow only starboard thrust would allow a soft landing square to the dock, but would push the stern to port and shore-ward, and since
the Infinity's stern was overlapped with the forward part of Zaandam, a collision would occur
. The pilot's only choice was to
continue thrusting to starboard and moving forward
.

 

When the forward sections of the Infinity hull ground into the City Float piling, a loud metal-on-metal noise could be heard. Once clear of Zaandam's bow, the stern thruster helped square up the boat. But the cruise ship dock, catwalk, piling, auxiliary inside float and Infinity's port side suffered.

 

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