Cruise Ship Capitol of the World
14 May 2009 | Charlotte's Amalie, St. Thomas
John MacKenzie
After sailing downwind, the only way to go, we arrived in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, United States Virgins Islands and anchored in 25 feet not far from the cruise ship dock.
The picture shows a cruise ship departing from the port. As we entered the port, the cruise ship sent a VHF radio message to advise the incoming catamaran traffic to clear the channel. That incoming traffic included Windancer IV as well as an unknown charter cat.
Being the responsible skipper I am, I manoeuvred the vessel out of the main channel to allow for the safe exit of the cruise ship from the port. But the other vessel, who it appears did not have a VHF radio on and monitoring channel 16, the international distress channel, did not yield way.
So after several attempts to contact the wayward skipper of the other ship, a port authority vessel raced towards the approaching catamaran, who it appeared was playing "cat and mouse" with the cruise ship, to ensure that the cruise ship did not "run over" the poor charter boat, and scratch the paint on the cruise ship.
Connor got the whole show on video, saying "if this fool is going to get run over by a cruise ship, I want it on video!".