Storm Surge on Maui Hawaii - Pride of America
Much of these notes were posted "live" on the Cruise Critics forums while the adventure was going on, to keep people up to date on the events. We have a wireless internet connection so we can do updates from our laptop as long as we're relatively close to land.5:28pm
They're making us leave the harbor - dangerous conditions. Our cabin is on the back of the ship - facing the exit of the port - and here is a picture of the waves coming in -
They have been running the engines all day long just to hold us up against the pier because the waves have been so large.
We went up to the bow of the ship (being the insane people we are - nobody else was out here in the rain) and took a video as the ship inched its way through the rough seas and through the mouth of the harbor. The waves were really pretty killer. Then we headed back to the room. The cabin guy wanted to do the cabin up, so we took the laptop downstairs to do our updates, but we lost our internet connection by doing that. We did run into Joyce and some other Cruise Critic folk and talked to them about the storm situation. Then we headed back to our room to try to finish our update.
Our cabin guy was in the middle of making new towel animals for us! They were the CUTEST pair of little mice looking at a chocolate mint. I took photos of them :) I folded him an origami crane in thanks! Our menagerie is growing!
7:21pm
LOL our towel monkey which is still hanging from a clothes hanger is swinging back and forth as I type this. It was very sad - there were people driving up to the pier while we pulled away, trying to get on the ship. But for the safety of the ship we really had to get out of the pier. The waves were large. The crew was running the thrusters all day long, pressing us up against the pier, but the rumor is that we broke all of our spare lines because of the waves and didn't have any left. If they had stayed there, and another line broke, then the ship might have been in trouble. Again, just a rumor, but that is what we heard.
Another rumor is that up to 700 passengers hadn't made it back on the boat by the time we had to leave, about 6:15pm. They make each person give a cell phone number when they get on the ship, to contact in case of emergency when you leave the ship. So they definitely were calling those numbers and alerting people. But I imagine some people had gone far away from the ship and just couldn't get back in time.
The entire cast of the Tony & Tina's Wedding show for tonight was stranded on the island, so it's not just the passengers that got caught by this weather situation. They're going to put on alternate entertainment.
I *think* we are moving to a safer port on the other side of the island, so that people can get on there. In any case, NCL personnel were definitely right there at the port, talking to people and will take care of finding lodging and transportation and such for everybody. Several crew members said that they will make sure every person gets taken care of.
Really, I have to give NCL credit for trying to do their best here. They stayed as long as they could. They sounded the horn several times to warn people on shore that the ship had an alert situation. They tried to call peoples' cell phones. But in the end, if the ship is down to its last lines and the waves are big, they have to get the ship and its passengers to safety. The people on land are safe already - and can come join us as soon as it's safe to do so. That's not to say I don't feel sorry for the people stranded on land - I feel very very sorry for them!! But I hope they understand that the weather was just too rough here.
I took video from the bow of the ship while we pulled away and headed out the narrow harbor, it was not fun. The waves right now are really large and we are corkscrewing like crazy. It'll be two hours before we get into more safe wave area, and with the way the ship is moving, I'm sure a few things might fall and break. Hopefully the people are all sitting somewhere safe and being reasonable about holding onto rails while they walk. I can only imagine it would have been worse if we tried to wait longer ...
anyway, more later, I imagine I'll loose my internet connection soon. But a final comment, I have the back balcony door open right now and I can hear people yelling out in fun abandon as the ship moves, going "whooooo!!!!" so at least one portion of the passengers are really enjoying the ride. The kids in the pool thought the wave action was incredibly fun, and every hot tub had people in it.
8:00pm
The captain just came on the intercom and apologized again for the situation. He said it wasn't really waves - that it was the surge from a storm that was slamming us around and made us have to leave. He said that NCL people were gathering up everybody who had been left behind and would make sure they were provided with food and lodging. He said if anybody here on board knew of special needs for someone who was on shore to contact the crew and it would be taken care of.
He said he is taking us out to a safe area of the sea - that we would stay in the area. He said there were 450 or so people currently not on the ship. He is hoping that by the morning that the weather will be calmer and that we could return to port to allow those people back on board again.
The Liberty restaurant is currently closed for the evening, and there was a separate announcement that two other crew members "will be getting married" (i.e. taking the place of Tony and Tina for the wedding party tonight). So they are doing their best to allow the show to go on, even with a block of crew members missing. Bob and I put our dinner reservations off from 8:30 to 9:30 to try to eat after we get past these current nasty waves. Things are moving pretty seriously right now, so it would be hard to eat in these conditions. In fact our balcony curtains just slid themselves fully shut But again, passengers seem pretty upbeat about it all, and many are enjoying the "wild ride". It's a corkscrew motion, up, across, down, across. Nothing in the cabin (glassware etc) seems in any trouble of falling, it's a slow, rolling motion, not sharp or jerky. It is rather large motions though
I'll interject my notes about dinner here. We headed down to the Jefferson Bistro at about 9:30pm. There were only a few other couples in here. It was very lovely, and they put us in one of the large curved, cushioned tables in the far back corner. This apparently is near the engines or some engine part, as the wall was vibrating rather fiercely during our dinner. Our two waiters were quite nice and relaxed. I had the lobster and shrimp appetizer, and Bob had mussels. His were super hot, and mine was served in a martini glass - nice but very small portion, on a bed of crisp lettuce.
Next we both had French onion soup. Interestingly his was mostly broth, while mine had a great piece of bread and cheese in it. I was already getting full so Bob ate pretty much both of these :) They had a nice selection of fresh rolls to go with this.
Then the main dish, he had the duck a la orange and I had the rare tuna with fennel. Both were very tasty. This restaurant is definitely worth the price, and was a relaxing two hour meal. We brought in our own wine - the leftover barolo from last night plus a cabernet. The barolo did well with both dishes, and the cabernet was great with dessert, which was ...
Creme brulee for him, and chocolate mousse for me. Again, both were quite lovely, and a perfect ending to the meal. We gave them a nice tip and I gave them two money origami shirts as well. Then it was up to the cabin!
7:00am
OK an update! During the time that we "got away" from the waves the ride was very motion-filled - not rough, but with smooth, looping movements. You had to be careful when you walked. Then it settled down about 9:15 or so.
Then during our delicious dinner at the Jefferson Bistro, about 9:45, the captain came on the intercom and apologized for making an announcement so late. He wanted us to know that all passengers left on land had been settled into lodging and provided with meal vouchers. They even had called local pharmacies to make sure everybody had the prescriptions they needed, and called local hospitals with records for anybody with a medical condition. So it really seems like they did their very best to make sure the people on shore were safe and taken care of as best they could for the night.
Things got motion-filled again later in the night, I woke up once or twice. It's now just before 7am and we're back about 3 miles off shore (we brought a GPS with us). Our aft balcony is facing into shore right now and we can see a beautiful view of the island. Fairly large waves are moving beneath us. The water going into the port area is white water and breaking hard. Right now the ship does not seem to be moving in towards the harbor at all.
My guess (and this is only a guess of course) is that we'll hang out here for a while until the waves calm down a bit. If we really are low on extra lines right now (which I haven't confirmed) then they won't want to linger in the harbor. So in that case, maybe they are calling everybody to get them all gathered at the dock, so then we can go in, get everybody on board and then get out again. We will see what happens.
We did just have a gorgeous sunrise, and the skies are relatively clear with a few big fluffy clouds, so the weather at least is quite lovely right now! The ship right now has rather large up-down motion forward-back - we seem to be nose into the waves. I'll take a few videos off the back balcony.
7:27am
The captain just made an announcement. The port is currently closed to the ship, but they expect we will get clearance in about 20 minutes to "attempt an entry". He said the swells have abated, but now there are high winds to deal with. "If it's not one thing, it's another". He said that everybody on shore had been well taken care of.
I will get my video camera and regular camera and get up on the bow of the ship, so I can do a video tape of us heading into the harbor. It really is nice and sunny out now, with beautiful blue skies. If you didn't look at the big waves moving under the ship you'd think it was a lovely day for being out on a boat. The boat is definitely turning though - before the rising sun was off the left side of our balcony and as I'm typing this it is shining straight into the room. So we are angling for our approach I would guess.
9:15am
The winds were SUPER strong going into the harbor. I would guess 50 mph - it was like when you stick your hand out the window while driving down the highway. You could barely stand in it. It would blow your hair straight up in the air, a steady blast.
We made it in safely, though! They're expecting us to stay here for the full day today. Bob will try to golf despite the wind. Apparently they're saying it's at least 40mph on the golf courses right now. We shall see! So everybody is getting back on board, and things are returning to normal.
They were saying in the golf shop that we snapped 8 lines yesterday. Apparently on a ship you call them lines, not ropes.
Bob is going to go off to play the Dunes for golf today, and I am going to curl up in bed and try to rest up.
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