Cruise lines do everything they can to steer cruise ships away from bad weather.
Royal Caribbean Meteorologist Craig Setzer and his team monitor storms 24/7 and advise ships as to what’s going on. The captain of each ship makes choices to change itineraries in order to keep their ships out of harm’s way.
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Not all danger, however, can be avoided. That’s a lesson passengers on the current Explorer of the Seas transatlantic sailing learned in a shocking way. The ship was hit by an unexpected wave, which caused loose items to be scattered, some tables to be tipped over, and other disarray on the ships.
Once the wave hit, the captain ordered passengers back to their cabins in order to make sure that everyone on the ship was accounted for. Various Facebook reports on the incident said that a few passengers and some crew members were hurt, but none were seriously injured.
The ship, according to an onboard source, was hit by a surprise squall — hurricane-force winds — which caused it to list to the port side. The ship remained tilted for between 5 and 10 minutes.
In this situation, sending passengers back to their rooms is considered protocol.
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Unexpected weather is a cruise ship’s biggest danger
While cruise lines have all sorts of weather information available, not every situation can be accounted for. That’s something Setzer explained
In July, Mark Sudduth of Hurricane Track interviewed Setzer on a YouTube series called Hurricane U. During the show, Setzer called tracking all the moving pieces involved in keeping the cruise line’s ships safe during inclement weather “slow-moving chess.”
“You’re anticipating, where’s the storm going to be? Where’s my ship going to be? What am I going to do with my ship?” the Royal Caribbean Blog reported.
Trackable weather events, Setzer shared, can be avoided or at least ships can be positioned where the impact will be lessened. The biggest danger, he shared, are “unforeseen weather events.”
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These are storms and other weather-related issues that don’t show up on models.
“These events can be a microburst of air or a gust front of wind that wasn’t visible on the forecast,” Matt Hochberg wrote on the Royal Caribbean Blog, which is not affiliated with the cruise line.
In the case of Explorer of the Seas, many of the online reports credit the captain with reacting well to the weather situation which seemingly came out of nowhere. He changed its course and slowed down as Explorer slowly righted itself.
Explorer Of The Seas current location is at West Africa cruising at speed of 19.3 kn (36 km/h | 22 mph) en route to MIA US, according to CruiseMapper. The ship left Barcelona on Nov. 2 and is expected to reach Miami on Nov. 14.
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