Coolest Thing You've Seen at Sea

[Eeyoregon]

The coolest thing to date would be our middle of the night rescue while sailing the Disney Magic in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Our ship stopped to aid a disabled sail boat that had been bobbing at sea for almost 3 days. They were some novice Spanish sailers (and their dogs) who thought that they could just "pull into" Cuba and refuel. After being denied entry they returned to sea where they ran out of gas.

 

Their main mast was broken and they were almost out of potable water. I remember feeling our ship stop and when I looked out my window I could see what looked like a toy boat bobbing up and down in the swells. Our ship was shining a huge spot light on them.

 

We eventually launched a life boat with some of our security team who took the men water, food and fuel and then dispatched the coordinates to the Coast Guard for further assistance.

 

I just thought it was cool and exciting and a fun end to Pirate Night!

 

Gina

[Eeyoregon]

I thought of another one. Sailing the inside passage in Alaska I saw a bald eagle flying right along side the ship for 3 to 4 minutes. I'm used to seagulls so it was a cool sight!

 

Oh, one more:

 

This one doesn't quite count becaue we weren't on the ship at the time but I'm still going to share. We were on a Mexican Riviera cruise and in Puerta Vallarta we took a shore excursion that required a 30 minute ride in a zodiac inflatable boat up the coastline.

 

We were returning to the ship when the captain of our zodiac abruptly cut the motor and we came to a jolting stop. Before anyone could say a word, a whale breached itself less than 200 feet away from our boat!! I burst into tears and was speechless. The sheer size and power of that amazing creature as it thrust itself out of the water was overwhelming, especially that close!!! The same whale breached once more and then was gone. Truly spectacular and something that I will NEVER forget.

 

When I asked my 16 year old son and his friend what they thought about it they said, "Cool?? Heck no! That thing was HUGE and we were in that little tiny raft!! That's was freaky Mom!" LOL!!!

[dacsmom]

Watching the sunrise. They were one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

[gammatuzie]

Bumping this back, it's such a great thread !!!! Lets keep it going... :)

[Pee-ah]

On the "Glory" last year heading back to NYC nc we hit a storm at sea (It was the remains of the tornado that hit the city).. watching what had hit us was awe inspriing!

[Mad Capn Bob]

I've only been on one cruise, so far, and I don't know if this counts as "coolest", but here goes:

 

First full day at sea, on the Carnival Pride...Monday 't'were, ye ken...I were sittin' aft, sippin' at a Yellowbird...when I be hearin' me the noise of choppers (that'd be helicopters to you civvy types) overhead. Looked up and saw two of them.

 

Now at the very first, I thought little of it. I grew up in the Army, and seein' choppers were a common thing, belike...as common as weevils in biscuit, sez I. But then I paused for thought, aye..."Wait a minute. Choppers are short range aircraft. I gots to be out of range of shore based choppers...so where did these come from?" And with that very thought, I was up out of me seat and at the aft port rails, lookin' off in the distance...and, mark ye, I saw a portion of the US Navy out there, includin' an aircraft carrier and a couple of missile frigates. Out from Norfolk, they must have been, on maneuvers.

 

Oh, aye, an' we got buzzed by a fighter from the carrier. Came in low then went straight up, belike. So I reckon that could indeed be designated as "Cool".

 

Scupper me hide else!

 

With all the "Favorite" and "Best" threads on this board, here's one for you.

 

What's the coolest, most memorable thing you've seen while at sea?

 

Here are my three:

 

Sailing past St. Thomas at night. We could see an island approaching but weren't sure what it was. Then as we passed, we made out that it was St. Thomas. We could make out the tramway, Mountaintop and the basic outline of the island by its silhouette. Really cool.

 

Having a huge pod of Pacific White Side Dolphins sail with us on our way back to Vancouver. Amazing. I have pictures that show up to 30 breaking the water at any one time. I knew it was special when crewmembers were scurrying to take pictures.

 

Sailing through a thunderstorm on the open sea. Nothing like sitting on your verandah (dry) watching the lightning light up the sky. It's almost surreal.

[Kissyfur19]

The hundreds of pacific grey dolphins that escorted us on the Spirit as we sailed down the inside passage, out of Alaska, last fall. It was the last sailing of the season and the naturist on board said it was like they were giving us a farewell. They were everywhere...on both sides of the ship....playing and frollicking in our wake. They stayed with us for almost an hour!

[I<32C]

I most awesome sight I have ever seem,was a huge whale blow it's spout and dive down, lifting it's tail for all to see, and right next to her, was a baby coping the mother. Off the coast of Los Cabos in February 2011:)

 

 

 

 

Carnival Spirit Feburary 2011

[Jules7226]

I have several cool things.

 

1. Hammerhead sharks from our balcony while docked at HMC.

2. The water was so calm when leaving Grand Cayman that we could see the reflection of the clouds on the water. It is the pic that I use for my profile.

3. Flying fish. No matter how many times I see them I am always in awe.

4. Lightning storm in the distance when it is pitch black outside. Love watching the clouds light up.

[SteelCruisin]

21 years ago,mt fiance who is now my wife and I were about to dock in Nassau on the Premier Oceanic when we looked off the port side and saw what we remember to be a soviet sub coming up out of the water,it was a few hundred yards away but it definately was cool.

[cruisinbanddirectors]

Gotta vote for any of the awesome sunsets we've seen, sailing under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge out of Tampa, or sailing out of San Juan at night and seeing the fort all lit up.

[ContingentSea]

Coolest thing ever...45 miles out of Freeport in the Gulf. About 7:30 p.m. watching the sun go down in the west and seeing the moon rise at the same time in the east.

 

First time I have ever seen that. Simply amazing, one of those "had to be there" phenomenons.

[mcampb2811]

With all the "Favorite" and "Best" threads on this board, here's one for you.

 

What's the coolest, most memorable thing you've seen while at sea?

 

 

Not sure if you would call this cool, but it was definitely interesting. We were on the Glory in 2009 when we rescued 9 refugees.

 

Here is a link to a CC user's article with pictures. For some reason I can't find my picture:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=807

[GROUCHPUSS]

I was on the Holiday in 2000 on our way to Ensanada MX and a MX fighter jet buzzed us upside down top gun style about 100 ft off our deck while we were playing vollyball. It was cool! He was so close you could make out most everything in the cockpit.

 

On the Splendor last year we had a med evac and to see our cost guard in action was just incredible. We had a huge helicopter hover over the middle of the ship at about 50 feet of the deck between the funnel and the mast that holds all the radar stuff at 19 knots was cool. Luckily the person they rescued was alright we found out later in the cruise.

[NJoyCruise]

These are my favorites:

Night storm at seas -- the next morning, rainbow in the horizon

Watching the dolphins from our balcony - made us almost miss our dinner LOL!

Pilot boat - very entertaining to watch

[Willie T]

Seeing about 50 or so whales off of Cabo in '09. Awesome! Also a rescue at sea on the same cruise.

[dillonsmimi]

Picture this.

Pea soup fog while sailing out of the mouth of the Mississippi River (still lots of the delta to navigate).

 

I was sitting on my balcony and out of the fog come blinding bright lites, which then became visible as a skiff of some type.

I slightly panicked (thinking USS Cole), stood up and backed up to the door.. just as the boat righted herself and showed her Pilot ID painted on the side.

The skipper gave her a quick nudge, dropped off the pilot and was out of there without ever slowing down.

 

Whew.

Fog is always a bit creepy, right?

 

mimi

[sylvis]

My coolest was being on the behind the fun tour on the Dream lastOctober and seeing a whale breech while we were on the bridge! Not something I expected to see while in the Caribbean.

[elcuchio24]

I was a deckhand on a long liner Halibut boat up here, we hooked a 41 pound Lobster. Brought it onboard to weigh it, then pushed it back over before it could take anyone's arm off!

[UpcountryTravelers]

Watching a waterfall, in the middle of a glacier, on our Alaska cruise. Awesome to consider the amoung of melting ice that could create a waterfall coming out of a hole in the face of a glacier!!

[jhale]

On our honeymoon on the Rhapsody in 2003 we went out onto the Observatory area (think that's what it was called) and watched a lightning storm. It was pretty far off, but out there in the middle of nowhere it was like we were right underneath it.

[Bigbob75]

2007 glory

Wierd al yankovic was passed out drunk back bar lido deck at 300 am

[gogetter]

Pulling in to St Thomas, we grabbed our Baileys and went to the aft deck with coffee. as we are sitting there emjoying the morning and how quiet it was we saw 2 whales.

 

Later in port we bought a whale pendant with diamonds for a great price.

 

Every time my wife wears that we talk about seeing the whales and we call the pendant 'Smiley Whale'.

 

thanks for letting me share...................

[joeyancho]

I have seen several really cool things at sea, numerous amazing sunsets, flying fish, dolphins, whales, sea lions, but I would have to say the most unique was a total lunar eclipse while in the Carribean.

[jetsfan]

We were in St. Thomas sitting on our corner wrap balcony when a sea plane landed right by the ship, it was cool.