(3/21/05) Cruise ship damages reef and almost runs down dive party

[Chaseh]

Man that sucks. One went by in the vacinity of where I was diving recently and boy was it loud!

I did think recently that within my lifetime these new genreation of mega cruiseliners would start to be retired, and perhaps a few of them would be sunk as pretty darn funky wreck dives. That will probably be the first time I enter one.

 

[doole]

Are Cruise ships and diving just incompatible?

Cruise ships and this planet are incompatible.

 

[archman]

I did think recently that within my lifetime these new genreation of mega cruiseliners would start to be retired, and perhaps a few of them would be sunk as pretty darn funky wreck dives.

Unfortunately, older cruise ships are simply relocated to less active homeports, or ports where environmental regulations are reduced. Some of these "veteran" boats are in Texas and other Gulf seaports like Mobile, hooray for us.

I do wonder about the possibility about sinking such a vessel as a wreck. All those compartments sure would fun to toot around in.

 

[Wijbrandus]

All those compartments sure would fun to toot around in.

And I thought the cabins were claustrophobic before I pictured maneuvering in dive gear...

 

[Chaseh]

Picture the Andrea Doria, Only in 150-200 ft of water to the sand. How freaking tall are these mega cruiseboats anyways?

I did say in my lifetime, hopefully I'll still be able to dive in 35yrs. Maybe more.

 

[KaBoOm]

Picture the Andrea Doria, Only in 150-200 ft of water to the sand. How freaking tall are these mega cruiseboats anyways?

I did say in my lifetime, hopefully I'll still be able to dive in 35yrs. Maybe more.

Hit the submit button early...see below....

 

[KaBoOm]

Picture the Andrea Doria, Only in 150-200 ft of water to the sand. How freaking tall are these mega cruiseboats anyways?

I did say in my lifetime, hopefully I'll still be able to dive in 35yrs. Maybe more.

I just got off the Grand Princess as well and it had 18 decks. Assuming 10' per deck, that's 180'!!! We were on the cruise before the other poster I guess.

Just a note, the Carnival Inspiration is was built in 1996 and is one of their newer, yet smaller ships. It would have bow thrusters to manuver in port, but wouldn't have the new Pods of the mega ships. Still, they shouldn't have had any issues getting into port! Just to show the quality of the Carnival ships, we were in port in Galveston when they towed the Ecstacy back in after it broke down in the Gulf of Mexico. The worst thing is they didn't give everyone a full refund and my understanding is that they sent the ship back out under only partial power. There are a lot of stories about it on cruisecritic.com if you are interested.

I love cruising, but I will NEVER go with Carnival no matter how low the price is!

Andrew

 

[master_diver_UJ]

The article link.

The Cozumel News in English, Vol 24

March 13-20, 2005

CRUISE SHIP DAMAGES REEFS AND ALMOST RUNS DOWN A DIVE PARTY
by Novedades de Q. Roo


According to the report filed by the dive operation, Aqua Safari with
Cozumel's National Marine Park office, on Thursday 17 at 15:30 hours the
Carnival cruiseship Inspiration passed within a meter and a half (60") of a
group of 12 divers who were exploring the bottom of reef Paraíso at the time.


According to the reports of dive masters with Aqua Safari, the force of the
propellers raised sediment so that it was impossible to see the palm of
your hand. This situation produced panic among the divers who scattered
away this way and that fearing for their lives and at the same time taking
a risk of being sucked up into the enormous propellers.

After the report, the administration of the park acted immediately and
notified the Harbor Master's Office and Profepa to be sure that the
cruiseship did not leave the port without recognizing the incident and
agreeing to abide by the evaluation of damages and any actions that might
later be taken.

In the meantime the Profepa requested the support of the PGR to commence a
formal collection of fact to be presented before the Federal Attorney
General's office. The formal inspection and subsequent complaint will
evaluate damages and determine responsibility not only for risking the
lives of the divers and their guides but also for crossing a forbidden area
of the National Park, thereby causing grave damage.

The cruiseship Inspiration which was scheduled to leave a 21:00 was not
allowed to get underway until midnight.

Hey Darcy:

I was in Coz last week & was supposed to go on a night dive with Dive w/ Martin on the 17th. The storm that blew in early afternoon did get pretty nasty - glad I was nowhere near the International pier....

Jack

 

[jlayman800]

... I love cruising, but I will NEVER go with Carnival no matter how low the price is! Andrew

Good, Andrew, they're crowded enough. As for me, I really enjoyed my last cruise with Carnival. They took amazing care of me and my family. My only complaint is that I gained 8 pounds in 4 days and it has been very hard to lose. You are right that they are amazingly inexpensive. I paid less for 4 of us to go on the cruise than it would have cost for hotel alone in a nice beach town.

 

[darcy]

I've never been there but it's hard to believe the cruise ships would be that close to the divers on the reef.

We were diving the Panama City Beach Jetties the other day and this huge tanker Star of India went overhead through the pass. It took about 9 minutes for it to pass and it was so loud. I've never experienced anything like that in the water. It never occurred to me that I could be SUCKED UP IN THE PROPELLERS! That would make for a bad day, but even a bad day diving is better than most days doing anything else...

I wonder what fines will be incurred if any for damaging the reef and if the divers have any recourse?