Nekton Rorqual runs aground in Fort Lauderdale

[Charlie99]

Well then, the time(when I was the engineer on the boat) I deployed the anchor it must have been a flashback. It was the second most scary thing I have done at sea,..

Is it unusually difficult or dangerous to deploy the anchor?

Is it likely that this has something to do with why they didn't just shut down engines and drop anchor if indeed they had "steering problems" or if they had engine problems?

From your experience onboard, do you have any insight on possible reasons that they ended up grounding on the beach?

 

[cappyjon431]

Is it unusually difficult or dangerous to deploy the anchor?

Is it likely that this has something to do with why they didn't just shut down engines and drop anchor if indeed they had "steering problems" or if they had engine problems?

From your experience onboard, do you have any insight on possible reasons that they ended up grounding on the beach?

It is not dangerous to deploy the anchor, but the problem is that because we used to do it so infrequently (using permanent moorings 99.9% of the time), many crewmembers were uncomfortable with the process--the anchor is extremely heavy (obviously), is attached to a hundred feet of heavy duty chain (also very heavy), and is attached to the boat with 1 1/4 inch polypro line. The anchor/chain plays out very quickly and a finger or limb placed in the wrong spot would be removed instantly (not to be too graphic, but it's the truth). Having been away from the boat for over five years, I really couldn't say why the anchor was not deployed and I would be very reluctant to take a guess without sufficient information.

 

[Caver95]

That begs the question: what was the most scary thing??

There was this girl I dated in Ft Lauderdale, Jon might remember me getting picked up in a yellow Ferrari one saturday, her dads yatch, a couple of strippers from Pure Platinum, thier boy friends(who were stupid and heavly armed) and a lot of coke.

 

[Caver95]

Is it unusually difficult or dangerous to deploy the anchor?

Is it likely that this has something to do with why they didn't just shut down engines and drop anchor if indeed they had "steering problems" or if they had engine problems?

From your experience onboard, do you have any insight on possible reasons that they ended up grounding on the beach?

Its been about 5 years since I was on the boat, I am sure a lot has changed since then. I will not speculate. Dropping and recreiving the anchor was not 100% automaited, it involved a lot of team work, and if someone messed up it could have been a bad. all the dropping the anchor involved was laying out some line removing a few wraps of chain from the ballard and getting the hell out of the way.

 

[Randy43068]

There was this girl I dated in Ft Lauderdale, Jon might remember me getting picked up in a yellow Ferrari one saturday, her dads yatch, a couple of strippers from Pure Platinum, thier boy friends(who were stupid and heavly armed) and a lot of coke.

Heavily armed, eh? They lifted a lot of weights, worked out a lot?

 

[Damselfish]

It is not dangerous to deploy the anchor, but the problem is that because we used to do it so infrequently (using permanent moorings 99.9% of the time), many crewmembers were uncomfortable with the process--

wasn't it some kind of occasional drill then? Most liveaboards I've been on seem to do some drill every week, not the same thing every week but stuff that they didn't normally need to do, so they had practice.

 

[cowfish]

exactly- while not for "compliance" only it is obviously not something they do hardly at all, and don't train to do quickly-i understand they use moorings, which is certainly commendable, but it sounds like anchoring is a fairly involved process on that boat, which means they only will do it in an emergency, which means they should train for it because in most emergencies you probably want that anchor down asap... that a crew member would describe anchoring as the 2nd scariest thing they've done at sea is very strange...and shows a lack of understanding of the process or a lack of experience...

 

[cappyjon431]

exactly- while not for "compliance" only it is obviously not something they do hardly at all, and don't train to do quickly-i understand they use moorings, which is certainly commendable, but it sounds like anchoring is a fairly involved process on that boat, which means they only will do it in an emergency, which means they should train for it because in most emergencies you probably want that anchor down asap... that a crew member would describe anchoring as the 2nd scariest thing they've done at sea is very strange...and shows a lack of understanding of the process or a lack of experience...

We were trained on it, that is how I learned. I probably was involved in training to lower the anchor and actually lowering the anchor two dozen times in the eight years I worked on the boat. Of these two dozen times, perhaps a half dozen were actual "emergencies." I can honestly say that even with extensive training this is still a scary endeavor. You have to take into account the high rate of attrition for liveaboard crews-I figure the average length of employment on most liveaboards is about 6-8 months. The average employee probably sees an anchor lowered once or twice. If it is scary for me (someone who has seen it numerous times), there is no doubt it would be scary for a crew member, especially in emergency conditions with high seas, etc.

We did drills on many emergency scenerios on a regular basis, including man-overboard, fire, life vest/life rafts drills, etc. In addition, all crew members are now required to have STCW 95 which includes extensive training.

 

[bbdm120]

Oh my God, they just retro fit it last month. Will be interesting to find out what happened.

New Wreck Dive site?

 

[deepstops]

Oh my God, they just retro fit it last month. Will be interesting to find out what happened.

New Wreck Dive site?

You better hope not since I noticed you're advertising a trip on one of their boats:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tr...ive-trips/257155-st-croix-nekton-cruises.html