Odyssey of the Seas. 70 refugees.

[Cruise5life]

On board now and we have been rescuing 70 refugees on a sailboat for over 3 hours now.   It’s 12:45 and they just got everyone aboard.     
and now they are putting all of there belonging back onto the sailboat.   
we are trying to figure out where they would store 70 people.    
man’s what will they do with the sailboat.  

 

 

[Cruise5life]

Well they just left the sailboat adrift.    

[Mary&Jim]

Where are you?

[not-enough-cruising]

10 minutes ago, Mary&Jim said:

Where are you?

Odyssey is in the Med, GPS shows them roughly midway between Greece and Sicily

[Cruise5life]

11 minutes ago, Mary&Jim said:

Where are you?

Headed towards santorini.   

[Cruise5life]

They just towed the sailboat away from the ship.  And left it there.  
 

and still sitting here.    

Edited August 5 by Cruise5life

[Cruise5life]

We are in Kalamata port of loading the refugees.       Slow proses.    
 

taking 25 or so off at a time.   

[Billy Baltic]

You were due to be in Santorini today. What have you been told?

[Cruise5life]

1 hour ago, Billy Baltic said:

You were due to be in Santorini today. What have you been told?

You should know by now.  
 

santorini canceled.  
not sure why we didn’t go later.   Even 3-10 would have been fine.    
mph well.  Hope they add it later on the cruise.   As they talked about. 

[SB9]

We’re heading to Turkey for our scheduled stop tomorrow. Then going to Santorini instead of Mykanos. 

[Billy Baltic]

1 hour ago, SB9 said:

We’re heading to Turkey for our scheduled stop tomorrow. Then going to Santorini instead of Mykanos. 

It’s a shame to be losing a port day but it happens. How is the mood on the ship?

[SB9]

7 minutes ago, Billy Baltic said:

It’s a shame to be losing a port day but it happens. How is the mood on the ship?

I’m sure there are people upset about missing the port. However overall good from what I can tell. Capt Marek did an awesome job explaining that saving lives is paramount to us visiting a port. Crew here on Odyssey is amazing. 

[TeeRick]

Refugees from where?  Did they say?  Just curious.

[GlasgowCruiser01]

Had a fairly similar situation on this itinerary 2 years ago on Odyssey, exact same week as well.

[Thisguylikestocruise]

Curious how often this happens on Greek Isles cruises. I’m on Odyssey in 6 weeks. 

[leaveitallbehind]

15 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

They just towed the sailboat away from the ship.  And left it there.  
 

and still sitting here.    

We had a similar situation a number of years ago with Cuban refugees between Miami and San Juan.  They were brought on board and cared for then transferred that night to a Coast Guard cutter to be taken to Guantanamo Bay.

 

The responsibility of the Captain is with regards to the people, not the vessel.  The vessel would become the responsibility of the local maritime authority.  In our case the boat's position was reported to the Coast Guard and then abandoned.  It was in very poor condition when the rescue was made and we were able to watch it finally flounder and sink as we continued on our way.  Lucky timing for those refugees!.

[SB9]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Refugees from where?  Did they say?  Just curious.

Libyian refugees. We had been told 77 in total 

 

[Cruise5life]

6 hours ago, SB9 said:

Libyian refugees. We had been told 77 in total 

 

Was told Syrian.🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️.   And yes 77.   Woman and kids included. 

[Cruise5life]

6 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

We had a similar situation a number of years ago with Cuban refugees between Miami and San Juan.  They were brought on board and cared for then transferred that night to a Coast Guard cutter to be taken to Guantanamo Bay.

 

The responsibility of the Captain is with regards to the people, not the vessel.  The vessel would become the responsibility of the local maritime authority.  In our case the boat's position was reported to the Coast Guard and then abandoned.  It was in very poor condition when the rescue was made and we were able to watch it finally flounder and sink as we continued on our way.  Lucky timing for those refugees!.

This sailboat was a very nice one.   And and this is what I thought would happen.   Coordinates given to 5he coast guard and they handle it.   
It was in a very busy area wi5h a lot of ships.   Was worried someone would hit it.   But they would know where it was I’d guess.   

[DelMom18a]

Thanks for the update, I'd heard nothing here in North Carolina and wondered.  Hope the rest of your cruise goes wonderfully!

[Cruise5life]

32 minutes ago, DelMom18a said:

Thanks for the update, I'd heard nothing here in North Carolina and wondered.  Hope the rest of your cruise goes wonderfully!

We will miss Mykonos.  They are replacing it with santorini.   As we missed Santorini today.    

[DelMom18a]

7 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

We will miss Mykonos.  They are replacing it with santorini.   As we missed Santorini today.    

I'm sorry.  Reason to plan another cruise!

[pcur]

77 lives saved vs 1 missed port................................

 

RCCL has always put people's safety and health first. Betcha their even going to refund the Mykonos port taxes.

 

The one I witnessed first was in the 70's, offloading a HUUUUUGE amount of aid goods in a port that had just been hit hard by a hurricane a few weeks before. 

Edited August 7 by pcur

[Cruise5life]

8 minutes ago, pcur said:

77 lives saved vs 1 missed port................................

 

RCCL has always put people's safety and health first. Betcha their even going to refund the Mykonos port taxes.

 

The one I witnessed first was in the 70's, offloading a HUUUUUGE amount of aid goods in a port that had just been hit hard by a hurricane a few weeks before. 

Was never a question about lives saved.    Was a post about what was happening on the OOTS.      …………………………………

could care less  about the little bit of port tax money.  

 I personally was very interested in the proses and everything about what was going on.   I’d never seen something like this live.  
and fortunately I had no plans as far as excursions purchased yet. As I fly by the seat of my pants anyway.      

 

[chengkp75]

To answer questions about the boat, while the local coast guards would be notified, since the boat is abandoned (no one left onboard), under international salvage laws, the first person to step onboard now owns it.