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I sailed this boat to St Maarten a few years ago. I could of guessed they wouldn't handle a tough situation well as well as poor food/service. I wonder if this indicates a fundamental flaw in these massive hotel boats when anything upsets them in the bathtub. I've been in heavy winds and they list quite a bit. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> <a href="boathttp://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/newpost.php?Cat=0&Board=stmartin&page=0" target="_blank">boathttp://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/newpost.php?Cat=0&Board=stmartin&page=0</a>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16559991

video from the BBC

After watching a few of the video's that you posted (thank you!) I have some questions. If the damage is on the left side of the ship (don't know nautical terms) how did it roll on it's right side???
Can it be fixed??? If so how to lift it up-right??? OR will it become a new sea aquarium??? I should have ask this first, have they rescued everyone??
I was watching the ships cruising passed our villa {Oct/Nov}(BSV) one of many nights and COULD NOT believe the size of "Allure of the sea" ! It was no different that watching the "island" of NYC drift by! Thats how big this ship is! Ten minutes later an other large ship past by... it looked like a Tonka toy! (full size ship) To think, what could happen if that ship just toppled over or on it's side?? God Bless.

Cruise business is going to get killed !

I think there will be a small blip in business, but overall, I doubt it will have much effect.

I agree with you, Carol. Slight blip with some first time cruisers and perhaps some seniors. Cruising continues to be a great value for the vacation dollar. Considering some past tragedies; e.g. 9/11, I suspect there to be minimal effect. Interestingly, there was discussion in the fall with regard to fares increasing due to strong demand and improving economy. Time will tell whether fares hold firm or do, in fact, have an up tick.

Pilots are used to take a ship from a dock into the open water. in this particular disaster the Captain was incognito. maybe a Pilot should be deployed until a ship is miles away from shore.a ship running aground not only endangers lives, destroy an Industry, it could impact the economy of the effected area. Yrs.ago the QE 2 ran aground in St.Marten. Recently the MSC Poesia did the same in the Bahamas. The Costa Concordia ......a Pilot guiding a ship, in familiar waters, for a longer period of time may add to the checks and balance for safety. MHO.

Pilots are only for ships entering and leaving port, and the CC was not doing either, just sailing by. WAY too close. These days, with the huge number of new ships, I actually don't know whether pilots are safer or not, as they can't know the ship as well as the regular captain of the ship. In this case, it was pure captain's error, nothing more nor less.

your points are well taken.the Captains error was that he was in the restaurant, dinning.oblivious. his knowlege of the waters was lost in translation.the mates?

At least to my knowledge which is based almost entirely on the Caribbean and US east coast ports, pilots give advice to the captain or person handling the ship on local conditions - they do not actually "have the conn" or act as helmsman. Having the pilot always should be safer because they know or should know local conditions that can change or are uncharted and have experience in how to handle the conditions. Had a pilot been on board the Concordia at the time, he presumably would have advised the captain about the fact that there was a large rock in the way. This particular captain seems such an idiot that perhpas he would have ignored any advice, anyway. Before this happened, I would have said that an incident of this type could never happen with the type of people entrusted with such a ship - I still cannot believe that any of the captains I have met in the last few years on RC ships would ever do such a thing - but people are people and you just never can predict with 100% accuracy how stupid they might act.

That could well be true, that they just serve in an advisory role. I really don't know. As I said in this case though there never would have been a pilot onboard, as they never were supposed to stop there. Pilots are only for entering and leaving port. It seems that ships these days are supposed to be computerized and maybe they hire captains that are more 'figureheads', who get along well with pax?? Not to mention causing this calamity, this particular captain seems to have had no clue about how to act in an emergency.

In the Panama Canal pilots do actually take the helm. It's the only place that I am aware that this is the rule/law.

I was thinking that was the case, in the Panama Canal.

It is so incongruous... a person doesn't rise to the level of Ship's Captain unless they are highly competent. And yet this incident simply reeks of incompetence from beginning to aftermath. Soooooo... you almost would have to believe a very strong outside or atypical influence had to be in play here. What that could be is very hard to say. I'm just a lowly bareboat charter skipper with no accreditation, and yet I would never have acted with the incompetence displayed by this professional captain.

Just catchin up on this old thread.. They also slow down to take on pilots while underway in various tight spaces like the Straights of Messina between Siciliy and Italy.

In the Costa Concordia case, this dude was way off the beaten path. I just read hearings on the black box investigation are about to be released over 6 months later.

A big crane arrived this week webcam I believe the crane was coming from Norway. Looks like Spring 2013 to make it go away.

Thanks for the link. That will be interesting to watch.

Also, the camera view shows just how close they might have been to entering port of Giglio. Dont know if that wharf would have supported the Concordia. It appears a football field or so away.

I seemed drawn to the webcam every morning. Wednesday the crane was moving away and today it is nowhere in sight. Wonder if this means that they have decided that it can not be lifted enough to repair and refloat? Just curious if any any of you boaters out there have an insight.

Thanks, Lossie

This is the latest news I could find http://news.discovery.com/earth/costa-concordia-salvage-delay-120827.html

I also saw the crane depart.

I was going to post that same link. Apparently the whole operation has been postponed until spring.

I don't think it is a total postponement, just now completion will be in Spring.

Oh, I got the impression they weren't going to do anything until spring. At this point, there seems to be very little info out there.

Big crane is back.

The ship looks like is lower in the water to me. On Thursday there was also another crane on site.

Cats2(not signed in)