Allure issue in Puerto Rico

[OnTheJourney]

12 hours ago, Lemondrop151 said:

but hauled tail back to Baltimore and arrived on time. We did need a tug in Baltimore.  

LOL  You beat me to it!  Just looked back and saw your post. We sure were bookin' on the way back! 

[chengkp75]

Taking a line into the thruster is not uncommon, and also not catastrophic, either.  They will send divers down to cut the line off.  Depending on how quickly the bridge was notified that the line went into the thruster, will determine how much of a job this is.  If the thruster was not shut down quickly, the line wraps tighter and tighter around the prop, and can melt itself into one big ball of polypropylene.  The thruster propeller has a "rope guard" to protect the oil seal from just this kind of incident, and a mooring line is too big to get inside the rope guard, unless it was very damaged.  So, once the line is cut from the thruster propeller, the ship is good to sail.  The engineers will monitor the oil level in the thruster to see if the seal has been damaged, but this will not affect the ship's ability to sail, or safety.

 

If the seal is damaged, potentially allowing oil into the sea, or seawater into the thruster, it will need to be repaired.  However, this can be done in service, and in the water.  I did one of these repairs in Hawaii, where the divers dismantled the thruster propeller while in port, chained it in place while we got underway for the next port, then once in port again, they went in the water again and continued the repair.  It took about 7 days to complete, and caused the Captain and myself some gray hairs worrying about the loose propeller just chained in the thruster tunnel, but all was well, and only those passengers who noted the side port open and the divers coming and going even knew it had happened.

 

Since this is a failure of ship's propulsion and maneuvering equipment, the governments at each port of call will be advised of the failure, and tell the ship what additional requirements, if any, would be needed to dock in their country.  The US is about the strictest about this, but since there is redundancy in the thrusters (two out of three working), there will typically be no additional requirements, but the cruise line may request a tug to stand by in case of high winds.

[Beachin2]

6 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Taking a line into the thruster is not uncommon, and also not catastrophic, either.  They will send divers down to cut the line off.  Depending on how quickly the bridge was notified that the line went into the thruster, will determine how much of a job this is.  If the thruster was not shut down quickly, the line wraps tighter and tighter around the prop, and can melt itself into one big ball of polypropylene.  The thruster propeller has a "rope guard" to protect the oil seal from just this kind of incident, and a mooring line is too big to get inside the rope guard, unless it was very damaged.  So, once the line is cut from the thruster propeller, the ship is good to sail.  The engineers will monitor the oil level in the thruster to see if the seal has been damaged, but this will not affect the ship's ability to sail, or safety.

 

If the seal is damaged, potentially allowing oil into the sea, or seawater into the thruster, it will need to be repaired.  However, this can be done in service, and in the water.  I did one of these repairs in Hawaii, where the divers dismantled the thruster propeller while in port, chained it in place while we got underway for the next port, then once in port again, they went in the water again and continued the repair.  It took about 7 days to complete, and caused the Captain and myself some gray hairs worrying about the loose propeller just chained in the thruster tunnel, but all was well, and only those passengers who noted the side port open and the divers coming and going even knew it had happened.

 

Since this is a failure of ship's propulsion and maneuvering equipment, the governments at each port of call will be advised of the failure, and tell the ship what additional requirements, if any, would be needed to dock in their country.  The US is about the strictest about this, but since there is redundancy in the thrusters (two out of three working), there will typically be no additional requirements, but the cruise line may request a tug to stand by in case of high winds.

As always, great insight Chief.  Thanks.

[PTC DAWG]

Thruster problems are the worst.  🙂

[mattscchs]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Just curious as to how much OBC everyone received

$50 interior - $200 suite, plus port taxes and fees. Refundable.

[Ken at the beach]

37 minutes ago, mattscchs said:

$50 interior - $200 suite, plus port taxes and fees. Refundable.

Better than nothing. 

[molly361]

18 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Better than nothing. 

But not as good as ours😇  The good old days

[mikeshow922]

On 4/6/2022 at 10:02 AM, chengkp75 said:

Taking a line into the thruster is not uncommon, and also not catastrophic, either.  They will send divers down to cut the line off.  Depending on how quickly the bridge was notified that the line went into the thruster, will determine how much of a job this is.  If the thruster was not shut down quickly, the line wraps tighter and tighter around the prop, and can melt itself into one big ball of polypropylene.  The thruster propeller has a "rope guard" to protect the oil seal from just this kind of incident, and a mooring line is too big to get inside the rope guard, unless it was very damaged.  So, once the line is cut from the thruster propeller, the ship is good to sail.  The engineers will monitor the oil level in the thruster to see if the seal has been damaged, but this will not affect the ship's ability to sail, or safety.

 

If the seal is damaged, potentially allowing oil into the sea, or seawater into the thruster, it will need to be repaired.  However, this can be done in service, and in the water.  I did one of these repairs in Hawaii, where the divers dismantled the thruster propeller while in port, chained it in place while we got underway for the next port, then once in port again, they went in the water again and continued the repair.  It took about 7 days to complete, and caused the Captain and myself some gray hairs worrying about the loose propeller just chained in the thruster tunnel, but all was well, and only those passengers who noted the side port open and the divers coming and going even knew it had happened.

 

Since this is a failure of ship's propulsion and maneuvering equipment, the governments at each port of call will be advised of the failure, and tell the ship what additional requirements, if any, would be needed to dock in their country.  The US is about the strictest about this, but since there is redundancy in the thrusters (two out of three working), there will typically be no additional requirements, but the cruise line may request a tug to stand by in case of high winds.

This is exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this, great information and very interesting! Thanks for your insight 👍