Stranded in Barcelona…What a Dilemma.

As I wrote in an earlier Blog, one of the biggest fears of being at sea on a ship is having a fire break out. Luckily in my three years onboard ships, this only happen to me once while we were docking in Barcelona.

The Norway had come out of a 30 dry dock refurbish. We had been chartered by a company in France, so all the guests on board were French and our home port was Marseilles, France.

The alarms went off at 05:30. There are very few people who can sleep through these alarms, but some do. I rose straight up from my bed and reached for the remote control, no, not to watch TV, but to select the channel with the Bow Camera to see where we were.

There were always complaints from the guests and concessions onboard about the Front of the Ship Channel, plus elaborate jokes by the entertainment comedians. For those who do not know, on older ships a channel was assigned to the Bow Camera because it was being viewed by the crew in the Engine Department to check on the marine traffic mostly used for entering, docking and exiting ports.

I could see from the Bow Cam that we were in port so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The first alarm sounding is directed to the crew specializing in fire control. I was not part of that team. Sleep was short lived as 10 minutes later the 7 short and one long alarm sounded which meant general assembly of all on board. That meant everyone had to go to their Emergency Station. I was a Lifeboat Leader and assigned to lifeboat stations number 10.

On went the jeans, sweatshirt & training shoes. I grabbed my lifejacket and made way to my emergency station on International Deck, which luckily was on the same deck as my cabin. When I got to my station I could see through the windows there that we were right alongside the pier. That was very good. There were guests milling about in various type of clothing, pajamas, robes and all kinds of outfits looking lost, confused and still half asleep.

I quickly got my area organized by lining up the guests in straight rows and in an orderly fashion, making sure everyone had their lifejackets done up properly. One thing that you have to keep in mind is that the guests on board were all French. So they had to be controlled and how you did that? Having grown up in Quebec and been to France on previous cruises I learned that you had to speak in a louder tone than they did. Also during this type of emergency the crew is permitted to handle the guests in a firmer manner.

The Officers were patrolling the decks to make sure all was orderly and procedures were being followed through. As the Officer approached my station I leaned into him and said, “How Bad?”

“We won’t be going anywhere for a while” was his response.

“As we are alongside we shouldn’t need to lower the lifeboats?” I asked.

“I don’t believe so, but be ready.”

“It’s getting very warm here on deck.” I said.

“All electrical power has been shut down.”

“That means no A/C.” I said.

We stayed at our stations for over an hour with most of the guests in their sleeping garb and lifejackets on…and it was getting hotter. When another Officer passed by I asked if we could open the International Deck lifeboat access doors to let the air circulate.

The lifeboats on the S/S Norway were locked in position on Viking Deck. When used in an emergency or for crew lifeboat drills, the boats were lowered one deck down to International Deck below. There were double doors on International Deck which were opened so that the guests and crew could access the lifeboats.

He went to his radio and spoke to the Captain on the Bridge to extend my request. The reply came to open only one door at the first and last life boat station and make sure to keep the guests away from the windows edge. My station was the first one so that meant I could open my door. Well, that became a job on its own as everyone wanted to look down the side of the ship.

After another hour we finally got the ‘all clear’ announcement that the guests and crew are released from their Emergency Station and the closing of all the doors on International Deck. This was followed by an announcement from the Cruise Director requesting that all Cruise Staff were to meet in the Cruise Staff office in 15 minutes.

At the meeting we were told that the elevators would not be working, the staterooms & cabins on the starboard side of the ship had A/C but no electricity and the staterooms & cabins on the port side of the ship had electricity but no A/C. The fire had been in one of the switchboard areas in the engine room.

We would not be sailing from Barcelona and we had to get the guests onboard onto buses that would take them back to Marseilles. The challenge was to get the guests from Sun Deck & Sky Deck down the stairs to Biscayne Deck and out onto the pier where the buses would be waiting. The evacuation schedule was set to start at 6:00 PM, with the next groups at 9:00 PM, Midnight and 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM the following day. As soon as the last guests were off the ship we were to be towed and pushed by tugs to another pier where there was no Cruise Ship traffic.

The guests were all advised of the situation and the plan was put into place. Getting the guests down the staircases was an adventure as most of them were elderly and very slow moving. A group of crew members were assigned to walk down the stairs with the guests to aide them. Also every flashlight of any kind and all the batteries available were dug out of the stores so that light could be provided going down the darkened stair cases.

Once they reached the shell door to exit the ship the guests were handed a box lunch and led to waiting buses that would take them back to Marseilles. I was in charge of the team that would direct the guests onto the buses. There were two there Cruise Staff members, Sylvain and Tat who could speak French. We put a plan into place. What we did was to hand off the guests to each other as the busses were filled. The three of us would be at the head of the line and guide the guests onto the buses. I kept the line moving and take care of any unruly guests. Sylvain stayed with the initial group and when the bus was almost full Tat would move to the next bus fill that and then pass off the group off the Sylvain at the next bus. This worked very well and the buses were filled quickly.

We all grabbed a couple of hours sleep between time schedules.

The last group to go out was at 6:00 AM just as the sun rose for a new day and we finished loading the buses at 9:00 AM. The team all went up to the staff mess, had breakfast and went off to bed.

Our next meeting was scheduled for 1:00 PM that day. We had a full crew assembly and the Captain told of us of our situation. The damage was extensive enough that the ship would have to stay in Barcelona for 3 to 4 weeks for repairs. Those who were not involved in the repairs were given the option to go stay onboard or go home. If we decided to go home it would be at our expense. This was good for the crew members from Europe as they could easily go home by air, train or buses, the later being the least expensive.

Most of my fellow department members chose to stay onboard the ship.  Hey! Three weeks paid salary, in Barcelona, with no duties onboard…do the math. We had a great time. We could walk to the town centre, walk up and down Las Ramblas, open air cafes, great food. At night there were disco clubs and best of all, an Irish Pub to lull the hours away. Priceless.

While walking through the shopping plaza I spotted a sign that showed white water rafting. I spoke with the person at the desk and got a price for a group trip. I took this to the Crew Welfare representative onboard the ship and plans were made to take those who wanted to go. The trip included lunch at a nearby hotel which made it a great day trip. We had a marvelous time.

The following week I found an excursion to a theme park which was modeled after the parks in Orlando Fl. This also was a great adventure.

Before we knew it all the repairs were completed and we returned to our cruise itinerary. We had some down time and got to enjoy this area of Spain. Those who stayed on board really enjoyed being stranded in Barcelona.

*Names may have been changed to protect the innocent!