Drama at sea

We have recently heard of two very different stories concerning people being rescued by cruise ships from the sea.

First of all, the Pacific Princess changed course after seeing a distress flare in the North Sea. They joined the coastguards to help rescue three fishermen adrift in a life raft drifting of the East Coast of England. The fishermen had to abandon their ship four hours earlier and were floating approximately 25 miles northeast of Great Yarmouth.

Passenger Teena Dowd said the captain announced there was a life raft on the ship’s starboard side at around 6.30pm, and that within the hour the three men had been helped onto the boat. One of the men fell into the water as he attempted to climb the ladder and had to be pulled back into the raft before more sturdy stairs were put in place, she said.

As the rescued men were helped onboard, the passengers on the ship burst into a spontaneous round of applause.  The ship then sailed towards its scheduled port of call in Dover before departing on the 15-night British Isles and Iceland cruise.

We also heard about Kay Longstaff, the 46-year-old woman who had to be rescued after spending 10 hours in the sea off the coast of Croatia after allegedly “falling” from the back of the Norwegian Star.

She thanked her “wonderful” rescuers as she was taken to a hospital in the Croatian town of Pula. “I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me,” she told Croatian news channel HRT. “I am very lucky to be alive.”

Although according to fellow cruise ship passengers, Ms Longstaff and her partner, Mr Rayment,  had been “drinking and having rows all day” before the dramatic incident. One even added that “She didn’t fall off, she jumped off. She took all her kit off and jumped off the side of the ship,”

If she did indeed jump, then she is both very lucky to be alive but very foolish and selfish to have done such a thing. The ship had to alter course to try to find her, causing many passengers to have their travel plans disrupted.

What do you think about these two incidents?

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