The New Zealand Herald reports that the Celebrity Solstice avoid a small inflatable boat that was carrying four passengers. The cruise ship came slow close that one cruise passenger described the near miss by saying, “they could almost touch the ship.”
The incident occurred in the Tauranga Harbour on December 12.
“The 122,000-tonne Celebrity Solstice had to urgently alter its course in a narrow shipping channel to avoid hitting the incapacitated boat, which had four people on board.
A fisherman who raced in to tow the inflatable out of harm’s way said they had run out of fuel.”
Larger vessels have a harder time changing course. The captain of the Celebrity Solstice sounded the horn and made an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision.