Scariest moment of my life: Cruise ship rides through fierce winter storm
https://wdef.com/2018/01/06/scariest-moment-life-cruise-ship-rides-fierce-winter-storm/NEW YORK (CBS News) — Thursday’s winter storm pummeled the Tri-State Area, but imagine being in the thick of it on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. For 21 members of the Ross family, of Stony Brook, it was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, CBS New York reports.
They were cruising to the Bahamas for their patriarch’s 80th birthday. Instead, they returned Friday after what they called a nightmare onboard the Norwegian Breakaway.
“I thought I’d never be in a situation where I would say that’s the scariest moment of my life. This was the worst moment of my life,” said Karoline Ross, speaking exclusively with CBS New York.
She and Del Ross spoke with the station while they were en route to New York, after they said their 4,000 passenger cruise ship sailed right into the storm Tuesday night for two harrowing days in ocean swells up to 30 feet. The seasoned boaters called it traumatic.
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Nor’easter for two days.
Going down to the Caribbean for a Christmas trip.
We were on the ninth deck in the front. Had to lock our exterior Hull doors and had waves sweeping over our balcony. Scary as shit. People were having hysterics and there was one woman who kept screaming that she wanted a helicopter to fly her out.
There was no problem getting into any restaurant on the ship. 
The crew were cleaning up vomit in every hallway.
It was quite the trip.
By the time we got to the Bahamas it was peaceful.
Twenty minutes in we got hit by a major wave and the container with the hot water and the stones tipped over and spilled all over the floor.
The masseuse ran out of the room and I had to wait until everything cooled down before I could get off the table.
Ah, good times.
A giant cruise ship is no more than a piece of ruddered flotsum against the vast scale and power of the Atlantic. What a memory.
We almost capsized in the former but were entertained in the latter.
I was working in the enclosed research deck under the helo deck at 2 AM.
We parked deep in the ice to weather a 70 knot storm, and it was letting up.
The ship started to move to our morning sampling station - but the ship started to move up and down.
In 3 meter ice - this just doesn't happen.
I decided to get out on the main deck to see what was going on - it was the most terrifying and bizarre sight I have ever seen.
There were 40 foot swells of solid ice coming at us - and I was looking *UP* at them.
I thought to myself, "boy, if that broke on the deck, I would never be found".
Then I looked off in the distance - 50 foot waves were breaking over the ice edge.
But the ship kept going.
I ran back down to my work station and secured everything as best I could and dogged all the the hatches to the main deck.
I jumped into my bunk fully clothed with my boots on and waited....
The ship could not make the turn back into the ice until we reached open water.
Wen we made the turn, we went sideways into the 50 foot trough - and it was like a carnival ride.
All the heavy furniture in my cabin went flying and all I could hear was the crashing of everything that wasn't tied down in the lounge and mess.
When we got back into the ice, I was the only one up and geared - so I went up to the rad (radiation) lab where I also worked.
It was trashed - but then I looked down and saw liquid sloshing against my boots - a carboy of 14C-bicarbonate rad waste had fallen over and dumped on he floor.
I got as many absorbent things I could and kept the the stuff from escaping the rad lab.
Then I took my boots off and ran barefoot through the snow and ice on deck.
I got my cabin mate up - he was terrified - but he told me where I could find my some dilute hydrochloric acid to decontaminate my boots.
I got back to the main deck (where I was 30 minutes before) - and there were car-sized chunks of ice on it.
Later, the bridge crew showed me the video of the event.
The deck *above* the main deck had swamped - and where I was a half hour earlier - was completely submerged.
and the ship had come within 1 degree of list of capsizing.
It took us 3 days to repair the damage - but being a Quebec ship we partied like crazy every night.
Good times.
You should be able to dine out on that one for these of your life!
Last edited Mon Jan 8, 2018, 07:02 AM - Edit history (1)
Working out of Palmer Station Antarctica on the cusp of the Millennium.
We had been weather-bound from sampling for 3 long weeks.
Which was critical to our research plan.
We had walked on sketchy ice for some sketchy sampling - but finally got the OK to take a Zodiac (rigid inflatable boat) out to the farthest sampling site from the station.
Zodiac's can push ice - very slowly - but they can make headway.
It took us 3 hours to make the 3 miles to our sampling station - past building sized ice bergs,
And having just deployed our sampling bottle to 100 meters - on our hand-cranked torture device
I got a call from the station....
*We just spiked at 60 knots*
I looked up, and there was a wall of white spiraling toward us.
We could not move with 100 m of cable deployed.
It took all 3 of us to get the gear in.
Each of us would crank until exhaustion - then the next one would take over.
We got the gear up and the engine started just as the wind hit.
Two of us jumped to the bow to prevent us from being blown over - the engine dude had to get us out.
I had the GPS and the radio- the station told us to get to one of the many local refuge islands - which were blocked by the moving ice.
We said "no go".
Then a wave came over the bow and disabled all our radios.
By stupid *dumb* luck we found ourselves in a narrow path of open water that had pulled away from the shore.
It took us an hour to get back from the station but they were mighty relieved.
I went up to the weather station - and the drum barometer scribe had popped off the bottom of the drum.
In Antarctic parlance - we were in a "Sucker Hole".
Our weather forecasts from U. Wisconsin did not predict this.
When I walked into the weather shack after we got back, the wind and barometric recorders were in the opposite direction - wind straight up and barometric pressure straight down.
On edit - the barometric recording device had a slow rotating drum with a piece of paper attached to it. There was an ink pen that produced a trace of pressure readings.
Something like this...
The barometric pressure was so low, the pen that made the traces popped off the bottom of the drum recorder.
Got a picture of that some place.
But by amazing experience, I meant being in the antarctic at all. Most times it must have been very quiet and routine, but...Antarctica.
I got nervous hearing afterward that my husband could see whitecaps from 30,000 feet while flying across the north Atlantic. A Toto, you're a long way from home feeling, but how wonderful for you. Most of the time.
I wasn't there so what do I know
It's how the get from place to place
I can say for sure that the small cruise ship was the one before us in the Drake Passage. That trip to Antarctica can be a pisser! 
The passengers had to be rescued by a passing larger ship and the small one was damaged so badly that it was out of service for months.
shouldn't cause too much rust or electrical problems for the ship engineer. 
