Cruises and Rogue Waves

I like to travel a lot and many people I know have asked me why I do not go on a cruise. There are several reasons, all partial to me:

1.     I do not drink, nor do I eat excessively.

2.     The thought of being trapped in a tiny cabin floating on the vast ocean, staring at endless rolling waves just gives me the willies.

3.     Fighting thousands of people for the few available pools on deck is not my idea of fun.

4.     Potentially getting seasick if the ocean decides to turn rough is also something that I do not wish to experience.

5.     Being trapped with 4,000 other humans on a walnut shell, floating on the immense ocean trying to drown me with every opportunity, is something that gives me nightmares. And I don’t even want to think of the giant predators lurking under the dark blue surface, waiting to devour human morsels mistaken for seals.

6.     The possibility of falling overboard, being knocked off on purpose or accidentally is also giving me great pause.

7.     The food contamination and getting sick with God knows what bacteria or viruses hiding in the nooks, on the buffets, and in overflowing sewer system is a serious concern.

8.     Losing drinking and bathing water is an uneasy prospect.

9.     The potential of fire is quite scary and the thought of having to abandon a sinking ship.

In my mind, as someone so aptly wrote, “the only difference between being on a ship and being in prison is that you can’t drown in prison,” unless another inmate is holding you face down in a commode, pay back for some real or perceived offense.

Then there are the rogue waves that can come out of nowhere. A number of very large ships have disappeared without a trace, and it is assumed correctly that rogue waves had something to do with their disappearance. These 70-100 feet tall waves have broken up large oil tankers in half and disabled several cruise ships.

Oceanographers have used math models to demonstrate how energy can pass from an ocean current to waves moving in the opposite direction of the current. For example, large Southern Ocean waves interacted with Agulhas Current near the Cape of Good Hope, creating rogue waves.

Consider the “fetch,” which is the distance the wind blows over the sea. The larger the fetch, the larger the waves if everything else is equal. But everything else is never equal. The wave energy is concentrated in rogue waves in a similar fashion as a lens concentrates light. Statistics show that between 1981 and 2001, one large ship was lost every two months! That is a lot of Titanics sinking, not by icebergs but by mountains of water that appear suddenly and overwhelm the ships, destroying them in the process.

Additionally, I would not like to go on a cruise because the ships dock in ports of third world countries, exposing the wealth of the passengers to the locals who barely scrape by. I realize that such tourism provides a much needed boost to the local economy and employment for some, but the luxurious accommodations stand in stark contrast to the simpler lives of the locals and there is an element of that disparity that bothers me.

When cruise ships dock in famous ports like Venice, they cause erosion problems for historical buildings from the wakes of the mammoth ships crossing the harbor.