Royal Caribbean vows to improve weather avoidance after Anthem incident

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Anthem of the Seas returned to its home port of Bayonne on Wednesday night, February 10, after what passengers described as a harrowing experience at sea.

Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe said in an email Friday morning that the ship should be ready to sail again as scheduled, NJ.com reported.

The azipod was replaced, Rowe said, and Coast Guard officials were examining it along with the ship’s lifeboats and other safety equipment to see if they meet standards.

Anthem of the Seas, a 1,141-foot Royal Caribbean cruise ship, is being examined by the Coast Guard to determine whether it can sail after being damaged in an intense storm this week. The Detroit Free Press reported the delay meant Anthem of the Seas didn’t return to port until January 25, which delayed the departure of the next cruise, a southern Caribbean trip that was forced into a change of itinerary. The ship was on its way from the New York City area to Port Canaveral, Florida, when it not only encountered the storm, but really sailed right into the heart of it.

The captain asked passengers to stay in their cabins as powerful winds and waves as high as 30 feet tossed the vessel around.

The company said in a statement that the ship’s operation was not affected, but concerns about more rough weather prompted the decision to return to port rather than continue. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida has called for a National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the event.

The National Weather Service’s Ocean Prediction Center had issued an alert for a strong storm four days in advance.

As the graphic shows, a full two days before the ship got into trouble, the forecast for Sunday was for rapidly-intensifying hurricane-force winds.

The severity of Sunday’s storm, with its 120-mph winds, far exceeded forecasts.

Dennis Maher says, “I thought we wouldn’t make it. I thought we’d have to use the life boats”. The company has since said it has established a new shoreside team of experts to help it route ships around storms.

“The risk was easily avoidable as the storm was well-forecast by private and public forecasting outfits”, Maue said.

Anthem of the Seas owner Royal Caribbean International apologized in a statement “for exposing our guests and crew to the weather they faced, and for what they went through”.

For roughly 12 hours, passengers of the Anthem of the Seas had hunkered down in their rooms Sunday as the captain of the cruise ship battled rough seas off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Royal Caribbean, along with the ship’s captain Claus Anderson, said that the storm was worse than it had predicted before setting out.