Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Titanic Memorial Cruise Hits Gales, 30 Foot Waves, Medical Emergency

First up, the Daily Mail:

Not so plain sailing: Titanic memorial cruise hit by gales and 30ft waves as it crosses the Irish Sea 
Perhaps they should have expected bad luck when they decided to cruise the same route as the Titanic to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its sinking.

But luckily, passengers aboard the MS Balmoral, retracing the Titanic's maiden voyage, didn't endure the same fate as passengers a century ago, they were simply delayed by two hours while sailing to Ireland.

Gales and waves reaching 30ft battered the ship as it crossed the Irish ea to reach Cobh, on the south coast of Ireland, and there were relieved faces as passengers were allowed to step off the ship when it docked....MORE
Having departed Cobh and turning into the Atlantic Reuters picks up the story: 
 
Titanic cruise ship forced to turn back briefly
A cruise ship retracing the Titanic's fateful voyage 100 years ago was forced to turn back towards Ireland on Tuesday after a passenger developed heart problems.

The Balmoral is carrying 1,309 passengers, about the same number as were on the Titanic. Among them are relatives of those who lost their lives, relatives of survivors and historians.
The Titanic Memorial Cruise had departed from Southampton, England, on Sunday to follow the doomed ship's route to New York.

The passengers had intended to hold a memorial service at the spot where it sank on the night of April 14-15.

The Balmoral had left the port of Cobh in Ireland late on Monday night and was sailing through heavy weather when Captain Robert Bamberg announced on Tuesday afternoon it would have to turn back to return within helicopter range of Ireland to allow the sick passenger to be evacuated....MORE