Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Grand injured

PonyPair

By PonyPair,
in Princess Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted
Have they carried out temporary repairs to close the gaping hole in the side of the Grand? I am thinking they probably have, otherwise it could be dangerous to cruise at full speed.

 

What they would have done is to hook a crane onto the tender platform, swing it back to the closed position, hold it in place with some chain falls on the inside, and then use the lock bars and possibly some welded plates to keep it from moving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted (edited)
I have been trying to contemplate how the original failure of the tender platform occurred. When this thread/other reports started to come in, I originally thought operational/procedures issues.

 

However as we got pictures of the actual platform and and feedback from Chengkp75 and others. I am now wondering if it was a hydraulic failure.

 

From the posts I have read here, there are hydraulic rams that open and close the tender platform and most likely support the platform in its open position. In its closed position there are additional hydraulic "locks" that fully lock the platform to the ship.

 

If these "locks" have a hydraulic leak could they release? Since the ship is underway and the rams were not really designed keep the platform "locked"to the ship, could the platform open.

 

Then with wave action, could the platform attachment to the rams ultimately fail such that we have had what happened over the last week.

 

Both the lock rams and the closing rams are normally in "hydraulic lock" when not in use or when the power is off, so unless both of the control valves (open/close and lock/unlock) leaked the door would not have fallen. It might have drifted off the gasket and started leaking, but if so, the "open" alarm would have sounded, or the security patrol would have seen the water. Some systems also have a lock pin that keeps the lock bars from moving, and have to be removed before operating, and some have manual dogging screws as well. This whole thing smacks of operational failure on the part of the crew securing the door, at least to me.

 

One interesting note is that from the photos of the extended rams, I see the area at the end of the ram that is of smaller diameter, which is the part where the "eye" threads onto the ram cylinder. This eye then is hinge pinned to the platform. If the ram had failed, I would have expected this threaded part to have broken off with the eye, and since the eye is pinned in place to the platform, it cannot rotate and unthread itself from the ram. Very curious.

 

Just finished bringing our load of gasoline to Port Canaveral. Anyone coming in today, we'll be across the harbor.

Edited by chengkp75
Link to comment
Share on other sites
A&L_Ont "Live from...." Rare

A&L_Ont

Posted
Posted (edited)
Just finished bringing our load of gasoline to Port Canaveral. Anyone coming in today, we'll be across the harbor.

 

Chief, Overseas Chinook? I'm virtually waving to you from home.

Edited by A&L_Ont
Link to comment
Share on other sites
lstone19

lstone19

Posted
Posted

Currently showing doing 22.5 knots with 1,925 nm to go to the Columbia River Bar. If it can hold that speed, it will reach the Bar a little before 6pm local time Sunday.

 

Chengkp75 earlier said 5 to 6 hours from there to get up the river to Portland so around midnight Sunday night sounds good (and in line with the reported 0845Z/12:45am local Monday being an ETA for Portland, not the Columbia River Bar).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted (edited)
Ah ha! Now I know. :D;)

 

Yeah, secret's out. Going to Charleston to discharge balance of load, then heading your way to load at Norco. If I hear of a Coastie coming up the gangway, I'll make sure we institute a cavity search. :eek:

 

BTW, congrats on the promotion. Too bad it came with the transfer.

 

Fog just socked in an hour ago, tighter than a tick's butt. Looks like it'll burn off, though, good for the Valor.

Edited by chengkp75
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Yehootu

Yehootu

Posted
Posted (edited)
Just heard from the Captain that the Grand has sustained some damage to one of its tender platforms, and that we have turned around to make an assessment in daylight. We were in route from Maui to Ensenada, but am not sure where we are at the moment, because they have turned off the tv channel that shows location, speed, etc. we seem to be moving forward (in some direction) very slowly.

 

Anyone land side who tracks the comings and goings of ships have any info as to our location, speed, heading?

 

 

The Grand Princess returned to port in Honolulu because of damage to its tender platform. It is reported to have taken on some water.

 

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/12/07/hawaii-news/damage-brings-cruise-ship-back-to-isles/

I live on Hunakai!!

Edited by Yehootu
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WupperAV

WupperAV

Posted
Posted

With most aircraft in the world only having 8 1st class seats it wold take a month to get everyone home. Surprising they moved as many passengers as they did in short order. I would be please with PCL. They have done a great job. If this happened and they went to a small port in S America it might be different but that's speculation. I am curious also about what caused the ramp to fail. Could be metal fatigue and disimilar metal corrosion, although rams are stainless they will corrode.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lstone19

lstone19

Posted
Posted
With most aircraft in the world only having 8 1st class seats it wold take a month to get everyone home. .

 

 

Where ever did you get that? I work for an airline and the planes we regularly fly to/from Hawaii have between 16 and 32 First and/or business class seats. Our domestic planes are usually about 10% First Class; international planes are around 20% First/Business.

 

Yes, we do have some planes with just 8 but they do not go to Hawaii and are our smallest planes.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ansoninc

ansoninc

Posted
Posted
Where ever did you get that? I work for an airline and the planes we regularly fly to/from Hawaii have between 16 and 32 First and/or business class seats. Our domestic planes are usually about 10% First Class; international planes are around 20% First/Business.

 

 

I flew back on Hawaiian air's 10:45 pm flight Tuesday night. It was a 5 hour direct to Las Vegas where I live. I had the beginning of a cold and was not up to the 10 hours route they had set up for me. I got the last first class seat, there were no "more leg room" seats available. Of course, I paid for it myself and I doubt I will get much if any of it reimbursed.

Besides for this, the rough seas, and cloudy weather it still wasn't a bad cruise. The fellow passengers and crew were always pleasant.:o

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
beg3yrs

beg3yrs

Posted
Posted
I got home this morning at 6am. Princess had me booked leaving Honolulu 12/7 at 9pm to my home in Las Vegas through Seattle with a 2 hour lay over. It would have been over 8 hours of travel time. I had also come down with a cold yesterday and was feeling crappy. I called Hawaiian air and booked a 5 hour direct flight for last night, 12/7, at 10:30pm There was only one other person flying on Hawaiian in the group leaving after 6pm last night. I do not know where she was going. It looks like Princess was only using United and Delta. Not sure how much Princess will reimburse me for my air fare, but at least I am home with my dogs and a large bottle of NyQuil and a box of tissues. In all it looks like Princess did a pretty good job of dealing with this mess. The staff were always pleasant and Passenger services were patient. The staff at the excursions desk seems overwhelmed when they assumed some of the work load.

I hope everyone has save travels!:)

Diana

 

Thanks for the update. It will be interesting to see if Princess reimburses you at all. You turned down the method of getting back to your home they provided you and chose another method. It isn't clear if you originally had flights from San Francisco to Las Vegas booked through Princess but it seems to me that if you didn't, Princess' contractual responsibility was to get you back to the point of embarkation. If you didn't have EZ-Air, they were already going an extra mile to get you all the way home.

 

They could decide that they offered, you declined and that's the end of their obligation ...

 

Would love for you to come back and let us know how that worked out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted
Here is a better picture then before.

 

 

I still don't understand how/why the hydraulic cylinders detached, but I do see significant damage to the upper hinge assembly, where the pin appears to be twisted out of shape. I suspect this was caused when the door first struck an oncoming wave, though that is the aft hinge, as I believe this is the starboard tender platform.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted
Thank you for a more clear picture FishinChris.

 

still, and more so, puzzling on what happened/ how.

 

Actually, I'm starting to get a very bad suspicion. The two rams are not painted white like the rest of the equipment in the space, and unlike the photos of working platforms on Princess vessels (don't know if those pictures were the Grand or not). This and the fact that the ends of the cylinders don't look like they are damaged is leaning me to the suspicion that these rams were in the process of being installed. They were not yet connected to the door, and someone activated the hydraulics to retract the rams to meet where the eyes were on the closed door, and they accidentally activated the lock cylinders instead of the closing cylinders, and the door fell out since the closing rams were never connected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...