NASSAU, Bahamas -- The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting in the search for a Canadian woman who may have fallen overboard from a cruise ship off the Bahamas.
A search of Royal Caribbean's "Jewel of the Seas" failed to turn up any sign of the 59-year-old passenger.
The search has focused on an area about 25 miles northeast of Nassau. That's where the ship was when the woman was reported missing. Beaches and shorelines also have been searched. But a Coast Guard spokesman said finding someone in the ocean is "one of the hardest things the Coast Guard has to do."
The cruise ship arrived Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
I have taken several cruises on different sized ships and for the life of me I cannot understand how anyone can accidentally fall overboard. That is unless they are tight-rope walking on the rail of one of only about two decks where it is open, completely drunk or over 7ft tall and leaning over the rail. We will likely never know but my guess if that the person was (1) not in control - either drunk or under the influence of drugs (2) thrown over the side by person or persons unknown (3)jumped on purpose/commited suicide. Otherwise I am at a loss to understand how it can happen by accident. Moreover, other than not allowing anyone onto the couple of open decks I dont know how the cruise-lines can possibly stop this from happening. I am not being uncaring - I really dont understand.
I agree with Mike. If we were talking about a young boy, I'd figure they were crawling through or walking on the railing and fell. When it's an adult, I think they either jumped or someone threw them overboard. That would be quite a feat!
I remember when we cruised on the Century for the second time - I think it was in 2000 - and we had one of the secretly best cabins on the ship, which is one of the 7 mini-suites along the aft end. We were in Cozumel and I was on the balcony. Some twenty-something fools in one of the end cabins had tossed a towel out onto the angled sheetmetal that runs out to the end of the ship. It is at a 40 degree angle or so. Anyway, one of them decides to retrieve the towel and so he ties off a bed sheet to the railing and climbs down the angled structure. I stood there watching in disbelief and was about to say something when a ship's officer on a lower deck saw it and started yelling at the moron. Security soon arrived and gave them a good tongue lashing. All of this over a towel! And yes, they were apparently drunk.
Dave, I think you'll like this board, the way it is run and organized. Denizens include many knowledgeable cruisers. The head honcho, Tom Ogg, used to be a member of the old "The Biz" section I used to run on CIS, and has been on about 1,435,563 cruises!
From what I have seen thus far, I feel quite at home here. As you know from our many years of interaction on "the other forum" , I am here to help cruisers and also to get insights from them! The cruise forum I was helping to run was dying a slow death, and it finally went away a couple weeks ago. So here I am - an old sysop looking for a another home. Ahh yes, the old Biz Section. I still remember being so excited when I was finally granted access, and then Biz went away just a couple months later!
Sandy, actually it has been quite a bit fewer cruises...but I do admit to excess.
Dave, welcome to Cruise-Chat.com. I am not sure of the site you are referring to, but you are sure welcome here. Any friend of Sandy's is a friend of mine.
Linear Mode
