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Equinox Ran Aground at Port Everglades?

Pipo

By Pipo,
in Celebrity Cruises

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
We were onboard and trust me, it did not run aground. We did not notice any unusual movements at all.

The report I heard on local NBC news said Eqinox did not run aground.

Here is a link ro a video of it. [http://www.wptv.com/news/state/video-cruise-ship-drifts-close-to-fort-lauderdale-home/]

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klr6773

klr6773

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Lol...Had the same laugh as several others about the silliness of the man's reactions. Second thought was "why do people filming interesting things ruin viewing with stupid commentary ( or worse ,singing along at a concert!)

 

Personally, I would love to live there. However,after watching Carnival Vista's tsunami wave damage in Italy and the Infinity squishing the dock in Alaska last year, I think it's safe to safety I wouldn't have continued standing there..;p

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Happy Cruiser 6143

Happy Cruiser 6143

Posted
Posted
There was an oil spill that day at Port Everglades, at dock 18, and Equinox could not use that dock. I am sure as they left deck 25, they had to use a different route to get out of the port. No big deal...

 

BILL

 

Celebrity ships routinely depart from terminal 25, this is no big deal. I've been on many that sailed from there with no problems. Also, I would point out that ships are under the guidance of pilots when departing.

In my view, this is all much ado about nothing.

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SantaFeFan

SantaFeFan

Posted
Posted (edited)
Coincidence? Friends on ship report Captain announced at 10am today (Barbados) he was leaving the ship today to go to a meeting in Miami and a new Captain was arriving.

 

Keep in mind that the harbor pilot is responsible for maneuvering inside the port. He has the knowledge and training for that port, not the captain. The pilot is the one who gives the maneuvering orders. The captain will take over control if the pilot is causing a dangerous situation, but since the Coast Guard didn't think anything needed to be investigated, I will defer to the expertise and knowledge of the pilot, and trust that he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Too many people are reading between the lines - or between the pixels (:)) - and making up their own alternative facts about the alleged incident. One of the Miami news sources claims the ship was "careening" towards the house. Wow! How about that for sensationalism???

 

I suspect that the owner is not happy with all the ship traffic he has to deal with all day, every day, and has a low tolerance for anything that floats. Just like people who buy a house next to an airport, freeway, or railroad tracks, and then start complaining about the noise and insist that the airport, freeway, railroad tracks must be moved.

 

On a related note:

 

Sarah Bascom, spokeswoman for the Port Everglades Pilots and Florida Harbor Pilots Association, provided the following statement Wednesday morning:

"Due to the strong winds and current at the time, the cruise ship in question came closer than usual to the side of the channel, as shown in the video. The local Port Everglades harbor pilot maintained navigational control of the vessel throughout this maneuver, skillfully keeping it within the channel, then proceeded to safely guide the vessel out to sea. As stated by the cruise line, the vessel did not touch bottom. The use of bow thrusters in the channel disturbs the water and routinely churns up silt and mud, as shown in the video."

Edited by SantaFeFan
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snowbirdrose

snowbirdrose

Posted
Posted

If you look at Terminal 25 at Port Everglades and look toward Inlet Rd. where the homeowner was on his dock, you can see that if the ship was docked stern in then it would have to steam toward Inlet Rd. and then back and turn to line up for the channel out. Looks to me like a case of a tight turn in a restricted space.

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klr6773

klr6773

Posted
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Interesting, because from the video it certainly looks like the ship is closing in. However, the pics of their property on the linked article appear that theres quite a bit more space between dock and water deep enough that we didn't see the bulbous bow .

Perhaps the "drama" lies more in the angle of the video?

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chengkp75

chengkp75

Posted
Posted (edited)
Celebrity's response is a great piece of PR boiler plating that is probably "legally" accurate. She may have been within the limits of the channel, but she was as close to crossing that line that you could be without crossing it. In the first video the ship really has a little too much way on for the thrusters to be as effective as they could be. The more forward speed present the lateral effect of the thruster drops off dramatically. Above 3 or 4 knots they do not provide much help. Of course there is no way of knowing what happened beforehand to get them into that situation... wind, avoiding the oil spill, other vessel traffic.

 

Good to see Jim Walker of cruise law news has the incident on his web site already;)!!

 

While I agree that forward speed will diminish the effectiveness of the bow thrusters, I don't see any evidence that the thrusters were going anywhere near full power. Another point is that when a ship is moving forward, the turning center (the point around which the ship pivots while turning) moves forward to a point about 1/3 of the ship's length back from the bow, so that also reduces the bow thrusters' effectiveness, in that their "lever arm" (the force times the distance from the pivot point) becomes less. Conversely, and somewhat counter-intuitively, when moving forward, the stern thrusters' (in this case the azipods) become more effective, not only because they have magnitudes of power greater than the thrusters, but because their lever arm is now 2/3 the length of the ship. Azipods can be "split" as well, just like twin propellers, so that one is going ahead and the other is going astern, to pivot the ship quicker.

 

I would say that the pilot went into a turn-around, which will normally be started with way on the ship to curl it around, but that he over-anticipated the ability of the ship to "keep" way on (the amount the ship coasts when propulsion is stopped), and did not reverse quick enough and the ship reached the edge of the channel.

 

Regarding inspections, etc., after a grounding, as others have said, most of the area that would have grounded is the fore peak ballast water tank, and could not be inspected, so it will be monitored for a rise in level indicating a breach, and the bow thruster space would have been checked internally. Typically, class allows the ship, if no indications of breach are noted at the time of the incident, to proceed to the next port, or the next suitable port, to have a diver look for damage. Soft groundings are fairly common, and even if the hull plating is dented, most times it is allowed to be repaired at the next scheduled drydocking.

 

As for mud/sand being churned up as an indication of grounding, as used by many folks without any knowledge, that is just not the case. Depending on the bottom condition, my ship, with considerably less horsepower than a cruise ship, and with 3 meters between the keel and the bottom, will routinely churn up mud in channels, and thrusters do it all the time, as their wake is lower and more concentrated than the main propellers, so they act like mini-dredges blasting the bottom up.

Edited by chengkp75
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cruising teacher

cruising teacher

Posted
Posted
Coincidence? Friends on ship report Captain announced at 10am today (Barbados) he was leaving the ship today to go to a meeting in Miami and a new Captain was arriving.

We had dinner with the Captain last cruise. This was a prearranged meeting regarding the Edge. Several staff members left for training and the rollout.

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jan-n-john

jan-n-john

Posted
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Anybody who has ever watched his/her own or an adjacent cruise ship departing has seen the large amount of silt that the thrusters throw up. It is no indication at all of a grounding. This whole story is an example of how non-technical people who have no clue what they are talking about can and do come to ridiculous conclusions.

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cpufrost

cpufrost

Posted
Posted

I can tell you that ship was much further than it looks. Think of perspective. More commonly a technique used by architects and builders alike; forced perspective. It can make a building look a lot larger than it really is.

 

In photography, this exaggeration can be amplified enormously. I've photographed cattle with exploding lava in the background and viewers have commented "Oh my God! Those poor animals!" It appeared the lava was close enough to burn their hide but alas, tricks with aperture and focal length gives the illusion they are next to the plumes of oblivious molten rock when, in actuality, they were hundreds of meters away. Yes you could feel the heat on your face but you would have to be much closer for it to start to be an endangerment.

 

If the ship was really encroaching upon this worried homeowner's property, wake would have washed over their patio doing a nice job of rearranging their outdoor furniture.

 

And even then it still would be far away and probably nowhere near grounding.

 

The water current from tunnel thrusters is strong and travels a long ways. In the Caribbean ports where the water has little turbidity (clear water) one can see how fast the current stirs up the substrate which is is chiefly aragonite sand; much lighter than typical silica granules. It becomes suspended in the water for long times giving the appearance that something is wrong (i.e. spill or moving parts coming in contact with reef, etc.). Anyone watching water around vessels docking has seen this in these areas.

 

Now from the perspective of the homeowners...yes the ship is going to look huge and it's hard not to get excited and/or panic when seeing this for the first time.

 

As always, the news has to make a mountain out of a mole hill and paint the doom and gloom picture of their target industry.

 

To those familiar with the works, it's just another day at sea. Or what is this guy waving at? Perhaps he knows someone on this cruise? Surely (or is it shorely? :P ) anyone living right on the edge (of the water that is) has to know about these big ships coming and going. As Jim Morrison sang "The cars hiss by my window like the waves down on the beach".

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