Comments on: High School Tall Ship Concordia Sinks Off Brazil

By: bio12blog

bio12blog — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:54:17 +0000

Thanks for the great blog and keeping everyone informed. I have now worked with Class Afloat for 8 years and want to assure everyone that the students are all doing really well. They are a tight crew, who have rebounded remarkably well. They are together, here at our academy in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where they continue their schooling and journey together. These are remarkable young people and their stories are even more heroic than anyone can imagine. I’m very proud to be involved with this program and with the quality of youth that we consistently encounter on the program. Thanks again,

By: Robert Rustchak

Robert Rustchak — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:22:47 +0000

Thank you, Peter, for keeping this up.

By: UrbanMagpie

UrbanMagpie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:31:51 +0000

Thanks for putting all of this together. My daughter was scheduled to leave on the Concordia in Sept 2010 for first year (10 months) university. She will now be going for second semester only, starting in Jan 2011. This has been a 3 year dream. Losing the Concordia is like losing a friend. We have pictures of her everywhere.

By: Canadian Class Afloat Ship Sinks – The StarboardRail

Canadian Class Afloat Ship Sinks – The StarboardRail — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:37:53 +0000

[...] schoolers had to abandon ship and await rescue from life rafts afloat in ocean. I agree with the sea-fever.org blog in that everyone may not be a fan of the Class Afloat program but I believe it is an [...]

By: June

June — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:16:43 +0000

On the very same day the Concordia sank off the coast of Brazil, my 20-year old daughter was boarding a similar tall ship in Key West, Florida, along with 21 other American college students, for a six-week sail in the Caribbean, during which they will be learning to crew the boat and conducting oceanographic research. I learned about the sinking of the Concordia two days later, and have been glued to this blog since then, closely following the details of an experience that seems to have played out in an uncomfortably close parallel universe. This is a truly amazing story of survival, made possible because of the knowledge, training, and discipline of those aboard the Concordia, the power of the community they created together, and the generous assistance provided by the rescuers. I have found it to be enormously moving. Thank you, Peter.

By: Peter A. Mello

Peter A. Mello — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:54:39 +0000

Kim;

You might want to listen to the brief interview with Ben Strong from the US Coast Guard’s AMVER unit that I just posted above (Feb. 22 noon) regarding what happens when an epirb goes off.

It’s still such early days in investigating and analyzing an incident like this. I’m trying to use this post to aggregate information that will hopefully serve as a resource to those who want to learn more about the incident with the ultimate goal of improving safety at sea for all mariners.

Sea-Fever also has a lot of readers who don’t go to sea for a living but still are interested in learning more. Trying to serve them too.

Finally, thanks for placing Sea-Fever so prominently on Jack Tar magazine and keep up the great work over there and at sea!
(http://jacktarmagazine.blogspot.com)

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:26:24 +0000

Voytec you just made me realize that I really am one of those demanding Americans. I kept wondering why it took so long to rescue them, but you’re right; 30 hours is nothing compared to what it COULD have been, 300 miles off South America in a storm, with NO epirb.

By: Peter A. Mello

Peter A. Mello — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:11:36 +0000

Great to have your experience with and knowledge of the vessel here. I totally agree that it’s way too early to come to any conclusions on what happened.

Man will never build a ship can’t sink or a plane that can’t crash. Life is full of risks at sea, in the air, on land, and even at home. We just have to do our best to manage the risks and live our lives. Thankfully, that’s what happened aboard Concordia.

By: Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski

Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:43:38 +0000

Thank you Peter for putting that list of links together.
I have sailed on Concordia 5 years in a capacity of her 2nd and 1st mate. (1995-2000) I have sailed on her 125,000 Nm, so I know the ship and the program very well.
As in any case of any maritime or aviation incident I see a sudden prolifeartion of “experts” publishing opinions from the comfort of their armchairs. No-one knows today what has happened there… We WILL know – that’s what investigative commissions are for. Before that – everything is a speculation. There are, right now, 64 different stories what have happened, they must be all put together into one.

What I personally think is that ONLY top preparedness and drilling a lot – as was a solid practice on Concordia since 1992 – prevented loss of life. Like in landing a jet on Hudson river over a year ago there were hundreds of things that could go wrong in the mayhem that must have followed the knock-down. The crew of Concordia – all 64 of them are my collective hero of the incident.

As for SAR action critique – all I can say: it was ONLY 30 hours. The whole system worked as it was designed: EPIRB – Satellite – RCC – SAR Aircraft – Local merchant ships – Brazilian Navy.

The society got conditioned to expect wars without casualties, surgeries without complications, and seafaring with no risks… We have managed to reduce many of them, but from time to time we are reminded that Mother Nature is still in control. The sea teaches humility and acceptance of inevitability of certain risks. One must be well prepared to face them – as Concordia’s crew did – but expecting that one can eliminate all the risks at sea is just a folly.

By: becca

becca — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:33:15 +0000

I sailed on Concordia the summer of 2001, just for a few weeks. I’m sad to see her go, and I will always take with me the lessons I learned while sailing. I am going to grad. school right now and I was hoping to one day teach aboard Concordia. Glad to hear everyone is safe, and alive.