"Frankenstorm" by Sea

                        By Kathy Sparling
Former Greentown residents, Tony and Kim Kinney, current residents Mark and Tami Lantz, and my husband Kevin and I left Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey on the cruise ship Explorer of the Seas on Sunday, October 28 at 4:00.  The port closed just 2 hours later in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy's arrival. 
   Our ship headed south into the storm!  The captain explained that we would have the wind at our back and, although it would still be quite uncomfortable, it would be the safest.  He stated several times that this storm was a bad one and he had sailed on ships for 51 years.  We had very little time on the decks before the crew cleared them and closed all the doors because the winds and waves from the storm were so bad.
  During the first evening of the cruise, there were many people battling seasickness—and not just the passengers!  The waiter at our table was quite sick.  The crew was kept busy cleaning up after the unfortunate ones.  There was an impressive line at the service desk to get free medicine, and barf bag dispensers were hung on all the staircases.
   The worst part came between 4 and 8 a.m. on Monday when the ship passed just 130 miles from the center of the storm.  The seas were extremely rough and we were frightened.  In fact, Tami tried to sleep in her life jacket for 4 hours!
   By mid-morning,
it had calmed down some.  We could see that the seas were still rough but getting better, so we all went to the main dining room for breakfast.  We were seated at a round table next to a window and my back was to it.  Suddenly, there was a really rough wave and everybody's breakfasts started sliding toward me.  Glasses on the tables around us slid off and broke. The worst part was that an elderly couple sitting not too far from us fell right over.  Several rushed to help them get back up, especially the gentleman: he had just had knee replacement surgery!  The couple was fine and refused the medical help offered, but the experience was frightening.
   We went up to the 14th floor to one of the lounges to look out of the windows but were told that we needed to leave that area because it was too dangerous.  We found out later that some windows on one of the decks and a window in the work-out room had been broken.  Some of the staterooms had some water damage, but not because of flooding: the rain had blown in hard at just the right angle.  We were fortunate that didn't happen to any of us!
   I spent most of the rest of Monday sleeping off the dramamine I had taken, only leaving my stateroom long enough to eat and check out some of the waves.  By evening, things had calmed down considerably and we were able to enjoy a very nice dinner and show afterwards.
   We kept up on what was happening back in the States with Hurricane Sandy by watching FoxNews.  The captain kept us updated as well.  We learned that the port we had left from had sustained substantial damage and the dock was under several feet of water.  Some of our fellow passengers had parked dockside and 150 cars were totaled during the storm, including 3 that had to be plucked out of the bay.  Thankfully, Mark had found a parking lot about a mile and a half from the dock and it was high and dry.  We were not able to find out anything, though, until Friday.  The port reopened on Thursday and our ship docked on Sunday.
   At a question and answer session on Saturday with the captain, we were able to find out just what we had gone through.  There were sustained winds of 120 knots or 138 miles per hour and the captain said there was at least one gust of 150 knots, or 172.8 miles per hour.  There were 25 foot waves and some as high as 30.  He told us that another ship, the Norwegian Jewel, had gone east into the storm and had a much rougher time.  They were facing into the wind and battled 35 foot waves.  He also told us that the ship The Bounty was not too far from us and when it went down, our ship was put on standby to help with the rescue. The Coast Guard was able to get to them first.  One extremely unnerving thing he told us was that in seas that rough, the life boats would have been useless in the event of an emergency!
   Now, I wish I could say that it was smooth sailing back to the United States, but it wasn't.  It was quite windy the day we left Bermuda and the captain made the comment a few times that he was impressed with the port pilot who steered the ship back out to sea through the narrow passage we had to pass through.  Within a very short time, we were once again confined to the inside of the ship with winds that peaked at 50 knots or 57.5 miles per hour from a front that was passing through from the west with waves around 12 to 15 feet.  It seemed pretty mild in comparison!
   I overheard a passenger say, “We are taking a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle during Halloween and a full moon in a storm nicknamed ‘Frankenstorm.’  How crazy is that?!”
   In spite of that, we had a terrific adventure and are looking forward to our next cruise.  I totally recommend you take one...just don't book it during hurricane season!