I immediately stood up and opened our stateroom door while my husband confirmed that the air conditioning was not working and that neither was the toilet. I immediately smelled smoke and saw from a distance in the hall on our deck a member of the crew, wearing a white jumpsuit, banging on the more distant doors, asking people to wake up and leave their staterooms. I wish that was a drill or someone drunk looking for his or her significant other.
Yacht SeaDream accommodates 56 couples and should have a crew of 95. At least this is what they advertise for years.
“Get your life jackets and go to your designated decks!” – he said.
My husband´s face had that panic expression. He frowned and I, who was always afraid of living such a situation, realized that panicking is your worst enemy.
My first thoughts were: We need mineral water and cereal bar for energy. I have them right here. I will wear these jeans shorts I have in my plain view and keep my long sleeve pajamas´ blouse. It might be windy or cold outside. Where is my running hat? And my GPS watch that might help us. The life jacket and the key to the stateroom. It took me less than 30 seconds to figure this out and be ready. The stateroom has no verandah and is very small. Either you know where things are or forget it.
My legs were trembling a lot and I was trying to be strong, go up the stairs quickly. We had to go one deck up to exit through a heavy door and be outside, where they usually serve lunch and sometimes dinner. It was obviously dark and we were scared. People´s faces are unique during such a crisis. So must have been mine.
And when fiction becomes reality, sometimes people have to adapt. We were exactly where we were supposed to meet the others from our deck and we were wearing our life jackets. But the smoke came in our direction. So we were immediately asked to go another deck up and stay at the top of the yacht. I saw a few crew members, who were guiding the passengers. The other crew members never showed up. I am very disappointed at some of them and how they behaved, showing up at the end, as if they had been actually helping.
During this crisis, you hear people say that they do not want to die, how many children they have. That their children will not survive if they die. You also see crew members transform themselves or say nonsense things. One crew member took her personal things in a suitcase and went to the upper deck where the passengers were taken, just in case she could save her personal things and obviously herself. She stood there, among all the passengers. After all, survival is part of human nature. That action made one passenger so angry that he tried to teach her a lesson about priorities, saving lives and not material things. But some people thought that she had every right to be there with her personal things. Nobody should try to teach anybody else a lesson during a crisis. It makes people around uncomfortable and more nervous.
Another crew member later on mentioned to us that it was not uncommon to have fires in engine rooms of yachts and ships. Ok, please! Give us a break.
I will tell you that during an incident like this the sentence “I and my beloved one go first” is written on most people´s foreheads. So self-control is key to manage the crisis. There was one crew member who did not have a clue of what to do but despite the scary moment, was able to control the tone of her voice every time she spoke with the passengers. That definitely helped.
While the passengers were together on the top deck, some crew members were furiously trying to cease the fire. Thank you! The reason neither we nor the rest of the crew had been moved to the tenders for safety while our heroes were handling the fire, we are almost certain was because only our true heroes knew how to handle the tenders. For safety reasons, vessels should have at least one fall back for each crew member whose function is to handle the tenders and other technical systems in the ship.
And we know now that SeaDream was understaffed during our voyage. About 30%.
While we were on the top of the yacht I could only think about the iPhone I had unfortunately left in the stateroom to be charged before this sea nightmare started. Not to mention our passports under SeaDream´s possession and responsibility.
It was not until 5 a.m. when they effectively indicated that the fire was under control and that we could rest in our staterooms, if we wanted, with the doors opened, or stay where we were.
The yacht was adrift and there was no breeze whatsoever. The stink of burned smell, the lack of air conditioning, and the lack of water in the toilets. It seemed to be so unreal that we decided to go to our stateroom and try to lay down for a little bit, gather energy to pack and by then, we thought, rescue would definitely be here.
At approximately 7:00, it was hot in the stateroom, stinky and uncomfortable. We noticed that the yacht was tilted.
We got desperate and looked for people who knew at that time what was going on. We met a couple, who had asked us whether we had packed. They were ready to leave the yacht. We might be sinking slowly but you are right. We should have already packed.
We were in international waters, very far away from any port, approximately 6 to 7 hours. We still needed the Italian authorities to approach and inspect us and authorize us to be towed into Italian waters and to be able to go to the nearest Italian port, which they told us was Naples.
Nothing had changed at that time, except that the sun had already risen, it was more stinky and hotter inside the yacht and the yacht was tilted. They used lots of water to cease the fire, and the water had tilted the yacht. They were using a hose that was supposed to take the water slowly out of the yacht.
We used bottled water we had in the stateroom to wash our faces. We packed. The worst feelings were to be the whole time out of balance standing up and the heat inside the small stateroom, mixed with the stinky and persuasive smell. I even thought that if the yacht sank and maybe the suitcases would be rescued in the future, our stuff somehow would be easily found. I was not interested in analyzing whether my thoughts made sense. We left our suitcases inside the stateroom. We now expected a long day ahead of us.
To our surprise, some crew members had prepared some sandwiches and had mineral water for us on the upper deck.
Part of the tables on the upper deck had been removed, since they were within the firing zone. We could not enter some areas of the yacht. There was no place to go or pretend that nothing was going on. No breeze, stuck in international waters and no proper information from the captain and other crew members. We realized how unprepared the crew was. And what chaos does to human nature, mainly when there is no leadership onboard. Many crew members had just stopped working and had disappeared. It was practically each person by himself or herself. The miscommunication prevailed the whole time.
Initially our captain said that when he knew what we would do he would inform us. After many hours and under so much pressure from many passengers, after all, we had no water and with the heat and lack of space and such a bad smell, also coming from the toilets, the captain said around 13:00 that we should vote whether we wanted to stay in the yacht for approximately 24 hours until the yacht could reach a port, probably Naples according to him, at approximately 02:00, or we could wait 6 or 7 more hours for a ferry (still to be decided whether in fact we would have this Italian ferry available, depending on the Italian authorities), that would take approximately 5 hours to arrive in Naples.
The captain even said more than one time that he would not make any promises as to hotels for the passengers in Naples or Rome because he had been informed by the company that all hotels in Naples were full and that he did not have any further information. That the passengers felt free at the time to decide whether to stay in Naples and look for a hotel or they could go to Rome.
It was entirely the Italian authorities to blame. Not the company, not the CEO accessing the legal risks and losses and deciding cost wise where the yacht should be taken to. Since the fire had been controlled, the passengers onboard were no longer the priority. What was supposed to be a luxury SeaDream voyage suddenly became a nightmare voyage.
There was a huge discussion among some of us about poor management and leadership. But except for 3 or 4 passengers, the remaining passengers who were able to listen to the captain wanted to leave the yacht at once.
To shorten the story, it was not until 15:30 until we were rescued by the Italian authorities, through their boats, to reach the Italian ferry, which would take us to Naples. We arrived in Naples at almost 20:30.
One hour before we arrived in Naples my husband and I were told that the company had made arrangements for the passengers. But by that time we had managed transportation and lodging as had done some of the other passengers, since the company told us nothing beforehand.
Our yacht voyage started in Croatia and should have ended in Civitavecchia. We missed Capri and Amalfi, the best of the voyage, notwithstanding the emotional distress until today.
The company is trying to compel the passengers to accept a “complimentary” 7-day voyage. We expect that SeaDream rightly addresses the several problems they face, including the necessary investments in their yachts and personnel training.
We want to be at least fully reimbursed for the voyage. We are not even discussing, among others, the financial burden that each of us incurred to be able to arrive at the port of origin of the yacht and leave from the final port destination back to our homes.
If we ever decide to go on another yacht, I will make sure that I take a waterproof small backpack with me and insert what now I call emergency sea kit: a whistle (our life jacket did not have one), mineral water, nutritive bar, 1 or 2 layers of clothes, depending on the weather, small thins, googles, 1 small deflated Bouie.
My tips
Do not ever miss the drill.
Make sure you understand where to go in an emergency situation and remember that reality can make you change the original meeting point in an emergency situation.
Try to put the vest and take it off by yourself and pay attention to each detail of your vest: what it offers.
Every night, leave a pair of clothes and the key to the stateroom next to your bed in case you need to leave your stateroom for an emergency.
Have mineral water and nutritive bars in a fabrics bag close to the life jacket in case you need to use the life jacket.
You are stronger if you use your brain.
