Just back from Oceana force 10 sailing home

[LibraLass41]

Just back from my Oceana 7n Fjords cruise. We sailed in a force 10 storm on Friday which was the tail end of a Hurricane that was whipping around the North Sea . Oceana rocked and rolled for 24 hours, many were ill, but I was fine. We lost one satellite dome in the storm, which blew off and broke up, with one part landing in the swimming pool. Photos I took can be found on this mini-album link:

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/AuroraPartyCruiseSueV/OceanaStormDamageSept09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKWY5fLNttiR2gE#5378314973902842370

 

While getting ready for dinner on Friday evening, I threw the towels in the shower tray for the steward to collect and laughed when I saw the tray was still full of water, as we were listing so much to the left and plug was on the right of the tray.:eek:

 

Review and photos to follow. A great cruise besides that!:)

[upwarduk]

Interesting photos Sue.

 

It must have been the year for Force 10'S

We had one while on Arcadia, between Iceland & Ireland 26/07/09- no damage to my knowledge.

Artemis, Force 11 also in Iceland 18/19.08.09 They were delayed sailing into Akureyri, but they did the tours the next day, but they later missed Antwerp.

 

Now Oceana.

 

And of course our day visit to Ventura was called off. Explanation I was given- high winds.

More likely, operational reasons, as Ventura was moved to the Mayflower Terminal, but previous cruise passengers cars were at Ocean Terminal, so the busses which would have been used to take us from QE2 terminal, where we were told to park, to Ventura , were in use, ferrying passengers to their cars, which were parked at Ocean Terminal.

Apparently large ships are being moved from Ocean Terminal if there are high winds, it has also happened to QM2.

[Tizzy]

Hi Libra Lass :)

it was great to see your photos as our son who is a Photographer on the ship had told me about the storm and part of the satellite landing in the Pool. If it was you Libra Lass who went to say hello to my son. Many thanks.

We have never sailed with P&O ( Usually sail with Princess or Carnival) The last ship we cruised on 'Crown Princess ' was also caught up in the storm and expected to be very late arriving in Southampton. I think Ventura also sustained damage. Its a pain without the satellite as I enjoy following all the ports of call on the internet web cam. Its nice to see where my son is each day. Glad you enjoyed the cruise !

[californiacruising]

Outstanding photos as usual Sue. Your pictures of your cruise to Venice enticed us to book a cruise on Arcadia this October. :) I am very appreciative.

[ruby_tuesday]

Thanks for posting these, my mum and sister were on the cruise and I know that they will be interested to see these!

 

My mum is perhaps one of the worst sailors possible but she loves cruises and always manages to get involved in some dramatic crossings, just hope she doesn't bring me bad luck on our next cruise, next month ;)

[upwarduk]

A lopsided view of Oceana in Vigo today.

 

 

However there is no ship's webcam at the moment. Just a message to say that they are out of sattelite range & normal service will resume as soon as possible!

[upwarduk]

A slightly closer view.

 

[LibraLass41]

Its hard to tell if the dome that covers the satellite has been repaired by looking at that photo. I think the round golf ball dome you can see is the undamaged one....

 

We lost the dome on Friday morning , so we continued to sail on in the force 10 then down to 8/9 storm for another 24 hours with the satellite unprotected , so more damage may have happened. We had NO MOBILE or INTERNET communcations while it was damaged. So the passengers onboard may still be in the same situation. This may be why there is no web cam as well. This also affected lots of other communications onboard such as Portunus and future bookings desks - and perhaps tours bookings?

 

I do hope they at least managed to remove the dome debris from the swimming pool seeing Oceana is now sailing to the warmer Med.!

[LibraLass41]

My mum is perhaps one of the worst sailors possible but she loves cruises and always manages to get involved in some dramatic crossings, just hope she doesn't bring me bad luck on our next cruise, next month ;)

 

 

My 2 P&O cruises this year have been with Captain Hamish Reid... On Oriana in May we had Norovirus onboard and on this cruise on Oceana we had a Force 10 storm with damage, perhaps I'll avoid him in future LOL;)

[willow3]

we sailed back from the fjords on the oriana the week before and had a rough night on the friday,force 9-10 so had a bit of a sleepless night.My husband liked it,I slept with my life jacket:eek: It made no difference to our enjoyment on the cruise ,it was brilliant from start to finish and can`t wait to sail again although we are on the ventura next year and are slightly worried by some of the reports we have heard but hey ho life is what you make it:)

[bigpete47uk]

can`t wait to sail again although we are on the ventura next year

 

Now there's a ship that moves about a bit in rough seas.

Crossed the BoB in a Force 9 last year on her. The wife spent most of the day on her hands and knees crawling around the cabin. Our balcony on 'C' Deck was covered in salt the morning after.

 

If you get some rough weather next year go and sit in The Exchange, the noise has to be heard to be believed. I thought we'd run over a submarine on more than one occasion :)

 

Pete.