Hurricane-force winds force cruise ship to turn back

The ship returned to Cape Liberty, New Jersey, where the trip originated, on Monday.

Arriving on the bridge at 0630 that morning, Andersen said he was expecting winds of 40-50 knots, but by 1300 the winds were quite a bit stronger than forecast.

Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas has been hit by strong winds and 30 foot (nine metre) waves off the coast of South Carolina, United States of America.

Anthem of the Seas originally left Cape Liberty, New Jersey, on Saturday for a seven-night cruise to the Bahamas.

Another meteorologist, Ryan Maue, a “digital meteorologist for WeatherBell Analytics, said it’s hard to believe no one at Royal Caribbean had been aware of a storm system that had been forecast – and included in official advisories and warnings issued by the National Weather Service – days in advance, ” says NJ.com in the article Royal Caribbean ripped by weather pro for routing “Anthem” cruise ship into storm.

What makes this story so inexplicable is that this storm had been in the forecast for days. The staff went door to door dropping off food, since passengers couldn’t leave their cabins to reach the ship’s dining areas. Muster stations are where passengers assemble on a ship in the event of an emergency, usually in preparation for evacuation. “It was out of my worst nightmare/horror movie”, said Moskovitz. “In other news, wish I took those swimming lessons…”

She said the boat rolled through the storm for 12 hours, “and there were times we thought we were going to flip, but we didn’t”.

Grammenos said Royal Caribbean has an on-board smart phone app that allowed passengers to text each other for information, which helped.

Sixteen-year-old Gabriella Lairson says she and her father, Sam, could feel the ship, Anthem of the Seas, begin to sway by 2:30 p.m. Sunday. In an abundance of caution, the Captain asked all guests to stay in their stareroom until the weather improved. “Four injuries have been reported, none severe”. “The ship has sustained some damage to the public areas and guest starerooms, which in no way affect the sea-worthiness of the ship”. “Captain said they are in communication with the Coast Guard, struggling to point ship into wind but can’t move forward”.

No one was seriously hurt during the cruise.

“I was shaking all over”, passenger Shara Strand of New York City wrote to The Associated Press via Facebook on Monday.

A spokeswoman for the cruise line said the shop “experienced extreme wind and sea conditions, with wind speeds higher than what was forecast”.

“Something separating the cabins like those, I don’t know if you can see, but it flew away, it’s not here anymore”, Joao Melke, a frustrated passenger, told CBS2’s Alice Gainer.