duncan.donut@cogeco.ca wrote:
> > That's a TINY ship to be doing a trans Atlantic on... I actually had
> > doubts about doing a Bermuda sailing during the fall on the Journey
> > (another former Ren sister ship) because of her tiny size. I sailed
> > through a Nor'easter on the tiny Zenith last year... it wasn't pretty. On
> > the Explorer this past spring, we sailed through the remnants of a
> > tropical storm, with waves higher than my second deck window... and until
> > I opened the window I didn't even know we were in rough seas.
> >
> > I think I'd want a huge ship to do a crossing. Either a Voyager class or
> > the QM2. Both from a stability stand point and having tons of stuff to do
> > for 5-6 days.
> >
> > --Tom
> IMO, that's not necessarily true, Tom. The ability to handle rough open
> seas is often the effect of hull design as much as it is size of the ship.
> In 2001, we sailed on the Crown Odyssey from New Zealand to L.A., a 30-day
> cruise. For at least five days of that trip, we were affected by a huge
> South Pacific hurricane, a storm that was as big as Canada on the radar. We
> ended up changing our iteninerary a number of times (and we missed 3
> scheduled ports!). We were never IN the hurricane, but always skirting
> around the edges of it (every time we changed our itinerary, the hurricane
> changed course and tried to intercept us again!) There were a number of
> days that the doors to the outer decks were kept closed, including some days
> between Hawaii and LA. Passengers in the forward cabins on lower decks were
> orderd to keep their porthole covers closed. At one point, we were in the
> dining roon and our table-mates scoffed at our story that a wave had struck
> our cabin window, 3 decks above the lowest passenger deck, and relatively
> amidship, only one deck below the dining room. Just then, a huge wave
> pounded the dining room window, making them instant believers!
> But that wonderful ship just plowed straight through the waves, rarely
> pitching or rolling significantly in spite of the fierce seas.
> And she was relatively small, especially compared to the behemoths at sea
> now. She was about 35,000 tons and 1,050 passengers. If Orient Line had
> kept her in service, we would have just cruised wherever she went.
Sounds pretty terrifying. I'm rather wondring about my forthcoming trip
to Hawaii now... ...
On my first transatlantic crossing on the QMII, referred to in my
earlier post, it was a bit rough for a couple of days in
mid-ocean(possibly the tail end of the Katrina hurricane). I spent some
four days at a hotel in a seaside town on an island on the Clyde
estuary on that holiday, and on returning to the mainland on the car
ferry a violent wind arose. I'd guess it was about Force 4 -6. That
little ship really heaved about! I tottered out of the tearoom area for
a possibly last smoke in this world before becoming seriously drowned
-I can't swim! - and was immediately soaked with spray. I
remarked with mock reproachfulness to a nearby seaman that the
Queen Mary II hadn't moved about like this, and he said something
nautically technical about it being a bliddy big ship. We did make it to
the other side, and the captain got us into a port, albeit not the one
we should have landed at as it was too exposed. This wasn't the open
sea, so the seas probably weren't all that high, but as it was a
relatively small boat you really felt the deck moving about.
Oh, and I didn't get seasick!
--
Ian
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745763. Rough weather (was Re: Trans Atlantic Crossing)
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