Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady ship made her debut sailing (delayed from Spring of 2020, due to the Covid pandemic) in August 2021. She just had her first accident.
On Sunday, July 16th, Scarlet Lady collided with a mooring dolphin (a
Subsurface Media captured the event in real time, which you can see in this 13 minute YouTube link. The following time stamps are the significant times of the video:
02:45: The collision
06:41: 8x speed replay of the collision
07:45: Second camera angle of the collision
BLC Streams made this short video of the impact:
Here’s what the damage looked like:
No one was reported injured during the event. Sailors (VVspeak for people who were on the cruise) who were awake at the time said they felt some vibrations at the time of impact, but that was all.
Scarlet Lady typically has a quick turnaround; after clearing customs, Sailors typically have until 10:30am to disembark the ship. The next set of Sailors are allowed to start boarding at 1:30pm or so, and the ship generally leaves between 6pm and 7pm.
Not that day.
Sailors who were scheduled for embarkation for their 5-day Riviera Maya cruise (Miami/Sea Day/Cozumel/Sea Day/Bimini/Miami) had a short delay until they were able to board. The Captain as well as the Port of Miami eventually announced that there would be a delay until the ship could leave the dock.
And then the repairs began. Interested parties could watch the work on Port of Miami’s live stream webcam, and a few lucky sailors were on board to watch the repairs from their own angle.
Here’s what they were doing at 3:55pm
The 10pm delayed sail time that Sailors were told was eventually changed to 11pm. And then 11:30pm.
Finally, the repairs were done and the U.S. Coast Guard gave their approval. Scarlet Lady set sail at 12:25am.
Here’s what the repairs look like in the daylight:
Of course, the repair isn’t perfect – from close up you can see that she’s had work done. But this is only a temporary fix. Scarlet Lady is, of course, seaworthy, but at some point she’ll have to go through a permanent repair within a reasonable time period.
No word on HOW this event happened, or what the repercussions will be to whoever was at the helm at the time. But frankly, the latter is none of our business, anyway.
Some people on various Scarlet Lady message groups were asking if compensation would be involved, either because those on board had to pay taxes on drinks (because they were still in Miami) or because the casinos weren’t open. Most of the people who replied pretty much laughed in their faces ;-). After all, it was only a 6-hour delay, and no ports were missed. Besides that, itineraries on cruise ships are never guaranteed, anyway; it’s in the contract you agree to before you step on the boat. Of course, had there been a significant delay, perhaps compensation would be discussed. But for this? HA! Entitled people are gonna entitle, I guess.
Of course, things like this happen from time to time. In fact, less than 2 weeks ago, on July 6th, Ruby Princess crashed into San Francisco’s Pier 27. Cruise lines, and ports, are prepared to handle minor issues like these and get the ship sailing again in as short of a period of time as possible. Happily, Scarlet Lady was able to pull out of Miami with just a 6 hour delay.
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4 comments
Super quick repair. I do think that some small gesture by Virgin would have been prudent, like maybe a couple of drinks per passenger, particularly since it was the cruise line’s fault that this happened.
I disagree. It didn’t affect their vacation. Today is a day at sea, and they weren’t late in getting there ;-). And if some people couldn’t gamble for a coupla hours? If they were *that* concerned about that, maybe they should do some deep introspection about their gambling habits.
I view it more as fun time killed off. Instead of a scenic afternoon departure and watching the sunset at sea, passengers got picturesque view of the dodge island parking lot.
I don’t disagree with you vehemently; I just think that if you (the company, not you you) screw something up then you should try to make some effort to make it up to people. JMTC.
2 preventable accidents already for a ship that was just launched in 2020 to a line with so few vessels makes one wonder if maybe they need to do a better job training the bridge staff.