Search Is On For Cruise Ship Passenger Believed To Have Fallen Overboard Near Cozumel, Mexico

FOX ^ | 04/23/08 | Unknown

[1rudeboy]

I’m just wondering if a plausible scenario is: drunk leans over rail to barf, ship hits a swell in the “right” direction, drunk takes a high-dive.

[Sax]

I have a related question: how high are the railings? Are they high enough to keep you from going over the side if you have to, ahem, toss your cookies overboard?

Yeah, you'd have to make a concerted effort and be "in the right frame of mind" in order to get over them. There's no, whooops, I've fallen overboard possibility. They've got them idiot proof, just not drunken idiot proof.

[Froufrou]

[inflorida]

I can’t imagine anyone tumbling overboard by just leaning over to puke after a night of drinking. I suspect the drunken overboards are from as said earlier, the King of the World move or sitting/standing on the railing.

[Ramius]

I have always wondered about this. Would you get churned up by the prop or would you survive long enough to be treading water (for hours?).

You probably would not get into the prop. Yes, somebody could tread water or do a survival float for some time. How much time depends on the water temperature. It's hypothermia that's the real killer.

In warm water it might be many hours, but in northern, cold water, it's probably only measured in minutes. Even in warm water though, after some number of hours exhaustion will eventually do the job. Everybody is different, but without a float device I don't know if many people could survive more than a day, even doing a survival float. That and the odds of finding somebody in a search area that large are just abysmally small.

[rovenstinez]

I think this is good reason that we install SEAT BELTS on these cruises from Cozumel.

[avacado]

"I have always wondered about this. Would you get churned up by the prop or would you survive long enough to be treading water (for hours?)."

Good question. I guess you could get caught up in the props if you fell over the side toward the front and slid underneath the hull. But most probably just left behind in the lonesome and deep sea with the critters.

[gathersnomoss]

Hey, maybe he is treading water out there. There’s alway’s hope.

[trumandogz]

I went on a cruise once and hated every moment of it. The food was not all that great, every “activity” was lame and every five minutes some other passenger was handing me his business card.

[Tex Pete]

“I have a related question: how high are the railings?”

I don’t know what the actual rule is, but I am sure they are at least 4 feet high. Mid-chest or so.

[TrishaSC]

I also love cruises. I was on the Victory in December on 2006 and the Valor December of 2007. I cruise alone so I make sure I stay sober. I think in alot of these cases the victim is drunk. This is interesting because on a cruise site I go to a poster was complaining about the railing and the regular posters tore her a new one.

[gathersnomoss]

It could be that the poor drunk was badgered by his over-served wife to the point that he decided to swim home, so to speak.

[trumandogz]

I think in alot of these cases the victim is drunk.

You might be on to something there.

[am452]

Almost all of these cases involve alcohol.

..and sex. Reemember the couple about a year ago that were having sex on their balcony railing and fell off? They picked them out of the water ahem..sans clothes.

[Tatze]

In April 2003, a passenger fell of a the Carnival Celebration, and survived in the water for 17 hours before being rescued by a cargo ship.

Several others listed here were rescued. I just remember hearing about the above incident because I cruised on the same ship in '05.

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/Overboard.html

[Roccus]

Is it true that sharks have changed their age old migration routes to now follow the cruise ships?

[Tatze]

“...trying to do the “I’m the king of the world” thing from Titanic.”

On the two cruises I've been on, passengers are prohibited from the bow of the ship. Some may allow you up there though.

[Polybius]

I find it hard to believe he just fell off. Probably had a big life insurance policy and his wife pushed him. Or he was drunk and trying to do the “I’m the king of the world” thing from Titanic.

Back in my Navy days, we once got a sailor and his rescuer, both sober, in Sick Bay to get them physically checked out and warmed back up after one of them had fallen off the ship and the other sailor had heroically dived in to save his buddy from Davy Jones' Locker.

The rescue would have been even more impressive if our ship hadn't been moored to the pier at the time.

[am452]

Is it true that sharks have changed their age old migration routes to now follow the cruise ships?

LOL I think that is as funny as the sharks following the slave ships. The last cruise I was on I thought they said all food materials & sewage were put in large holding comntainers and pumped back out at the dock. I think at one time they would pump sewage overbaord but I don't think it is allowed any longer.

[rod1]

I have been on the Victory twice. Not that easy to fall over. I am guessing it was mega-alcohol assisted. There are people who essentially retire onto cruise ships and seem to not fall over despite decades of 52 weeks/per year of cruising.