I wonder how the get a 1000 ft boat to Orlando? Must be one hell of a
trailer. :-)


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
That must have been some wave.

Later,

Tom

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'Freak' wave rocks cruise

70-footer hits N.Y.-bound ship

BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A "freak wave" more than 70 feet high slammed a luxury cruise ship
steaming for New York yesterday, flooding cabins, injuring passengers
and forcing the liner to stop for emergency repairs.
The Norwegian Dawn, an opulent ocean liner almost 1,000 feet long,
limped into Charleston, S.C., yesterday afternoon after it hit vicious
seas in an overnight storm off Florida - then was creamed by the rogue
wave after dawn.

"[My room] was destroyed by stuff getting thrown all over the place,"
passenger James Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., told NBC News before
embarking on the 12-hour drive home because he didn't want to set foot
on the ship again.

"It was pure chaos."

The ship, which sailed from New York last Sunday with 2,500
passengers, had been due back today.

It weathered most of a wild storm that featured gale-force winds and
choppy seas. But then the vessel, longer than three football fields,
was suddenly smacked by the "freak wave," said Norwegian Cruise Line
spokeswoman Susan Robison. It broke a pair of windows and flooded 62
cabins, she said.

"The sea had actually calmed down when the wave seemed to come out of
thin air at daybreak," Robison said. "Our captain, who has 20 years on
the job, said he never saw anything like it."

The tidal wave wrecked windows on the ninth and 10th floors and
wreaked havoc below decks, destroying furniture, the onboard theater,
and a store that sold expensive gifts.

It also injured four passengers and terrified scores more, many of
whom lost belongings and were being flown back to New York early this
morning.

"My daughter said people were freaking out," said Mel Blanck, 74,
whose daughter, Caren Hogan, 42, of Matawan, N.J., was vacationing
aboard with her family. "She said some doors were ripped off and
broken glass was everywhere."

In a message Hogan left on her parents' voice mail, she said her ship
"feels like the Titanic" and described "water running everywhere, with
people getting hurt and panicking."

"She felt lucky that she and her children weren't hurt," said Blanck,
whose daughter had called from South Carolina last night. "She's calm
now, but she said it was a nightmare."

The floating city of a ship, which was commissioned in 2002, left New
York a week ago for Orlando, Miami and the Bahamas. It had started
heading home when it ran into the wicked weather.

During the storm, one frightened passenger called a relative who
relayed the information to the Coast Guard, which escorted the ship
into Charleston yesterday.

"The ocean is unforgiving; it doesn't care who is out there," said
Petty Officer Bobby Nash of the Coast Guard in Florida. "This could
have happened to anyone."

Repairs were done last night, and the ship resumed it's voyage around
midnight after a team of Coast Guard inspectors gave it approval.

Many of the Norwegian Dawn's passengers remained on the ship while it
was readied for the sea again, Robison said. The battered vessel is
expected to return to New York tomorrow.

All passengers would be given a partial refund, a credit for a future
trip and access to the ship's open bar, Robison said.