I always considered myself very fortunate to have cruised with my family on vacation - an unthinkable luxury when I was growing up. We have cruised on Costa three times, the last time in 2008, never on the Concordia, always in November when my kids had a week off (a New Jersey thing).
When we heard the news about the ship's accident, a few things about our trips on Costa occurred to me, that I hadn't seen discussed anywhere.
First of all, we went because there were great deals to be found in cruising in November on the Mediterranean. Why? Because that cruise that we were on was usually the last in that area before the ship would be transitioned to the Caribbean or South America, much warmer climes. It is only in the last two or three years that cruises have been offered in the winter on the Mediterranean. I honestly don't think the weather is all that great there now for cruising, and there was another incident where a ship was hit by a rogue wave.
Second, Costa had a different set up than the cruises here in the States where everyone goes to Miami, say, gets on the boat, has a lifeboat drill the first day, cruises around, and everyone gets off back in Miami. Costa has terminals in certain cities along the Med. People would get on in Civitivecchia (port of Rome), some would get off there. The boat would stop in Sicily, some get on, some get off. It would be the same as the ship stops in Marseille and Barcelona, for example. The ship was on a continuous circle. The lifeboat drill would not be held when people get on the boat, but would be held once a week.
I noticed that people had got on the boat Friday, but the lifeboat drill was not scheduled till Saturday. They were probably on that continuous circle, once a week drill schedule.
And third, check out this link to the Seanews Turkey: www.seanews.com.tr/article/ACCIDENTS/74284/Costa-Concordia-navigational-error/
This site shows the navigational charts. My husband, who holds a Coast Guard Captain's License that he earned in Sea Scouts, dug this up last night. His take, after looking at the charts, is that the auto pilot was on and no one was watching. At the last minute they realized they were headed straight into the island and tried to turn, going between the two large rocks, hitting one underwater, and so on.
What I don't understand is what happened to the depth sounder, or radar or something? Many questions, still to be answered. My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.
There's another diary by that examines the captain's disgraceful actions and contrasts them with a teenager helping the homeless.
Thanks, and let me know what I did wrong - it's my first diary, I can't believe this is what pulled me out of lurkerdom.