Powered paragliding problem ends in cruise ship landing

by Tom Johansmeyer on

A Brazilian man didn’t realize he was about to do something incredible. Making an emergency landing while engaging in powered paragliding is interesting enough, but he took it to “Top Gun” levels by doing it on a cruise ship. Holland America’s “Prinsendam” served as his aircraft carrier, in Portugal‘s Portimao port. The unusual landing was the necessary because of equipment problems.

According to The Portugal News Online:

After crash-landing on the vessel the man was immediately given medical assistance and taken to the local Barlavento Hospital. His equipment, which was caught on the top deck of the ship, was collected by the Maritime Police for inspection and to ascertain the cause of the incident.

[photo by pizzodisevo via Flickr]

Get off a cruise and into custody: Passenger wrongly nailed as hooker

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What do you do when your mom is arrested for prostitution? Well, you probably claim that she didn’t do it. After all, she’s your mom, and nobody admits to guilt on these things anyway. If you were Paola Londono’s kid, you’d actually be right to proclaim her innocence.

Thanks to a clerical error in the Osceola County Sheriff’s office, Londono, from Orlando, was arrested when she stepped off a cruise ship for allegedly making a living in the world’s oldest profession. She spent more than 36 hours in the Broward County pokey, because she had the same name as the actual suspect, who is seven years younger … five inches taller and 40 pounds lighter. The younger Londono is going to face charge of heroin possession and possession of drug paraphernalia – in addition to prostitution.

[photo by indi.ca via Flickr]

Scary video shows cruise ship caught in high seas

by Jeremy Kressmann on

I’ve never been on a cruise. That said, I’m sure they are quite nice – and plenty of travelers speak highly of them. But I have to admit, the video above is not doing much to convince me to get on a cruise any time soon. Apparently back in 2008, a P&O Cruises ship out of New Zealand got caught in some nasty weather about 400 miles from shore. Even this massive cruise ship, carrying over 1700 passengers, was no match for the 20 foot swells and 60 mile-per-hour winds that came with the storm.

The scary video above, recently revealed from the ship’s CCTV cameras, documents the scene as a heap of lounge furniture and a few unlucky passengers get thrown around like bathtub toys. It was likely a terrifying moment, that thankfully, most of us will never experience.

Before you cancel that sea voyage in terror, consider this: 99.9% of cruises will never have anything like this happen to them. The P&O was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Via Laughing Squid]

Lindblad Expeditions announces upcoming Global Luminaries

by Kraig Becker on

Lindblad Expeditions has earned itself a reputation as one of the top adventure travel companies on the planet, offering a wide variety of options for travelers to visit the far flung corners of the globe. The company is well known for having some of the best trained and most knowledgeable staff in the entire industry, offering clients great insights into the places that they visit. But their “Global Luminaries” program takes that reputation to a whole new level, with a line-up of very impressive specials guest that will enhance an already great trip even further.

These dignitaries come from a wide variety of fields, but are generally broken down into four categories; World Affairs, Broadcast Journalism, Exploration, and Research. Each of the Global Luminaries will be joining guests aboard the National Geographic Explorer, one of Lindblad’s luxury cruise ships, for a specifically selected journey through a region of the world that they know well and can offer unique perspectives on. For example, when the ship visits the historic waterways of the Baltic at the end of August and Early September of this year, and again in 2011, passengers will share that journey with former Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev as well as the former President of Poland, and Nobel Prize winner, Lech Walesa.

Other famous names on the list of luminaries include well-known naturalist and television personality Jim Fowler, former astronaut Rick Hauck, mountaineer and explorer Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, and ocean rower Roz Savage. But those are just the beginning, as there are a number of other scientists, explorers, and writers scheduled to take part in the fun as well.

For the complete list of Global Luminaries, and the trips they’ll be taking part in for the rest of 2010 and 2011, click here.

[Photo credit: Lindblad Expeditions]

Cruise ship hits whale off Alaska

by Kraig Becker on

For the third time in the past decade a Princess Cruises luxury ship has struck and killed a whale in the waters off the coast of Alaska. That latest incident occurred last Tuesday evening just south of Juneau, where the ship the Sapphire Princess apparently hit the creature, whose corpse was discovered attached to the hull on Wednesday morning. Last year, the same ship arrived in Vancouver following a routine voyage, with a fin whale stuck to its hull.

This current whale was an adult female humpback that measured more than 43 feet in length. Humpbacks are found in waters all over the world, but in the summer months they tend to feed in colder, polar waters. The species is an endangered one and the giant mammals are protected under U.S. law, with stiff fines levied against those who do them harm. It is unclear at this time whether or not Carnival Corp., the parent company of Princess Cruises, will face any fines for this latest incident. They paid out a settlement of $750,000 for a similar incident that occurred in 2001.

On Friday, investigators were still studying the whale’s carcass to determine the exact cause of death. They have not ruled out the possibility that the beast was already dead when the ship struck it, and that the Sapphire Princess played no role in killing it.

[Photo credit: D. Gordon E. Robertson via WikiMedia Commons]