At approximately 9:45 PM last night a call of “oscar oscar oscar port side” came over the PA system we did not know what this meant but we had just experienced a series of bumps as we were leaving the dock in Patmos
I went out on the veranda and saw that we were moving. We are on the starboard side. I could not see anything unusual.
I then went to guest relations to turn in a form and get a map of Rhodes for tomorrow. On the way back to the cabin I noticed a commotion down on deck 3.
When I got to our stateroom at about 10:00, I went out on the veranda. We had stopped moving and we were lowering the rescue boat.
I Googled Oscar Oscar Oscar and learned that in the cruise industry it is a commonly used emergency call for a person in the water. That explains lowering the rescue boat.
I then went up to deck 10 to view the port side. I could not see anything but there was a passenger telling how he saw us departing the dock and as we did our stern swung into the dock striking it a number of times. He stated that the tug assisting us tried to pull the stern away and capsized. Someone went into the water from the upside down tug. He did not see any recovery.
At 10:15 the PA announced there had been an incident and the tugboat capsized. We would be kept informed. That was the extent of it.
Speculation is that we will have to stay here pending an investigation. We may also have to have the hull inspected for safety.
We went to bed at 10:35 with a prayer for the crew of the tug.
This morning we got up at 6:30 hoping that we would be in Rhodes for the tour we had booked. We were not. We were anchored outside the harbor at Patmos as we feared.
At 7:30 while we were at breakfast the captain announced that we had remained here in cooperation with the investigation of last night’s incident. He expected to be cleared to leave soon. Because of this delay our visit to Rhodes has been canceled. We will proceed directly to Santorini for our scheduled visit tomorrow. End of message.
All we know for sure is that the tug boat capsized, someone went into the water, and Journey is seaworthy.
It is 9:15 and we are still at anchor. We will make the best of this unexpected sea day.
Here is this morning’s sunrise.
2 comments:
So sorry for the delay. Hope all survived the capsized tug. We were a week ahead of you on Santorini. Church of St. John and the Greek Orthodox church are beautiful and worth the visit
Sadly the 48 year old captain of the tug perished. A second man swam to safety unharmed. I found this in local maritime news. All we heard onboard was that we were cooperating with the investigation of the incident. We were allowed to leave Patmos on Saturday night. We did arrive at Santorini as scheduled on Sunday morning. Rhodes had to be canceled. We are saddened and prayerful over this loss of life. Pat
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