It wasn't until yesterday that I learned a sailor was killed while docking the Norwegian Jade. I'm not sure if I remarked when shooting the docking of the AIDAmar cruise ship that any breakage in one of the docking cables would be a deadly thing but that's exactly what killed the sailor. One of the cables broke and it hit him, knocking him into the water, and it was some hours before they could find him as the water was very murky at the time. He was a Filipino sailor and he was twenty-five years old. I do not know his name.
It is not my purpose to report such things and the reason it struck me is you can see I was photographing the same vessel and one of those cables could just as easily have struck me, just as could have happened when I got up close to the AIDAmar as it docked. The tensile strength of such cables must be enormous to secure such gigantic vessels so any breakage would necessarily be a devastating event.
You may have scoffed at concern over sharks in these waters but it's a valid risk. It is not a high risk but it is not trivial and the same applies to getting close to these cruise ships while they are docking. I stand advised and I send my best wishes to the family of this unfortunate sailor.
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