Tracking the Grounding of the Costa Concordia

[valhalla]

I wasn't able to verify or disprove, but it shows clear grounding:

AIS doesn't lie! Here's the recorded track of the Costa Concordia. You can actually see the impact with the rock change the course of the ship! Be sure to watch full screen!
 
http://www.shipspotting.com/videos/video.php?vid=982

Grounding of the Costa Concordia

[Shaky]

Very interesting. The initial reports said that the ship turned to port, but this reconstruction shows it turned starboard, which would normally cause the ship to list to port. So why did it end up on its starboard side? Thrusters? The ship did appear to be moving sideways.

[Donna]

The whole thing is just disturbing!

[Mirta]

Very interesting. I will show it to my husband who is ship pilot in all the ports of Patagonia.
I´ve travelled a lot on big merchant ships and in crusiers in Antartica, and it seems to me very weird to watch a ship sailing directly to the near coast at 15knots
Mirta

[valhalla]

Exactly, Mirta!  The only time we did that was when the channel came right up on shore (Fairlee Creek, MD; Little Narragansette, CT/RI; & Salt Ponds, VA).  We always paid a healthy respect to what was underneath us and the closer to shore.....

[Paul Hamilton]

Back in the summer of 1970, I was with the University of Miami Research Vessel Gerda when we anchored right off Little San Salvador Island in the Bahamas.  We had good charts, a depth sounder, and a Decca navigator (limited coverage, but nearly as good as GPS), but the captain still chose to put research divers into the water to lead him through the coral heads.  Sure, one could easily see the bottom from the bridge, but the clarity of the water made it difficult to judge whether what you were seeing was ten feet down or a hundred feet down. I was one of the research divers, and it was a revelation to me how many uncharted rocks I had to guide the ship around. What appeared fairly flat and harmless from the surface was actually a labyrinth. From underwater, it was cliffs and steep, winding canyons, and my memory is one of leading the ship through a very narrow canyon.  If the situation off  Giglio Island is at all similar, I can imagine the captain, having made close passes there without incident in the past, concluding that it was safe to do it again.

We had a far better captain, and things turned out well.  Once we had anchored Gerda in a safe area inside the reefs, we embarked upon a "Guns of Navarone" operation involving us making a landing on shore via Zodiac inflatable boat, and scaling the cliffs with fifty pound geophone cables.  We drove in geophones all over the cliff and ran a cable to the ship.  This meant that we could map the structure of the ocean bottom using explosives set off by another ship.  The original plan had been for the divers to swim out cables to floating hydrophones and do the experiment in the open ocean, but we didn't get good enough reception from the hydrophones.

After we had emplaced the geophones, we were out of a job until it was time to sail out through the reefs again. We spent the next several days snorkling around the island, exploring, and fishing.   The cook was delighted to get fresh Mahi-Mahi, so every night, we swam home to a great dinner as a reward.

Paul

[Donna]

Awesome story Paul. Love under water adventures, not tragedies!!

[Shaky]

And to bring it full circle, cruise ships regularly visit Little San Salvador Island without incident. (not counting sunburns and limbo back injuries)

[Bobbie Ireland]

A good piece from The Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0121/1224310565627.html